GuideHow to Transfer a Firebase Project to a New Owner (2026)

To transfer a Firebase project to a new owner, the current Owner adds the new owner's Google account as Owner, the project is linked to the new owner's Cloud Billing account, and then the old owner's roles are removed. Firebase has no separate transfer button, because a Firebase project is a Google Cloud project: roles and billing are shared between the two (Firebase). The project ID, the database, users and the apps stay exactly where they are. Two things sit outside the project and need moving too: the Google Analytics property and, if the iOS app changes Apple accounts, the push notification key.

For the App Store half, Apple's app transfer overview explains who starts and accepts the move. If you're taking over a whole app, not just Firebase, the free app handover checklist lists the steps for each service in order, and writes the request to send the outgoing developer.

The short version

1. Become an Owner of the project

You need the Owner role to manage the project's members and their roles (Firebase). The current Owner adds your Google account as Owner in the Firebase console under Settings, Users and permissions, or on the IAM page of the Google Cloud console.

Two rules from Google Cloud's IAM documentation catch people out:

• The console is required when the person getting Owner isn't part of the project's organization, or when the project isn't part of any organization. A gcloud command or an API call won't do it in those cases.
• Owner can only go to a Google account, a service account in your organization or a Google group in your organization.

If the project belongs to a Google Cloud organization, it may not have an Owner at all (Firebase). Then the organization's admin is the person who can add you.

2. Move the bill to your billing account

If the project is on the pay-as-you-go Blaze plan, it's linked to a Cloud Billing account, often paid with the developer's card. Move it to a billing account you hold. Google's billing guide lists who can:

• On the project: Project Owner, or Project Billing Manager with Project Browser and Service Usage Viewer.
• On both billing accounts, the current one and yours: Billing Account Administrator, or Billing Account User with Billing Account Viewer.

Because the person making the change needs rights on the current billing account, the outgoing developer usually has to make the switch, or give you access to their billing account first. The steps: in the Billing section of the Google Cloud console, find the project, open its Actions menu, choose Change billing, pick your billing account and click Set account.

Do this before the old billing account is closed or its card stops working. Google says that when billing is disabled, a Firebase project drops from the Blaze plan to the no-cost Spark plan, billable Google Cloud services in the project stop, and some resources might be removed and not be recoverable.

3. Move the Google Analytics property

Analytics data isn't stored in the Firebase project. It sits in the Google Analytics property the project is linked to, and every app in the project reports to that same property (Firebase). If the property stays in the developer's Analytics account, they keep the data.

Google's suggestion is to move the existing property into a different Google Analytics account. That doesn't require unlinking it from Firebase and doesn't interrupt data collection (Firebase Analytics FAQ). Avoid unlinking: the Analytics dashboard in Firebase goes empty until the property is linked again.

4. Keep push notifications working on iOS

Firebase Cloud Messaging sends iOS notifications with an APNs key that is created in an Apple Developer account and uploaded in the Firebase console under Project settings, on the Cloud Messaging tab (APNs authentication key) (Firebase). If the iOS app is also moving to your Apple account through an App Store transfer, our advice is to create an APNs key in your Apple account and upload it in place of the developer's, so notifications don't depend on their account.

5. Remove the old owner, then rotate keys

Once you are an Owner and the bill is yours, remove the old developer's account in Users and permissions. Then rotate what they could have copied: service account keys, API keys, and any server secrets your Cloud Functions read. Do this last, so nothing the live app uses is switched off before its replacement is in place.

Optional: move the project into your organization

If your company uses Google Workspace or a Google Cloud organization, you can migrate a standalone project into it (Google Cloud). Roles granted directly on the project move with it; roles inherited from the old organization don't. Moving a project back to "No organization" isn't self-service and needs Google Cloud Customer Care. For most small apps, the Owner role and the billing account are enough.

When the developer won't reply

Only someone who can change the project's IAM policy can add you. If the project belongs to a Google Cloud organization, ask its admin; otherwise, contact Google Cloud support with proof that the app is yours, such as the contract and paid invoices. App developer disappeared? What to do in the first 48 hours covers the rest of that situation.

Need a hand with the takeover?

If something broke during the move, such as a login, push notifications or a payment flow, the App Fix Ticket is a fixed-price way to find and fix it. If you're taking over the app for good and need someone to keep it running, the Monthly Dev Subscription covers ongoing work in your own accounts.