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Firebase Remote Config lets a web app change values and behavior its existing code already supports without rebuilding and redeploying the client. Your app supplies defaults, fetches a configuration template, and activates fetched values when you choose. It cannot add new code, and values available to a client must not contain secrets.
What Remote Config can—and cannot—change
Remote Config stores parameters and conditional values in a Firebase template. A web app using the Firebase JavaScript SDK can fetch that template and make its values available to app code. Typical uses include changing text, feature settings, or other behavior that the app has already been written to handle. Firebase’s Remote Config overview explains the service and its client behavior.
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It is not a way to deliver new JavaScript or replace a deployment. If the app has no code to interpret a parameter, changing that parameter will not create the missing feature. Firebase also warns: “Don’t store confidential data in Remote Config parameter keys or values.” End users can access defaults and fetched values available to their client app instance, so do not use client Remote Config to enforce authorization or protect credentials.
How fetching and activation work
Remote Config has a lifecycle: the app starts with defaults, requests a configuration, then activates fetched values so getters can read them. Fetching alone does not mean the new values are already controlling the interface. You decide when activation occurs; for a potentially disruptive change, that may be a natural transition rather than the instant the response arrives.
- Initialize Firebase and Remote Config. The web guide uses the modular JavaScript API, including
initializeAppandgetRemoteConfig. - Set in-app defaults. Provide usable values so the app has a known configuration before a successful backend fetch.
- Choose a fetch interval. Firebase documents 12 hours as the default and recommended minimum fetch interval for production. A shorter interval can help during development, but repeated requests may be throttled; follow Firebase’s guidance to use exponential backoff after throttling. See Firebase’s web setup guide.
- Fetch, then activate. Use
fetchConfigfollowed byactivate, or usefetchAndActivateto combine the operations. The API reference definesactivateas making the last fetched configuration available to getters: Remote Config JavaScript API reference.
For example, a startup setting may be activated when the app launches. A value that would rearrange an in-progress screen can instead be applied at a deliberate transition. Those are product decisions, not automatic guarantees of the SDK.
Targeting and managing changes
Parameters are key/value pairs, and conditional values let a template serve different configurations to groups of app instances. Firebase lists targeting options including app version, platform, language, country or region, Analytics audiences and user properties, user percentile, and custom signals. Analytics is required for conditional targeting based on Analytics properties and audiences, as described in the web setup documentation.
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Publishing a configuration creates a template version. Firebase retains prior versions so a team can retrieve or roll back a configuration. A rollback changes remote values; it does not undo a code deployment or replace code review, access controls, and deployment safeguards. Firebase cautions against using Remote Config for app updates that should require user authorization. See Remote Config parameters and conditions.
Ordinary fetch or real-time updates?
Use the ordinary fetch workflow when updates can wait for the configured cache and fetch interval. Real-time Remote Config can notify a foreground app of a newer template, but it still leaves the decision to activate with your app.
| Approach | Delivery and activation | Costs and requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary fetch | Uses the configured minimum fetch interval and cache; activate fetched values when appropriate. | Frequent requests may be throttled. Firebase recommends a 12-hour minimum interval in production. |
| Real-time listener | Receives an invalidation signal when a newer template is available; the SDK fetches it and calls the listener. Your code still decides whether and when to activate. | Requires Firebase JavaScript SDK v12.3.0 or later and the Remote Config Realtime API enabled. Invalidation-triggered fetches count toward fetch limits, and the open connection uses device battery. |
For real-time operation, the client keeps an HTTP connection and supplies its cached configuration version. If the backend has a newer template, it sends an invalidation signal; the SDK fetches the update and calls the registered listener. The connection is maintained while the app is in the foreground, and the SDK automatically stops listening in the background. Real-time fetches bypass the ordinary cache and minimum-fetch-interval behavior. Details are in Firebase’s real-time Remote Config guide.
The web setup guide describes onConfigUpdate and the unsubscribe function it returns. In the callback, inspect changed keys and activate only when a relevant change fits the current interface. Avoid opening listeners indiscriminately: Firebase documents a limit of 20 million concurrent open real-time connections per project. Above it, incremental connection requests may be rejected and client SDKs fall back to standard fetching; the limit is temporarily suspended while a newly published template propagates. See the real-time guide and Firebase Remote Config limits.
Client templates versus server templates
The web JavaScript workflow uses client templates: the app fetches and activates values on the user’s device, where those values are accessible to the client. Server templates are a separate option for backend environments, where configuration is loaded and evaluated server-side. Choose the template and SDK that match where the decision belongs; moving a value to a client template does not make it private. Firebase describes these distinctions in its parameters documentation.
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Firebase’s documented project quotas include up to 3,000 parameters and 2,000 conditions, parameter keys up to 256 characters, and 1,000,000 characters total across parameter values. Check the current limits page before designing around these figures, because quotas can change.
Firebase’s pricing page retrieved October 7, 2026 describes a flexible pricing structure effective September 1, 2026. It lists up to 100,000 fetch requests per day at no cost on Spark, and a no-cost threshold through 100,000 daily requests on Blaze before published per-request rates apply at higher volumes. The same page lists billing transition dates of December 1, 2026 for existing Spark projects—with a longer period for qualifying early upgrades—and February 1, 2027 for existing Blaze projects. These are time-sensitive terms, not permanent pricing guarantees; check Firebase’s live pricing page and your project’s billing status before relying on them.
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