Clarification on AI Studio Billing: "Pay as you go" plan vs Google One AI Premium subscription

Google AI Studio
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Hi everyone,

I’m starting to develop an Android app and planning to use Google AI Studio for prototyping and generating code.

I currently have an active Google One AI Premium subscription, but when I look at my billing/plan status inside AI Studio, it says “Pay as you go”. I can’t see any upfront costs or a clear breakdown of how this connects.

I would appreciate some clarification on the following:

  1. Does my Google One AI Premium subscription cover or integrate in any way with AI Studio usage, or are they completely separate?
  2. If I only use the AI Studio web interface (aistudio.google.com) to write prompts and generate app code, will I be charged under the “Pay as you go” plan, or is the web interface testing completely free?
  3. At what point does the “Pay as you go” billing actually trigger when developing or testing locally?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Hello @Gohsty,

The Gemini API Pay-as-you-go plan uses a Google Cloud Billing account to charge based on usage while unlocking higher limits, agent features, and access to all models and the Google AI Monthly Subscription provides higher web-interface limits and additional Google AI benefits . You can write prompts, test models and generate application code directly on the web interface at no cost. You will only incur charges if you explicitly link a paid API key to that project. When you generate a new API key for local development, it starts on the Free Tier by default. You will never be charged unless you actively click “Set up billing” within Google AI Studio and link a Google Cloud Billing account to that project.