---
layout: "language"
page_title: "The Resource provider Meta-Argument - Configuration Language"
description: |-
  Use the Terraform language `provider` meta-argument to specify which provider configuration to use for a resource.
---

# The Resource `provider` Meta-Argument

The `provider` meta-argument specifies which provider configuration to use for a resource,
overriding Terraform's default behavior of selecting one based on the resource
type name. Its value should be an unquoted `<PROVIDER>.<ALIAS>` reference.

As described in [Provider Configuration](/docs/language/providers/configuration.html), you can optionally
create multiple configurations for a single provider (usually to manage
resources in different regions of multi-region services). Each provider can have
one default configuration, and any number of alternate configurations that
include an extra name segment (or "alias").

By default, Terraform interprets the initial word in the resource type name
(separated by underscores) as the local name of a provider, and uses that
provider's default configuration. For example, the resource type
`google_compute_instance` is associated automatically with the default
configuration for the provider named `google`.

By using the `provider` meta-argument, you can select an alternate provider
configuration for a resource:

```hcl
# default configuration
provider "google" {
  region = "us-central1"
}

# alternate configuration, whose alias is "europe"
provider "google" {
  alias  = "europe"
  region = "europe-west1"
}

resource "google_compute_instance" "example" {
  # This "provider" meta-argument selects the google provider
  # configuration whose alias is "europe", rather than the
  # default configuration.
  provider = google.europe

  # ...
}
```

A resource always has an implicit dependency on its associated provider, to
ensure that the provider is fully configured before any resource actions
are taken.

The `provider` meta-argument expects
[a `<PROVIDER>.<ALIAS>` reference](/docs/language/providers/configuration.html#referring-to-alternate-provider-configurations),
which does not need to be quoted. Arbitrary expressions are not permitted for
`provider` because it must be resolved while Terraform is constructing the
dependency graph, before it is safe to evaluate expressions.