FAQs about Cloud Storage for Firebase changes announced in September 2024

Firebase strives to keep our products and our ecosystem safe and secure. As part of that, we're making some changes to Cloud Storage for Firebase and taking proactive steps to prevent abuse on our platform. This includes updating our infrastructure to better align with Google Cloud Storage quota and billing.

One result of these infrastructure changes is that we'll soon start requiring projects to be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan to use Cloud Storage for Firebase. No-cost usage is still available even on the Blaze pricing plan.

Review the following FAQs about the changes we announced in September 2024:

• Changes for pricing plan requirements
• Changes for the default Cloud Storage for Firebase bucket
• Changes for programmatic interactions (like REST APIs and Terraform)
• Changes for "default GCP resources"

Changes for pricing plan requirements

We'll soon start requiring the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan if you want to use Cloud Storage for Firebase. No-cost usage is still available even on the Blaze pricing plan.

Important: Here are the summarized key points of the FAQs in this section (but make sure to review each FAQ below for details):

• Starting October 30, 2024, your Firebase project must be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan to provision a new Cloud Storage for Firebase default bucket. The bucket can optionally use the "Always Free" tier for Google Cloud Storage.
• Starting October 1, 2025, your Firebase project must be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan to maintain access to your default bucket and all other Cloud Storage resources. Any appspot.com default bucket will maintain its current no-cost level of usage even on the Blaze pricing plan.

We understand that these changes will require your time to evaluate and make changes to your Firebase project and workflows. If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

What are the new pricing plan requirements announced in September 2024?

• Starting October 30, 2024, the following changes will happen:

  • To provision a new default bucket using the Firebase console or REST API, your project must be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan.

  • Note the following about all default buckets provisioned after October 30, 2024:

    • They will follow Google Cloud Storage pricing and usage, which provides an "Always Free" tier for buckets in particular regions.

    • They will have a name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com (instead of the former PROJECT_ID.appspot.com).

• Starting October 1, 2025, the following changes will happen:

  • To maintain access to your default bucket and all other Cloud Storage resources, your project must be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan. Any .appspot.com default bucket will maintain its current no-cost level of usage even on the Blaze pricing plan.

Learn more about what happens if you don't upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan by this date. If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

Why is Firebase making these pricing plan changes?

Firebase strives to keep our products and our ecosystem safe and secure. As part of that, we're making some changes to Cloud Storage for Firebase and taking proactive steps to prevent abuse on our platform. This includes updating our infrastructure to better align with Google Cloud Storage quota and billing.

Can I keep no-cost usage if I upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan?

Yes. If you have a PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket and you upgrade to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan, then you will maintain your default bucket's current no-cost level of usage, as described below. Any usage over this no-cost usage will be charged according to Google App Engine pricing.

• 5 GB stored
• 1 GB egress / day
• 20,000 uploads / day
• 50,000 downloads / day

Note that starting October 30, 2024, all new default buckets have the name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com and they follow Google Cloud Storage pricing and usage, which provides an "Always Free" tier for buckets in particular regions.

How do I upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan?

To upgrade your project to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan, you need to link your project with a Cloud Billing account. You can use the Firebase console workflow to upgrade your pricing plan.

To upgrade the pricing plan, you need to have the IAM role of Owner for your project.

Important: When you upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan, we strongly recommend setting up budget alerts. The console flow for upgrading your pricing plan automatically prompts you to set up this alert. Learn more about avoiding surprise bills.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

When do I need to upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan?

If you want to maintain access to your PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket, then you need to upgrade to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan plan by October 1, 2025.

To upgrade your project to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan, you need to link your project with a Cloud Billing account. You can use the Firebase console workflow to upgrade your pricing plan.

What if I don't upgrade my project to the Blaze pricing plan?

• Starting October 30, 2024: If you haven't yet provisioned a default Cloud Storage bucket in your project, then you won't be able to provision it unless your project is on the Blaze pricing plan.

• Starting October 1, 2025: If your project isn't on the Blaze pricing plan, then you'll lose read/write access to your PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket. You also won't be able to view the bucket or access its data in the Firebase console or the Google Cloud console.

  Note that any data will remain in your bucket, but it will be inaccessible until you upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

What happens if my .appspot.com default bucket's usage is over the no-cost usage level ?

If you have a PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket, and you upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan with a usage that's over the no-cost usage levels described below, then you will be charged for the overage according to Google App Engine pricing on your next billing cycle.

• 5 GB stored
• 1 GB egress / day
• 20,000 uploads / day
• 50,000 downloads / day

If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

Changes for the default Cloud Storage bucket

Important: Here are the summarized key points of the FAQs in this section (but make sure to review each FAQ below for details):

• Starting October 30, 2024, all newly provisioned default Cloud Storage buckets will have the name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com.
  These buckets will follow Google Cloud Storage pricing and usage, which provides an "Always Free" tier for buckets in particular regions.
• There are no changes to any existing .appspot.com default buckets (as long as you upgrade your project to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan by October 1, 2025).

We understand that these changes will require your time to evaluate and make changes to your Firebase project and workflows. If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

Will the name of my default bucket change?

No. When you upgrade to the Blaze pricing plan, the name of your default Cloud Storage bucket will not change.

• If you provisioned your default bucket before October 30, 2024, then your default bucket will always have a name format of PROJECT_ID.appspot.com.

• If you provisioned your default bucket on or after October 30, 2024, then your default bucket will always have a name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com.

What happens if I delete my .appspot.com default bucket?

Deleted buckets are not recoverable. Note that this is the current behavior for all Cloud Storage buckets.

Starting October 30, 2024: If you delete your PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket, then you won't be able to provision a bucket with that same name format.

Instead, you can create a new default Cloud Storage bucket (if your project is on the Blaze pricing plan) that has a name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com. It will follow Google Cloud Storage pricing and usage, which provides an "Always Free" tier for buckets in particular regions.

Do I need to update my app's codebase?

No. To accommodate these changes, you do not need to update your app's codebase.

All existing PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default buckets will maintain their name format.

To avoid any service interruptions, make sure to upgrade your project to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan by October 1, 2025. After upgrading to the Blaze pricing plan, your codebase will continue to interact with the PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket as it always has.

Do I need to move my data out of my .appspot.com default bucket?

No. To accommodate these changes, you do not need to move your data out of your PROJECT_ID.appspot.com default bucket.

As long as you upgrade your project to the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan by October 01, 2025, then you'll see no service interruptions.

Changes for programmatic interactions (like REST APIs and Terraform)

If you provision or work with default Cloud Storage for Firebase buckets programmatically (for example, using REST APIs or Terraform), review the following changes to see if you need to change anything in your workflows or apps.

Important: Here are the summarized key points of the FAQs in this section (but make sure to review each FAQ below for details):

• On October 30, 2024, two REST APIs are shutting down: the projects.defaultLocation.finalize endpoint and the projects.availableLocations.list endpoint.
• The changes to these REST APIs also affect how you might use Terraform with Cloud Storage for Firebase (and possibly Cloud Firestore).

We understand that these changes will require your time to evaluate and make changes to your Firebase project and workflows. If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

What are the changes for using REST APIs?

Starting October 30, 2024, the following changes will happen:

• The projects.defaultBucket.create endpoint is changing:

  • To call this endpoint, your project must be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan.

  • The default buckets provisioned by this endpoint will have the name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com (instead of the former PROJECT_ID.appspot.com).

  • These default buckets will follow Google Cloud Storage pricing and usage, which provides an "Always Free" tier for buckets in particular regions.

• The projects.defaultLocation.finalize and projects.availableLocations.list endpoints will be shutdown and will start returning 404: METHOD_NOT_FOUND errors.

  Instead, to set a resource's location programmatically, you should use the resource-specific APIs. For example, set the locations of the default Cloud Storage bucket and the default Cloud Firestore instance during their individual provisioning when calling projects.defaultBucket.create and projects.databases.create, respectively. For more details about replacements for REST APIs and locations, see the FAQ: How do I set or get the location for a "default GCP resource"?

What are the changes for using Terraform?

Starting October 30, 2024, the following changes will happen that are related to using Terraform with Cloud Storage for Firebase.

You can no longer provision the default Cloud Storage for Firebase bucket using Terraform. This is because you can no longer provision this bucket via Google App Engine. Instead, you can do one of the following:

• Provision the bucket by calling projects.defaultBucket.create. This API is not yet available via Terraform.

• Provision the bucket through the Firebase console. Visit the Storage section of the console to get started.

Additionally, note the following about default Cloud Storage buckets provisioned starting October 30, 2024:

• Your project must be on the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan to provision a default Cloud Storage bucket.

• You no longer need to provision your default Cloud Firestore instance before your default Cloud Storage bucket.

• The location you select for your default Cloud Firestore instance is not applicable to your default Cloud Storage bucket (this means that your default Cloud Firestore instance and your default Cloud Storage bucket can be in different locations).

• The name format of the default Cloud Storage bucket will be PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com (instead of the former PROJECT_ID.appspot.com).

Changes for "default GCP resources"

The "default GCP resources" are any project resources associated with Google App Engine, including the following:

• default Cloud Firestore instance
• default Cloud Storage for Firebase bucket (specifically those with the name format of PROJECT_ID.appspot.com)
• Google Cloud Scheduler (like for 1st gen scheduled functions)

With many changes over the years to the Firebase ecosystem, the associations of Firebase-related resources to Google App Engine have been changing.

We understand that these changes will require your time to evaluate and make changes to your Firebase project and workflows. If you have any questions, please reach out to Firebase Support.

What's happening to the "default GCP resources location"?

The "default GCP resources location" is the location setting for any project resources associated with Google App Engine, including the following:

• default Cloud Firestore instance
• default Cloud Storage for Firebase bucket (specifically those with the name format of PROJECT_ID.appspot.com)
• Google Cloud Scheduler (like for 1st gen scheduled functions)

When you set up any one of these resources in your project, you're transitively setting the location of the Google App Engine app in your project. This, in turn, sets the location for all the resources associated with Google App Engine.

Important: Starting October 30, 2024, provisioning the default Cloud Storage bucket will not set the "default GCP resources location" (like the location for the project's default Cloud Firestore instance). Also, provisioning the default Cloud Firestore instance will no longer set the location for a new default Cloud Storage bucket.

Note the following:

• Any default Cloud Storage bucket provisioned before October 30, 2024 (with a name format of PROJECT_ID.appspot.com) is associated with Google App Engine. This means the following:

  • The bucket's location will set the location of resources associated with Google App Engine (like the location of the default Cloud Firestore instance).

• Any default Storage bucket provisioned starting October 30, 2024 (with the name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com) is not associated with Google App Engine. This means the following:

  • Provisioning your default Cloud Storage bucket will no longer set the location of resources associated with Google App Engine (like the location of the default Cloud Firestore instance).

  • Provisioning your default Cloud Firestore instance will no longer set the location of your project's default Cloud Storage bucket.

  • The locations available for your default Cloud Storage bucket are now the same locations available for Google Cloud Storage (rather than limited to those for Google App Engine).

How do I set or get the location for a "default GCP resource"?

The "default GCP resources" are any project resources associated with Google App Engine, including the following:

• default Cloud Firestore instance
• default Cloud Storage for Firebase bucket (specifically those with the name format of PROJECT_ID.appspot.com)
• Google Cloud Scheduler (like for 1st gen scheduled functions)

Starting October 30, 2024, the concept of "default GCP resources" doesn't apply to newly provisioned default Cloud Storage buckets. Default buckets provisioned after this date have the name format of PROJECT_ID.firebasestorage.com, and they are not associated with Google App Engine. To learn more, review the FAQ: What happens to the "default GCP resources location"?

Important: Since default Cloud Storage buckets provisioned starting October 30, 2024 aren't associated with Google App Engine, their location will not set the "default GCP resources location" (like the location for the default Cloud Firestore instance). Also, provisioning the default Cloud Firestore instance first in your project will no longer set the location for these new default Cloud Storage buckets.

If you want to set or get the location for any resource in a project, then you should interact directly with the resource instead.

Default Cloud Storage for Firebase bucket

• In the Firebase console:

  • Set and find the location of a default Cloud Storage bucket in the Storage section of the Firebase console.

• Using REST APIs:

  • Set the location of a default Cloud Storage bucket during its provisioning when calling projects.defaultBucket.create.

    Note that starting October 30, 2024, calling this endpoint will require the pay-as-you-go Blaze pricing plan. So before attempting to create a default bucket, make sure that the project is linked to a Cloud Billing account (for example, using projects.updateBillingInfo).

  • Get the location of a default Cloud Storage bucket using projects.buckets.get.

Default Cloud Firestore instance

Note that if you provisioned a default Cloud Storage bucket before October 30, 2024, then the location of the project's default Cloud Firestore instance has already been set (due to associations with Google App Engine).

• In the Firebase console:

  • Set and find the location of a default Cloud Firestore instance in the Firestore section of the Firebase console.

• Using REST APIs:

  • Set the location of a default Cloud Firestore instance during its provisioning when calling projects.databases.create.

  • Get the location of a default Cloud Firestore instance using projects.databases.get.

Scheduled functions (1st gen)

Note that if you provisioned a default Cloud Storage bucket before October 30, 2024, then the project's scheduled functions (1st gen) has already been set (due to associations with Google App Engine).

• Set the location of a scheduled function during its setup and deployment.

• Get the location of a scheduled function from the topic name of its job and function in the Google Cloud console (firebase-schedule-FUNCTION_NAME-REGION.