diff --git a/.changeset/smooth-poets-leave.md b/.changeset/smooth-poets-leave.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..606fc5ee440
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/smooth-poets-leave.md
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+"firebase": patch
+"@firebase/database": patch
+---
+
+[fix] Instead of using production auth, the SDK will use test credentials
+to connect to the Emulator when the RTDB SDK is used via the Firebase
+Admin SDK.
diff --git a/packages/database/src/core/AuthTokenProvider.ts b/packages/database/src/core/AuthTokenProvider.ts
index 81928c11020..5e18d856554 100644
--- a/packages/database/src/core/AuthTokenProvider.ts
+++ b/packages/database/src/core/AuthTokenProvider.ts
@@ -24,10 +24,17 @@ import { Provider } from '@firebase/component';
 import { log, warn } from './util/util';
 import { FirebaseApp } from '@firebase/app-types';
 
+export interface AuthTokenProvider {
+  getToken(forceRefresh: boolean): Promise<FirebaseAuthTokenData>;
+  addTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void): void;
+  removeTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void): void;
+  notifyForInvalidToken(): void;
+}
+
 /**
  * Abstraction around FirebaseApp's token fetching capabilities.
  */
-export class AuthTokenProvider {
+export class FirebaseAuthTokenProvider implements AuthTokenProvider {
   private auth_: FirebaseAuthInternal | null = null;
   constructor(
     private app_: FirebaseApp,
@@ -60,7 +67,7 @@ export class AuthTokenProvider {
     });
   }
 
-  addTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void) {
+  addTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void): void {
     // TODO: We might want to wrap the listener and call it with no args to
     // avoid a leaky abstraction, but that makes removing the listener harder.
     if (this.auth_) {
@@ -73,13 +80,13 @@ export class AuthTokenProvider {
     }
   }
 
-  removeTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void) {
+  removeTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void): void {
     this.authProvider_
       .get()
       .then(auth => auth.removeAuthTokenListener(listener));
   }
 
-  notifyForInvalidToken() {
+  notifyForInvalidToken(): void {
     let errorMessage =
       'Provided authentication credentials for the app named "' +
       this.app_.name +
@@ -104,3 +111,24 @@ export class AuthTokenProvider {
     warn(errorMessage);
   }
 }
+
+/* Auth token provider that the Admin SDK uses to connect to the Emulator. */
+export class EmulatorAdminTokenProvider implements AuthTokenProvider {
+  private static EMULATOR_AUTH_TOKEN = 'owner';
+
+  getToken(forceRefresh: boolean): Promise<FirebaseAuthTokenData> {
+    return Promise.resolve({
+      accessToken: EmulatorAdminTokenProvider.EMULATOR_AUTH_TOKEN
+    });
+  }
+
+  addTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void): void {
+    // Invoke the listener immediately to match the behavior in Firebase Auth
+    // (see packages/auth/src/auth.js#L1807)
+    listener(EmulatorAdminTokenProvider.EMULATOR_AUTH_TOKEN);
+  }
+
+  removeTokenChangeListener(listener: (token: string | null) => void): void {}
+
+  notifyForInvalidToken(): void {}
+}
diff --git a/packages/database/src/core/Repo.ts b/packages/database/src/core/Repo.ts
index 9b95aa89214..95a96954626 100644
--- a/packages/database/src/core/Repo.ts
+++ b/packages/database/src/core/Repo.ts
@@ -83,10 +83,8 @@ export class Repo {
     public repoInfo_: RepoInfo,
     forceRestClient: boolean,
     public app: FirebaseApp,
-    authProvider: Provider<FirebaseAuthInternalName>
+    authTokenProvider: AuthTokenProvider
   ) {
-    const authTokenProvider = new AuthTokenProvider(app, authProvider);
-
     this.stats_ = StatsManager.getCollection(repoInfo_);
 
     if (forceRestClient || beingCrawled()) {
diff --git a/packages/database/src/core/RepoManager.ts b/packages/database/src/core/RepoManager.ts
index 8555b317931..5ec5e7bc753 100644
--- a/packages/database/src/core/RepoManager.ts
+++ b/packages/database/src/core/RepoManager.ts
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
  */
 
 import { FirebaseApp } from '@firebase/app-types';
-import { safeGet } from '@firebase/util';
+import { safeGet, CONSTANTS } from '@firebase/util';
 import { Repo } from './Repo';
 import { fatal } from './util/util';
 import { parseRepoInfo } from './util/libs/parser';
@@ -26,6 +26,11 @@ import { Database } from '../api/Database';
 import { RepoInfo } from './RepoInfo';
 import { FirebaseAuthInternalName } from '@firebase/auth-interop-types';
 import { Provider } from '@firebase/component';
+import {
+  AuthTokenProvider,
+  EmulatorAdminTokenProvider,
+  FirebaseAuthTokenProvider
+} from './AuthTokenProvider';
 
 /** @const {string} */
 const DATABASE_URL_OPTION = 'databaseURL';
@@ -108,16 +113,27 @@ export class RepoManager {
     let parsedUrl = parseRepoInfo(dbUrl);
     let repoInfo = parsedUrl.repoInfo;
 
+    let isEmulator: boolean;
+
     let dbEmulatorHost: string | undefined = undefined;
     if (typeof process !== 'undefined') {
       dbEmulatorHost = process.env[FIREBASE_DATABASE_EMULATOR_HOST_VAR];
     }
+
     if (dbEmulatorHost) {
+      isEmulator = true;
       dbUrl = `http://${dbEmulatorHost}?ns=${repoInfo.namespace}`;
       parsedUrl = parseRepoInfo(dbUrl);
       repoInfo = parsedUrl.repoInfo;
+    } else {
+      isEmulator = !parsedUrl.repoInfo.secure;
     }
 
+    const authTokenProvider =
+      CONSTANTS.NODE_ADMIN && isEmulator
+        ? new EmulatorAdminTokenProvider()
+        : new FirebaseAuthTokenProvider(app, authProvider);
+
     validateUrl('Invalid Firebase Database URL', 1, parsedUrl);
     if (!parsedUrl.path.isEmpty()) {
       fatal(
@@ -126,7 +142,7 @@ export class RepoManager {
       );
     }
 
-    const repo = this.createRepo(repoInfo, app, authProvider);
+    const repo = this.createRepo(repoInfo, app, authTokenProvider);
 
     return repo.database;
   }
@@ -159,7 +175,7 @@ export class RepoManager {
   createRepo(
     repoInfo: RepoInfo,
     app: FirebaseApp,
-    authProvider: Provider<FirebaseAuthInternalName>
+    authTokenProvider: AuthTokenProvider
   ): Repo {
     let appRepos = safeGet(this.repos_, app.name);
 
@@ -174,7 +190,7 @@ export class RepoManager {
         'Database initialized multiple times. Please make sure the format of the database URL matches with each database() call.'
       );
     }
-    repo = new Repo(repoInfo, this.useRestClient_, app, authProvider);
+    repo = new Repo(repoInfo, this.useRestClient_, app, authTokenProvider);
     appRepos[repoInfo.toURLString()] = repo;
 
     return repo;