Firebase FAQ

What is a Firebase project?

A Firebase project is the top-level entity for Firebase. In a project, you can register your Apple, Android, or web apps. After you register your apps with Firebase, you can add the product-specific Firebase SDKs to your app, like Analytics, Cloud Firestore, Crashlytics, or Remote Config.

You should register your Apple, Android, and web app variants within a single Firebase project. You can use multiple Firebase projects to support multiple environments, such as development, staging, and production.

Here are some resources for learning more about Firebase projects:

• Understand Firebase projects — provides brief overviews of several important concepts about Firebase projects, including their relationship with Google Cloud and the basic hierarchy of a project and its apps and resources.
• General best practices for setting up Firebase projects — provides general, high-level best practices for setting up Firebase projects and registering your apps with a project so that you have a clear development workflow that uses distinct environments.

Note that for all Firebase projects, Firebase automatically adds a label of firebase:enabled within the Labels page for your project in the Google Cloud console. Learn more about this label in our FAQ.

What is a Google Cloud organization?

A Google Cloud organization is a container for Google Cloud projects (including Firebase projects). This hierarchy enables better organization, access management, and auditing of your Google Cloud and Firebase projects. For more information, refer to Creating and Managing Organizations.

How do I add Firebase to an existing Google Cloud project?

You may have existing Google Cloud projects managed through the Google Cloud console or the Google APIs console.

You can add Firebase to these existing Google Cloud projects using any of the following options:

• Using the Firebase console.
• Using a programmatic option:
  • Call the Firebase Management REST API endpoint projects.addFirebase.
  • Run the Firebase CLI command firebase projects:addfirebase.
  • Use Terraform.

Learn more details about adding Firebase to a Google Cloud project.

How does Firebase's integration with Google Cloud work?

Firebase is deeply integrated with Google Cloud. Projects are shared between Firebase and Google Cloud, so projects can have Firebase services and Google Cloud services enabled. You can access the same project from the Firebase console or the Google Cloud console. Specifically:

• Certain Firebase products are backed directly by Google Cloud, such as Cloud Storage for Firebase. The list of products backed by Google Cloud will continue to grow over time.
• Many of your settings, including collaborators and billing information, are shared by Firebase and Google Cloud. Your usage of both Firebase and Google Cloud appears on the same bill.

In addition, when you upgrade to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan, you can use any of Google Cloud's world-class Infrastructure-as-a-Service and APIs directly inside your Firebase project, at standard Google Cloud pricing. You can also export data from Google Cloud directly to BigQuery for analysis. To learn more, see Link BigQuery with Firebase.

There are many security-enhancing, latency-improving, and time-saving benefits to using Google Cloud with Firebase (versus other, cloud services that are not co-located). Check out the Google Cloud site for more details.

Why does my Google Cloud project have a label of firebase:enabled?

In the Labels page for your project in the Google Cloud console, you may see a label of firebase:enabled (specifically, a Key of firebase with a Value of enabled).

Firebase automatically added this label because your project is a Firebase project, which means that your project has Firebase-specific configurations and services enabled for it. Learn more about the relationship between Firebase projects and Google Cloud.

We strongly recommend that you don't modify or delete this label. This label is used by Firebase and Google Cloud to list your Firebase projects (for example, using the REST API projects.list endpoint or in menus within the Firebase console).

Be aware that manually adding this label to your list of project labels does NOT enable Firebase-specific configurations and services for your Google Cloud project. To do that, you need to add Firebase using the Firebase console (or, for advanced use cases, using the Firebase Management REST API or the Firebase CLI).

Why is the Firebase console failing to load a list of my existing Google Cloud projects?

This FAQ is most often applicable if you're trying to "add Firebase" to an existing Google Cloud project using the Firebase console and you have access to many thousands of Google Cloud projects.

The Firebase console isn't built to load many thousands of Google Cloud projects. Instead, we recommend using the Firebase CLI, REST API, or Terraform to "add Firebase" to your existing Google Cloud project.

Also, you might want to review the FAQ "Why isn't my Firebase project showing up in my list of Firebase projects?"

Why isn't my Firebase project showing up in my list of Firebase projects?

This FAQ is applicable if you don't see your Firebase project in the following places:

• In a list of projects that you're viewing within the Firebase console
• In the response from calling the REST API projects.list endpoint
• In the response from running the Firebase CLI command firebase projects:list

Try these troubleshooting steps:

1. First, try accessing your project by visiting the project's URL directly. Use the following format:
   https://console.firebase.google.com/project/PROJECT-ID/overview
2. If you can't access the project or receive permissions errors, check the following:
   • Make sure that you're signed into Firebase using the same Google Account that has access to the project. You can sign in and out of the Firebase console via your account avatar in the top-right corner of the console.
   • Check if you can view the project in the Google Cloud console.
   • Make sure that your project has the label firebase:enabled in the Labels page for your project in the Google Cloud console. Firebase and Google Cloud use this label to list your Firebase projects. If you don't see this label but the Firebase Management API is enabled for your project, then manually add the label (specifically, a Key of firebase with a Value of enabled).
   • Make sure that you're assigned one of the basic IAM roles (Owner, Editor, Viewer) or a role that has Firebase-related permissions in it, for example a Firebase predefined role. You can view your role(s) in the IAM page of the Google Cloud console.
   • If your project belongs to a Google Cloud organization, you may require additional permissions to see the project listed in the Firebase console. Contact the person who manages your Google Cloud organization to give you the appropriate role to view the project, for example the Browser role.

If none of the troubleshooting steps above enable you to see your project in a list of Firebase projects, contact Firebase Support.

How many projects can I have per Google Account (email address)?

• Spark pricing plan: Project-creation quota is limited to a small number of projects (usually around 5-10).
• Blaze pricing plan: Project-creation quota is still limited, but it may increase with the linking of a Cloud Billing account in good standing.

Note the following about the limit on project-creation quota:

• This limit is not specific to Firebase. Firebase's limits on project quota are the same as those for Google Cloud.
• In the rare case that's it's needed, you can request an increase in project quota.
• The complete deletion of a project requires 30 days and counts toward project quota until the project is fully deleted.

Learn about Firebase's recommended general best practices for setting up Firebase projects.

How many Firebase Apps can I have in a Firebase project?

A Firebase project is a container for Firebase Apps across Apple, Android, and web. Firebase restricts the total number of Firebase Apps within a Firebase project to 30.

After this number, performance starts to degrade (especially for Google Analytics) and eventually, at a higher number of apps, some product functionality stops working. Additionally, if you use Google sign-in as an authentication provider, an underlying OAuth 2.0 client ID is created for each app in your project. There's a limit of around 30 client IDs that can be created within a single project.

You should ensure that all Firebase Apps within a single Firebase project are platform variants of the same application from an end-user perspective. For example, if you develop a white-label application, each independently labeled app should have its own Firebase project, but the Apple and Android versions of that label can be in the same project. Read more detailed guidance in our general best practices for setting up Firebase projects.

In the rare case your project requires more than 30 apps, you can request an app limit increase. Your project must be on the Blaze pricing plan to make this request. Visit the Google Cloud console to make your request and have it evaluated. Learn more about quota management in the Google Cloud documentation.

What happens if I tag my project as a "production" environment?

In the Firebase console, you can tag your Firebase projects with their environment type, either as Production or Unspecified (non-prod) environments.

Tagging your project as an environment type has no effect on how your Firebase project works or its features. However, the tagging can help you and your team manage your various Firebase projects for the app lifecycle.

If you tag your project as a production environment, we add a brightly colored Prod tag to the project in the Firebase console, reminding you that any changes could affect your associated production apps. In the future, we might add more features and safeguards for Firebase projects tagged as production environments.

To change the environment type of your Firebase project, go to settings Project settings > General, then in the Your project card under Environment, click edit to change the environment type.

Where can I find the App ID for my Firebase app?

In the Firebase console, go to your settings Project settings. Go to the Your apps card, and click the relevant Firebase App to view the app's information, including its App ID.

Here are some example App ID values:

• Firebase iOS Apps: 1:1234567890:ios:321abc456def7890
• Firebase Android Apps: 1:1234567890:android:321abc456def7890
• Firebase Web Apps: 1:1234567890:web:321abc456def7890

What are the prerequisites for linking Google Play / AdMob / Google Ads / BigQuery to my Firebase project or app?

• For linking your Google Play account, you need the following:
  • Either of the following Firebase roles: Owner or Firebase Admin
  • Either of the following Google Play access levels: account Owner or Admin
• For linking your AdMob app, you need to be both a Firebase project owner and an AdMob administrator.
• For linking your AdWords account, you need to be both a Firebase project owner and an AdWords administrator.
• For linking your BigQuery project, you need to be the Firebase project owner.

How do I assign a project member a role, like the Owner role?

To manage the role(s) assigned to each project member, you must be an Owner of the Firebase project (or be assigned a role with the permission resourcemanager.projects.setIamPolicy).

Here are the places where you can assign and manage roles:

• The Firebase console offers a simplified way to assign roles to project members in the settings Settings > Users and permissions tab. You can assign any of the basic roles (Owner, Editor, Viewer), the Firebase Admin/Viewer roles, or any of the Firebase predefined product-category roles.
• The Google Cloud console offers an expansive set of tools to assign roles to project members in the IAM & Admin IAM page. You can also create and manage custom roles, as well as give service accounts access to your project.

  Note that in the Google Cloud console, project members are called principals.

If the Owner of your project can no longer perform the tasks of an Owner (for example, the person left your company) and your project isn't managed via a Google Cloud organization (see next paragraph), you can contact Firebase Support and check with them about how to request access to the Firebase project.

Note that if a Firebase project is part of a Google Cloud organization, it may not have an Owner. If you're unable to find an Owner for your Firebase project, contact the person who manages your Google Cloud organization to assign an Owner for the project.

How do I find the Owner of a Firebase project?

You can view project members and their roles in the following places:

• If you have access to the project in the Firebase console, you can view the list of project members, including Owners, in the Users and permissions page of the Firebase console.
• If you do not have access to the project in the Firebase console, check if you have access to the project in the Google Cloud console. You can view the list of project members, including Owners, in the IAM page of the Google Cloud console.

If the Owner of your project can no longer perform the tasks of an Owner (for example, the person left your company) and your project isn't managed via a Google Cloud organization (see next paragraph), you can contact Firebase Support to have a temporary Owner assigned.

Note that if a Firebase project is part of a Google Cloud organization, it may not have an Owner. Instead, the person who manages your Google Cloud organization can perform many tasks that an Owner can do. However, to perform several Owner-specific tasks (like assigning roles or managing Google Analytics properties), the administrator may need to assign themselves the actual Owner role to perform those tasks. If you're unable to find an Owner for your Firebase project, contact the person who manages your Google Cloud organization to assign an Owner for the project.

Why or when should I assign a project member the Owner role?

To ensure proper management of a Firebase project, it must have an Owner.

Project members with the Owner role are often the only project members who can do administrative tasks or receive important notifications:

• Project members with the Owner role are often the only members who can perform important administrative actions (like assigning roles and managing Google Analytics properties), and Firebase Support can only fulfill administrative requests from demonstrated project Owners.
• Project members with the Owner role are often the only members who (by default) receive notifications about changes to the project or products (like billing and legal changes, deprecations of features, etc.). You can optionally customize your project's "essential contacts" if you want specific or additional project members to receive notifications.

After you set up the Owner(s) for a Firebase project, it's important to keep those assignments up-to-date.

Note that if a Firebase project is part of a Google Cloud organization, the person who manages your Google Cloud organization can perform many tasks that an Owner can do. However, for several Owner-specific tasks (like assigning roles or managing Google Analytics properties), the administrator may need to assign themselves the actual Owner role to perform those tasks.

I don't think that I have a Firebase project, but I got an email about one. How do I access this project?

The email you received should contain a link to open your Firebase project. Clicking the link in the email should open the project in the Firebase console.

If you're not able to open the project in the link, make sure that you're signed into Firebase using the same Google Account that received the email about the project. You can sign in and out of the Firebase console via your account avatar in the top-right corner of the console.

Note that if you're the administrator of a Google Cloud organization, you may be notified about changes to Firebase projects inside your organization. However, you may not have sufficient permissions to open the Firebase project. In these cases, the simplest solution is to assign yourself the actual Owner role to open the project and perform the required actions. Learn more about why and when to assign the Owner role.