Is Firebase push notification free or paid?
Firebase Cloud Messaging is free on every plan. What the limits are, what is not free around it, and what a push backend costs to run.
Yes, Firebase push notifications are free. Firebase lists Cloud Messaging (FCM) as “no-cost” on both its free Spark plan and its paid Blaze plan. Google charges nothing per message, and there is no monthly limit on how many you send. Apple’s push service (APNs) is free to send through too. So why do OneSignal, Pusher and others charge? Because sending is free, and everything around sending is not.
What is free
| Cost | |
|---|---|
| FCM messages to Android, iOS and web | Free, unlimited |
| APNs messages to iPhones | Free (needs the Apple Developer Program, which any iOS app has) |
| Web push through browsers’ push services | Free |
| Topics and topic subscriptions on FCM | Free |
The limits that do exist
- Rate: 600,000 messages a minute per Firebase project by default. Over it, FCM answers
429until the next minute. Google can raise it for projects that sit near the limit. - Size: 4 KB of payload per message.
- Topics: fan-out to large topics is not instant; plan for minutes, not seconds, on very large sends.
- No delivery guarantee: FCM accepting a message does not mean the phone showed it. See why FCM notifications are not received.
What is not free: the server around it
FCM delivers to a token. Everything else is yours to build and run:
- A database of tokens per user, updated when a token changes, a user reinstalls or signs in on another phone.
- Sending logic: one user to many devices, lists of users, topics, everyone.
- Scheduling and time zones.
- Cleanup: deleting tokens FCM reports as
UNREGISTERED, or every send gets slower and every count wrong. - A screen for non-developers who write offers and reminders.
- Delivery logs to answer “did my user get it”.
- Credentials: HTTP v1 needs a service account and short-lived tokens. See the FCM HTTP v1 migration.
That work is what paid push services sell.
What that costs to buy
| Service | Free | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| FCM directly | Unlimited, you build the server | Your own servers and time |
| Expo push | Unlimited, Expo apps only | Free |
| OneSignal | Mobile push up to 1,000 users | $19 a month plus $0.012 a user |
| Pusher Beams | 1,000 devices | $29 a month for 10,000 |
| SignOps | 1,000 devices | Rs 499 a month for 5,000, then Rs 0.10 a device |
The short answer
If you have a backend and one app, FCM directly is free and fine. When you need users across devices, topics, scheduling, a composer for your team or delivery logs, you either build that server or pay for one. SignOps Push is that server, with your own Firebase and Apple keys, free for 1,000 devices.
Sources: Firebase pricing, Firebase: FCM throttling and quotas.