Firebase Studio will shut down on March 22, 2027, and Google has already stopped accepting new users and workspaces. The company wants developers to move their projects to Google AI Studio or Antigravity, two tools where AI agents play a more central role. The shutdown affects the development environment, not Firebase services or applications that are already deployed.
The timeline gives current users a one-year transition period from the announcement, published on March 19, 2026. Starting June 22 of that year, users can no longer create new workspaces or sign up for Firebase Studio. Those who already have projects can continue developing, testing, and deploying them until the shutdown date; afterward, any data remaining in the service will be permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.
An development environment Google is leaving behind
Firebase Studio was an online IDE designed to connect directly to Firebase, Google's backend services platform. Since its launch as a preview in 2025, the product combined code editing with AI assistance: its chatbot could create prototypes, modify applications, and handle other development tasks, while working in the editor remained a central part of the experience.
Google's explanation for retiring the product is that it wants to clarify where users should start building and consolidate its AI development tools. The company described the move as a simplification of its offerings, not an abandonment of Firebase. According to Firebase documentation, services such as Cloud Firestore, Authentication, and App Hosting will continue operating outside Studio; databases and user data are not affected by the IDE's retirement.
Google announced the change on March 19, a day after unveiling a full-stack coding experience in AI Studio. The integration lets an agent detect, based on a prompt, when an application needs data storage or user identity. With approval, it can set up a Firebase project, enable Firestore and Authentication, generate a Google Sign-In login page, and add code to sync data across sessions and devices.
Google's post also described Firestore security rules generated according to the application's logic. The company recommends reviewing them before sharing or deploying the project. Capabilities announced for the new workflow include saving data in the cloud, syncing it in real time across devices, supporting offline features, and managing identities without requiring users to program those components from scratch.
AI Studio for the browser; Antigravity for local code
Google offers two paths, depending on the type of work. Google AI Studio prioritizes browser-based prototyping: users describe what they want and chat with the agent to generate and iterate on the application. The Firebase integration adds storage and authentication; Google's team presents it as a path from a prompt to a full-stack application, with a free tier.
The AI Studio agent can also make multi-step edits and search for web tools for the application. Google said it can help connect external services, including payment processors or Google Maps, using the user's credentials. In its March announcement, the company added out-of-the-box support for Next.js, in addition to React and Angular, and described a secrets manager in the settings panel for storing API credentials.
Google Antigravity is designed for a different workflow: it's a desktop application that runs locally and puts code front and center, with agents capable of working autonomously. The migration documentation recommends it for users who work in Firebase Studio's code view, imported a repository or template, or need to run functions and scripts in a local environment. It also notes that Antigravity supports models other than Gemini, including Claude and GPT-OSS.
The choice therefore depends on how the project was built and where users want to work. For an application created with Firebase Studio's prototyping agent and a prompt-based workflow, Google recommends AI Studio. For projects involving more direct code editing or requiring a local IDE, it recommends Antigravity. The shutdown does not require users to use a Google tool: they can export their code to another development or hosting platform.
“To streamline your workflow and make it clearer where you should start building, we're beginning the process of sunsetting Firebase Studio”
What happens to projects and published applications
Existing workspaces will remain accessible until March 22, 2027. Google says it will continue providing security patches and essential Gemini model updates to keep current projects stable until that date. Applications already deployed on Firebase will also continue working after Studio shuts down.
For AI Studio, Firebase has enabled an option to transfer projects from the workspace: users can prepare their workspace and move the code to a new workspace in AI Studio. Conversion and upload can take several minutes. Google also announced that it would roll out a feature to package the code and import it directly; the current documentation details migration through the Studio interface.
Those migrating to Antigravity can download a ZIP file and open the project in the IDE. The Firebase guide covers an agent-assisted migration and a manual export using Firebase CLI, the latter without using AI tokens. For the local workflow, it specifies Node.js 20 or later and Firebase CLI 15.10.0 or later as requirements. It also explains how to run the application on a local development server and deploy it with Firebase.
Publishing can preserve the existing URL or use a new one. To keep an App Hosting address, the guide says to connect the GitHub repository to an existing backend, usually named “studio,” and deploy from there. AI Studio also offers publishing through Cloud Run: in that case, the URL will be new and end in *.run.app. Choosing an external hosting provider also generates a new URL; exporting the code lets users continue with a standard web application.
There's one detail worth taking care of before leaving the workspace: the agents' chat history isn't included in the exported ZIP. Firebase says that files for App Prototyping and Gemini are located in /home/user/.idx/ai and explains how to download them separately. For Prototyper sessions, users can also consult the instructions in Git history.
The push toward more integrated AI tools
The change fits with the update Google unveiled on March 18. The company said its new AI Studio agent had been used internally to create hundreds of thousands of applications in the preceding months. Its demos included real-time multiplayer games, collaborative tools, and applications connected to external services.
Google also announced that it is working on Workspace integrations to connect applications with Drive and Sheets, as well as an option to move an AI Studio application to Antigravity with one click. These features are part of the direction announced for its tools, not a guarantee that every Firebase Studio project can be transferred without changes.
Google AI Studio offers a free tier for creating applications connected to Firebase. Engadget notes that using AI coding tools can involve costs through subscriptions, tokens, or both. It also mentions non-Google options such as Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex. Pricing, interface, and each product's evolution will factor into the decision for users who don't want to remain in Google's ecosystem.
For now, the key date is March 22, 2027: Firebase Studio will shut down that day, and any remaining data will be deleted. Existing projects can still be used, but new ones can no longer be started there as of June 22, 2026.
דיSources: Engadget, The Firebase Blog, Firebase, Firebase, Google
