diff --git a/.changeset/sour-numbers-refuse.md b/.changeset/sour-numbers-refuse.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6ed4185044
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/sour-numbers-refuse.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@thirdweb-dev/react": patch
+"@thirdweb-dev/sdk": patch
+---
+
+[EVM] - allow `useContract` to fail faster to enable the import case
diff --git a/packages/react/src/evm/hooks/async/contracts.ts b/packages/react/src/evm/hooks/async/contracts.ts
index 269448b8ef..aef211d34f 100644
--- a/packages/react/src/evm/hooks/async/contracts.ts
+++ b/packages/react/src/evm/hooks/async/contracts.ts
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ export function useContract(
             await queryClient.fetchQuery(
               compilerMetadata.cacheKey(contractAddress, activeChainId),
               () => compilerMetadata.fetchQuery(contractAddress, sdk),
-              { cacheTime: Infinity, staleTime: Infinity },
+              { cacheTime: Infinity, staleTime: Infinity, retry: 0 },
             )
           )?.abi;
         }
@@ -258,6 +258,8 @@ export function useContract(
       cacheTime: Infinity,
       staleTime: Infinity,
       enabled: !!contractAddress && !!sdk && !!activeChainId,
+      // never retry
+      retry: 0,
     },
   );
 
diff --git a/packages/sdk/src/evm/common/feature-detection.ts b/packages/sdk/src/evm/common/feature-detection.ts
index 55cc38f8e9..435e153a50 100644
--- a/packages/sdk/src/evm/common/feature-detection.ts
+++ b/packages/sdk/src/evm/common/feature-detection.ts
@@ -442,6 +442,11 @@ export async function fetchContractMetadata(
   storage: ThirdwebStorage,
 ): Promise<PublishedMetadata> {
   const metadata = await storage.downloadJSON(compilerMetadataUri);
+  if (!metadata || !metadata.output) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `Could not resolve metadata for contract at ${compilerMetadataUri}`,
+    );
+  }
   const abi = AbiSchema.parse(metadata.output.abi);
   const compilationTarget = metadata.settings.compilationTarget;
   const targets = Object.keys(compilationTarget);