[BUG] AI Studio Web UI: Video upload stuck on "Extracting..." / 500 Internal Server Error

Google AI Studio
1

Summary

Uploading video files (MP4, WebM, etc.) to the Google AI Studio web interface consistently fails. The system either gets permanently stuck on “Extracting…” or returns a 500 Internal Server Error. This makes the advertised multimodal video analysis feature completely unusable through the web UI.

Environment

  • Platform: Google AI Studio Web UI (aistudio.google.com)
    • Browser: Google Chrome (latest stable), also reproduced on Edge
      • OS: Windows 11
        • Account Type: Paid tier (pay-as-you-go billing enabled)
          • Date: April 2026 (ongoing issue for months)

        • Steps to Reproduce

          1. Go to aistudio.google.com
            1. Create a new prompt or open an existing chat
              1. Click the attachment/upload button
                1. Select any video file (tested with MP4, WebM, various sizes from 5MB to 500MB)
                  1. Upload begins, then enters “Extracting…” state

                3. Expected Behavior

                4. Video should be processed and available for multimodal analysis within a reasonable timeframe, as documented in the Gemini API specifications.

              3. Actual Behavior

              4. One of the following occurs:
                • Infinite “Extracting…” loop: The progress indicator spins indefinitely (tested waiting 30+ minutes) with no completion
                  • 500 Internal Server Error: Server returns HTTP 500 after variable processing time
                    • Silent failure: Upload appears to complete but video content is not accessible for prompting

                  • Impact

                    • This is a critical bug for paying users who rely on multimodal video analysis
                      • The same video files work correctly when processed via the Gemini API directly (using google.generativeai Python SDK with upload_file())
                        • This confirms the issue is specific to the AI Studio web frontend, not the underlying Gemini model infrastructure

                      • Community Reports

                      • Multiple developers on Reddit (r/GoogleGeminiAI, r/singularity) and this forum have reported identical symptoms since late 2025, indicating this is a systemic, unresolved issue rather than an isolated case.

                    • Workaround

                    • Using the Gemini API Python SDK directly (genai.upload_file()) successfully processes the same video files. However, this defeats the purpose of having a web-based interface for quick prototyping and testing.

                  • Request

                  • Please prioritize fixing the AI Studio web UI’s video processing pipeline. As a paying customer, the inability to use a core advertised feature through the primary interface is unacceptable.
2

Hi @jyongchulwp ,
Thanks for the really thorough report!

We tried to reproduce at our end but video analysis was working fine (with a 10MB video / 3.1 preview model).

If you’re still experiencing this, would you mind sending your project ID through DM?

If this is now OK for you, I suspect it’s a transient error because of server capacity. Apologies for that, we’re working to increase capacity.