diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9a6ca1697a5..b897142ec3b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 - Fixes issue when installing a Firebase Extension where secrets would be created before validation.
 - Fixes issue with filtering on a specific storage bucket using functions in the emulator (#3893)
 - Fixes check in Cloud Functions for Firebase initialization to check for API enablement before trying to enable them. (#2574)
+- No longer tries to clean up function build images from Artifact Registry when Artifact Registry is not enabled (#3943)
diff --git a/src/commands/functions-delete.ts b/src/commands/functions-delete.ts
index af2154b3e39..a02d20b6127 100644
--- a/src/commands/functions-delete.ts
+++ b/src/commands/functions-delete.ts
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ import { promptOnce } from "../prompt";
 import { reduceFlat } from "../functional";
 import { requirePermissions } from "../requirePermissions";
 import * as args from "../deploy/functions/args";
+import * as ensure from "../ensureApiEnabled";
 import * as helper from "../deploy/functions/functionsDeployHelper";
 import * as utils from "../utils";
 import * as backend from "../deploy/functions/backend";
@@ -104,5 +105,15 @@ export default new Command("functions:delete [filters...]")
     }
 
     // Clean up image caches too
-    await containerCleaner.cleanupBuildImages([], allEpToDelete);
+    const opts: { ar?: containerCleaner.ArtifactRegistryCleaner } = {};
+    const arEnabled = await ensure.check(
+      needProjectId(options),
+      "artifactregistry.googleapis.com",
+      "functions",
+      /* silent= */ true
+    );
+    if (!arEnabled) {
+      opts.ar = new containerCleaner.NoopArtifactRegistryCleaner();
+    }
+    await containerCleaner.cleanupBuildImages([], allEpToDelete, opts);
   });
diff --git a/src/deploy/functions/release/index.ts b/src/deploy/functions/release/index.ts
index 3fa0a12d85c..1e2882eb646 100644
--- a/src/deploy/functions/release/index.ts
+++ b/src/deploy/functions/release/index.ts
@@ -75,7 +75,11 @@ export async function release(
   const deletedEndpoints = Object.values(plan)
     .map((r) => r.endpointsToDelete)
     .reduce(reduceFlat, []);
-  await containerCleaner.cleanupBuildImages(haveEndpoints, deletedEndpoints);
+  const opts: { ar?: containerCleaner.ArtifactRegistryCleaner } = {};
+  if (!context.artifactRegistryEnabled) {
+    opts.ar = new containerCleaner.NoopArtifactRegistryCleaner();
+  }
+  await containerCleaner.cleanupBuildImages(haveEndpoints, deletedEndpoints, opts);
 
   const allErrors = summary.results.filter((r) => r.error).map((r) => r.error) as Error[];
   if (allErrors.length) {