diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 6aae097dfd5..11407829ccd 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 - Fixed issue where `firebase init firestore` would raise an error due to rules/indexes file path being undefined. (#8518)
+- Fixed an issue where `firebase use` required `serviceusage.viewer` permissions. (#8519)
diff --git a/src/ensureApiEnabled.ts b/src/ensureApiEnabled.ts
index 781f10d5957..6085ff1d3d6 100644
--- a/src/ensureApiEnabled.ts
+++ b/src/ensureApiEnabled.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import { serviceUsageOrigin } from "./api";
 import { Client } from "./apiv2";
 import * as utils from "./utils";
 import { FirebaseError, isBillingError } from "./error";
+import { logger } from "./logger";
 
 export const POLL_SETTINGS = {
   pollInterval: 10000,
@@ -173,6 +174,21 @@ export async function ensure(
   return enableApiWithRetries(projectId, hostname, prefix, silent);
 }
 
+export async function bestEffortEnsure(
+  projectId: string,
+  apiUri: string,
+  prefix: string,
+  silent = false,
+): Promise<void> {
+  try {
+    await ensure(projectId, apiUri, prefix, silent);
+  } catch (err: any) {
+    logger.debug(
+      `Unable to check that ${apiUri} is enabled on ${projectId}. Calls to it will fail if it is not enabled`,
+    );
+  }
+}
+
 /**
  * Returns a link to enable an API on a project in Cloud console. This can be used instead of ensure
  * in contexts where automatically enabling APIs is not desirable (ie emulator commands).
diff --git a/src/management/projects.ts b/src/management/projects.ts
index 20ad83ce84f..bb20be18d74 100644
--- a/src/management/projects.ts
+++ b/src/management/projects.ts
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import * as api from "../api";
 import { logger } from "../logger";
 import * as utils from "../utils";
 import { FirebaseProjectMetadata, CloudProjectInfo, ProjectPage } from "../types/project";
-import { ensure } from "../ensureApiEnabled";
+import { bestEffortEnsure } from "../ensureApiEnabled";
 
 const TIMEOUT_MILLIS = 30000;
 const MAXIMUM_PROMPT_LIST = 100;
@@ -469,7 +469,7 @@ export interface ProjectInfo {
  * @param projectId
  */
 export async function getProject(projectId: string): Promise<ProjectInfo> {
-  await ensure(projectId, api.resourceManagerOrigin(), "firebase", true);
+  await bestEffortEnsure(projectId, api.resourceManagerOrigin(), "firebase", true);
   const response = await resourceManagerClient.get<ProjectInfo>(`/projects/${projectId}`);
   return response.body;
 }