"429 Too Many Requests" Error with gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview in N8n Workflow

Gemini API
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1

I’m trying to build a N8n workflow to generate images with the Google Gemini API. I’m using the gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview model.

Despite setting my valid API key, I’m consistently receiving a 429 Too Many Requests error. This happens even when it’s the first time I’m running the workflow in a day and I haven’t made any previous requests.

Could this be a temporary issue with the gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview model’s rate limits? Is there a different model or method I should be using for a simple image-to-image application?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

1 Like
3

Hello,

Welcome to the Forum!

It seems like you may be hitting a rate limit. You might want to try reducing your input size and see if that helps. We also need to investigate this issue internally and having the full error message would help us analyze it more effectively. Could you please share the complete error message you are receiving?

5

It sounds like you’re running into a rate limit or quota enforcement issue on Google’s side, even if you haven’t made any visible requests that day. The 429 Too Many Requests error usually indicates one of the following:

  1. Shared IP rate limits – If you’re using n8n Cloud or a shared server, your IP address may have already reached the API quota set by other users.

  2. Low quota on your API key – Check your Google AI Studio → API Key settings to confirm your quota and daily limits.

  3. Temporary model throttling – The gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview model is still in preview, and Google occasionally enforces temporary throttles during high-demand periods.

:white_check_mark: Recommended steps:

  • Try using the gemini-1.5-flash model instead, it supports image inputs and tends to be more stable for image-to-image tasks.

  • Add a short delay (1–2 seconds) before the API call in your n8n workflow to reduce the number of burst requests.

  • Regenerate or switch to a new API key (sometimes keys get rate-limited faster than expected).

  • Check your API usage dashboard to verify if you’ve hit the per-minute or per-day limit.

If the issue persists, it’s likely a temporary throttling event from Google’s side; you can usually retry after an hour or so.

7

I am facing a similar issue where even though I am using a paid tier key, I am receiving the 429 error saying something like free tier quota exhausted… I am trying to use the Gemini Flash Image model to generate an image using multiple images and a text prompt.