429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED on Gemini 3 Standard API Search Grounding after monthly free tier exhausted — pay-as-you-go billing not activating (Tier 3)

Gemini API
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1

Hello,

I am experiencing a 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED error when using Grounding with Google Search on the Standard API with Gemini 3. I am on Tier 3 and the issue appears to be that billing does not activate after the monthly free tier (5,000 prompts) is exhausted.

Environment:

Issue:
Once I exhaust the monthly free tier for Grounding with Google Search (5,000 prompts, shared across Gemini 3 models), all subsequent requests return 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED.

AI Studio Rate Limits dashboard shows:

  • Gemini 3 / Search Grounding: 4K / 1.5K (exceeded, shown in red)

    image

According to the official pricing documentation, usage beyond the free tier should be billed at $14 per 1,000 search queries and requests should continue. However, the pay-as-you-go billing does not appear to activate — requests simply fail with 429.

Error message received:


429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
{
    "error": {
        "code": 429,
        "message": "You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. For more information on this error, head to: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits. To monitor your current usage, head to: https://ai.dev/rate-limit. ",
        "status": "RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED",
        "details": [
            {
                "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.Help",
                "links": [
                    {
                        "description": "Learn more about Gemini API quotas",
                        "url": "https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits"
                    }
                ]
            }
        ]
    }
}

Expected behavior:
After exhausting the monthly free tier, requests should continue and be billed at $14 / 1,000 queries.

Actual behavior:
After exhausting the free tier, all requests return 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED.

Question:
Is this a known limitation of Gemini 3 Preview models (i.e., pay-as-you-go billing not yet implemented for grounding on Standard API)? Or is this a bug?

I have already submitted a quota increase request via AI Studio, but wanted to report this here as well in case it affects other Tier 3 users.

Thank you.

2

Hello @easyhz,
If you are receiving 429 errors and have verified that no rate limits were breached for the period, can you add your details to this form?