CRITICAL BUG: Paid Project (Tier 1) but stuck on Free Tier Token Limit

Gemini API
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1

I am on a paid (tier 1) account. But as of yesterday I have been hitting a 429 ‘resource exhausted’ error on the basis that I have exceeded my quota for ‘free tier’ requests. I am getting this error using gemini-2.5-flash, gemini-2.5-pro, and gemini-3-pro-preview. Error code pasted below.

I have checked that my billing account is properly set up (it is), and that my project is correctly linked to that account (it is). I have tried setting up new projects and generating the API key from the main Google Cloud console (not AI Studio), but each time I hit the same problem.

The service is presently unusable. I tried the Google Cloud support, but they could not assist. I escalated it through to a ‘human’, and they could also not help. Could someone please help? It seems as though this is a very common issue at the moment.

I am also concerned that the privacy policies of the paid account have not been applied to my API requests, which have been treated as being under the ‘free tier’.

Here is an example error code (they are substantially the same across all models):

google.genai.errors.ClientError: 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. {‘error’: {‘code’: 429, ‘message’: ‘You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. For more information on this error, head to: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits. To monitor your current usage, head to: https://ai.dev/usage?tab=rate-limit. \n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-3-pro\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-3-pro\nPlease retry in 46.457504798s.’, ‘status’: ‘RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED’, ‘details’: [{‘@typetype’: ‘type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.Help’, ‘links’: [{‘description’: ‘Learn more about Gemini API quotas’, ‘url’: ‘https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits’}]}@type {‘@type’: ‘type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.QuotaFailure’, ‘violations’: [{‘quotaMetric’: ‘generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests’, ‘quotaId’: ‘GenerateRequestsPerDayPerProjectPerModel-FreeTier’, ‘quotaDimensions’: {‘model’: ‘gemini-3-pro’, ‘location’: ‘global’}}, {‘quotaMetric’: ‘generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests’, ‘quotaId’: ‘GenerateRequestsPerMinutePerProjectPerModel-FreeTier’, ‘quotaDimensions’: {‘location’: ‘global’, ‘model’: ‘gemini-3-pro’@type}]}, {‘@type’: ‘type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.RetryInfo’, ‘retryDelay’: ‘46s’}]}}.

Thanks in advance.

B

1 Like
3

Hi @el_turq,

Thank you for the report. To assist with debugging, please DM me your Project ID and a screenshot of your API keys page: https://aistudio.google.com/api-keys.

5

Thank you. But I do not know how to DM you. And I am sure it is nothing that anyone outside of Google can help with. There are a lot of others with this same issue. It has meant that Gemini API has been unavailable for me this week.

For what it is worth, in Google AI Studio the API keys are shown in the ‘Quota Tier’ column as ‘Tier 1’ . The project in Google Cloud is attached to a billing account.

BUT… I am being excluded from any calls using these ‘Tier 1’ API because the ‘resource is exhausted’ - for example on my very first call to gemini 3 pro preview.

There is a problem somewhere in the interface between Google AI Studio and Google Cloud. I have tried deleting all my projects, and then starting again with new projects and new APIs, but I still hit exactly the same issue.

1 Like
7

Hi ! Same problem here.

@chunduriv i also dont know how to DM you.
Can you give us a link or something ?

 {"name":"ApiError","message":"{\"error\":{\"code\":429,\"message\":\"You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. For more information on this error, head to: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits. To monitor your current usage, head to: https://ai.dev/usage?tab=rate-limit. \\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-3-pro\\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests,

Same error, and same config : i’m on a paid plan (level 1).

thanks

8

Hi @David_Quenet @el_turq,

I have just replied to you via a DM. Could you please reply to my direct message?

Thank you!