429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED in AI Studio / How to access advertised AI Pro Expanded Limits?

Gemini API
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Hello,

I recently subscribed to the Google AI Pro plan. According to the subscription details, this includes two distinct developer benefits: “expanded limits in AI Studio” and $10/month in Google Developer Program Premium credits.

However, I am unable to access these benefits and am running into hard billing walls.

Issue 1: The Advertised “Expanded Limits” The marketing explicitly states I get “expanded limits in AI Studio” as a direct feature of the subscription. How do I actually activate these higher limits without having to set up a paid Tier 1 billing account or relying on the Developer Cloud credits? The expanded limits are advertised as a standalone benefit of the AI Pro plan, so I expected my standard free tier limits in AI Studio to simply increase based on my active subscription status.

Issue 2: The €0.00 Prepay Block (429 Error) In an attempt to get the expanded limits anyway, I successfully claimed my $10/month credits. In my Google Cloud Billing Console, it correctly shows an active €8.60 (equivalent to $10) available under “Google Developer Program premium benefit”.

I linked this billing account to my Gemini API project. However, whenever I make an API call, I immediately get this error: 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED: Your prepayment credits are depleted.

In the AI Studio Billing overview, my Prepay balance shows as €0.00. There is a warning that says: “A credit balance above $0 is required to resume service. Eligible GCP credits, if any, will be applied first.”

My questions:

  1. How do I get the advertised “expanded limits in AI Studio” applied to my account without being forced into a paid billing setup? I just want to bind the API key to my own webui…

  2. If linking the Cloud credits is the only way to access these expanded limits, why is my active €8.60 monthly premium credit not being recognized to unlock the API? Do I genuinely need to make a manual, non-refundable cash deposit just to bypass the “> $0” check so the system can use my monthly promotional credits?

2

Solved:

You first need to add credits to your account with your credit card.

This means you need to bind a billing account to your project and setup the pre-pay plan.

As per the google docs:

Note: Prepay users must purchase Prepaid credits before they can use any Google Cloud credits that are eligible for the Gemini API. Once you have an active Prepay credit balance, eligible Google Cloud credits are consumed before your Prepay credit balance. When your Prepay credit balance on the billing account hits $0, Google Cloud credits will no longer be consumed.