diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 939914b4fb5e..6bd1e7211f2c 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -83,8 +83,8 @@ Most `gcloud-java` libraries require a project ID.  There are multiple ways to s
 
 1. Project ID supplied when building the service options
 2. Project ID specified by the environment variable `GCLOUD_PROJECT`
-3. Project ID specified in the JSON credentials file pointed by the `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS` environment variable
-4. App Engine project ID
+3. App Engine project ID
+4. Project ID specified in the JSON credentials file pointed by the `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS` environment variable
 5. Google Cloud SDK project ID
 6. Compute Engine project ID
 
diff --git a/gcloud-java-core/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/ServiceOptions.java b/gcloud-java-core/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/ServiceOptions.java
index 5432deadaa8e..d53cfcdafe24 100644
--- a/gcloud-java-core/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/ServiceOptions.java
+++ b/gcloud-java-core/src/main/java/com/google/gcloud/ServiceOptions.java
@@ -383,10 +383,10 @@ protected String defaultHost() {
   protected String defaultProject() {
     String projectId = System.getProperty(PROJECT_ENV_NAME, System.getenv(PROJECT_ENV_NAME));
     if (projectId == null) {
-      projectId = serviceAccountProjectId();
+      projectId = appEngineProjectId();
     }
     if (projectId == null) {
-      projectId = appEngineProjectId();
+      projectId = serviceAccountProjectId();
     }
     return projectId != null ? projectId : googleCloudProjectId();
   }