Firebase Pricing & Free Plan Limits
Complete pricing breakdown for Firebase including all plans, hidden costs, and limitations.
Pricing score: 45/100
Is Firebase free?
Yes — the Spark (Free) plan costs nothing.
Free plan limits
- Users: Unlimited Auth users
- Storage: 1GB Firestore, 5GB Cloud Storage
- Daily quotas reset, no outbound networking, limited to Google services only
Watch out: No Cloud Functions, no extensions, no phone auth beyond limits
Plans & Pricing
User limit: Unlimited Auth users
Storage: 1GB Firestore, 5GB Cloud Storage
User limit: Unlimited
Storage: Pay per GB
User limit: N/A
Storage: $0.18/GB-month
User limit: N/A
Storage: N/A
Pricing Issues Reported by Users
Costs skyrocket unexpectedly at scale
Firebase pricing escalates dramatically with usage. Users report unexpected bills - 'Firebase can get expensive if you're not careful.' Data egress at ~$0.15/GB, SMS verification $0.01-0.06+ per message depending on country. Without careful monitoring, costs surprise teams as apps grow.
Read/write operations add up quickly
Firestore charges per document read/write, which compounds fast. 'Each query counts against your quota.' Listing 100 documents = 100 reads. Real-time listeners trigger reads on every change. Inefficient queries can burn through quotas rapidly, especially with nested data.
SMS authentication costs vary wildly by country
Firebase Auth SMS verification costs $0.01-0.06+ per message depending on destination country. Apps with international users face unpredictable auth costs. Some countries cost 6x more than others. No bulk discounts for high-volume senders.