[429] RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED on Paid Tier 1 even though limits are not hit, and it is affecting another project under the same billing account

Gemini API
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1

Hi team,

We are seeing repeated 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED errors on Gemini API even though our project is on Paid Tier 1 and the rate limit dashboard does not show that we are hitting RPM / TPM / RPD limits.

This does not look like a simple quota-overuse case.

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Error returned by the API:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 429,
    "message": "Resource has been exhausted (e.g. check quota).",
    "status": "RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED"
  }
}

What makes this more concerning is that this is not isolated to one project.

We have also observed the same or very similar issue on another project under the same paid billing account, using a different API key. So this seems larger than a single key problem, and possibly larger than a single project-level quota issue.

What we have checked so far:

  • The affected project is on Paid Tier 1
  • Billing is active and linked
  • The Gemini API rate limit page shows usage well below the published limits
  • We tested with different API keys
  • We tested from another project under the same billing account
  • Small / isolated requests may sometimes return 200, but real application traffic still starts returning 429
  • The issue is recurring and not just a short temporary spike

From the outside, this looks like one of the following:

  1. quota / entitlement attribution is incorrect for the project
  2. the project is being treated as if it were on a lower tier
  3. there is a backend capacity issue being surfaced as 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
  4. there may be a billing-account-level or cross-project issue, because another project under the same paid billing account is also affected

According to the official Gemini API documentation, rate limits are applied per project, not per API key, which is why the cross-project symptom is especially confusing in our case:

Could someone please investigate whether there is an issue with quota assignment, tier recognition, or backend capacity for these projects?

If needed, I can provide the following by DM:

  • Project Number for project A
  • Project Number for project B

This issue is impacting more than one project for us, so it is affecting development/testing beyond a single application.

Thanks.

1 Like
2

Hello @iring,
Can you DM your project numbers (not the Project ID) and models you are using . To send a direct message, click on my profile picture or name, and select the Message button.