500 errors with many gemini models when audio input is used, since ~ 12:05 UTC

Gemini API
,
1

Suddenly gemini api request with audio content began to fail with 500 error:
Claude report:

model text image audio
gemini-3.5-flash-lite OK OK 500 INTERNAL
gemini-3.6-flash OK OK 500 INTERNAL
gemini-3.7-flash OK OK 500 INTERNAL
gemini-3.1-flash-lite OK OK OK
gemini-3.5-flash OK OK OK
gemini-3.1-pro-preview OK OK OK

I bisected the request feature by feature against both models, same 3-second audio, same prompt. On 3.5-flash-lite every audio variant 500s and every text variant passes:

  • streaming and non-streaming — both 500
  • thinkingLevel high / medium / low, thinkingBudget, no thinkingConfig at all — all 500
  • responseJsonSchema (nested transcript+analysis), flat schema, OpenAPI responseSchema, no schema at all — all 500
  • mp3 and wav, inline base64 and the Files API — all 500
  • text-only, with the identical config — 200
2

Same issue here…
I had a lot of issues on Friday as well.

What’s most striking, is that they never mention these issues on status pages or alike. Very frustrating.