diff --git a/packages/eas-cli/src/utils/expoUpdatesCli.ts b/packages/eas-cli/src/utils/expoUpdatesCli.ts
index e50fed024f..f19a05ad01 100644
--- a/packages/eas-cli/src/utils/expoUpdatesCli.ts
+++ b/packages/eas-cli/src/utils/expoUpdatesCli.ts
@@ -26,8 +26,11 @@ export async function expoUpdatesCommandAsync(projectDir: string, args: string[]
   try {
     return (await spawnAsync(expoUpdatesCli, args)).stdout;
   } catch (e: any) {
-    if (e.stderr) {
-      if ((e.stderr as string).includes('Invalid command')) {
+    if (e.stderr && typeof e.stderr === 'string') {
+      if (
+        e.stderr.includes('Invalid command') || // SDK 51+
+        e.stderr.includes('commands[command] is not a function') // SDK <= 50
+      ) {
         throw new ExpoUpdatesCLIInvalidCommandError(
           `The command specified by ${args} was not valid in the \`expo-updates\` CLI.`
         );