diff --git a/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata.py b/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata.py
index 1b9a72df65..9b59620b06 100644
--- a/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata.py
+++ b/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata.py
@@ -61,6 +61,11 @@ def _metadata_host_port():
 
 def is_gce():
   """Return whether or not we're on GCE."""
+  # On Swarming, GCE_METADATA_HOST points to luci-auth's local emulator, which
+  # only serves tokens (e.g. no instance/zone or instance/id).
+  if environment.is_running_on_swarming():
+    return False
+
   try:
     host, port = _metadata_host_port()
     logs.info(f'Connecting to metadata server at {host}:{port}')
diff --git a/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/tests/core/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata_test.py b/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/tests/core/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata_test.py
index c91c3cd2a7..72f2b26ee8 100644
--- a/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/tests/core/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata_test.py
+++ b/src/clusterfuzz/_internal/tests/core/google_cloud_utils/compute_metadata_test.py
@@ -66,6 +66,18 @@ def test_is_gce_on_non_default_port(self):
     with mock.patch.object(compute_metadata, '_METADATA_SERVER', '127.0.0.1:1'):
       self.assertFalse(compute_metadata.is_gce())
 
+  def test_is_gce_on_swarming(self):
+    """Verifies that is_gce() is False on Swarming bots even if the metadata host (luci-auth's emulator) is reachable."""
+    with socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM) as listener:
+      listener.bind(('127.0.0.1', 0))
+      listener.listen(1)
+      port = listener.getsockname()[1]
+
+      with mock.patch.object(compute_metadata, '_METADATA_SERVER',
+                             f'127.0.0.1:{port}'), \
+          mock.patch.dict(os.environ, {'SWARMING_BOT': 'True'}):
+        self.assertFalse(compute_metadata.is_gce())
+
   def test_gce_metadata_host_env_override(self):
     """Verifies that GCE_METADATA_HOST overrides the default metadata server and URL."""
     with mock.patch.dict(