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

Gemini API
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53

I’m also having the same problem, it impact on my production app, how do I fix this?
@chunduriv , Could you please send me a DM, so a can send the details?
Thanks in advance.

54

I have the same problem. But I cannot send DMs due to my trust level. Can you please send me a message first?

55

Hey All,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We truly appreciate you flagging this issue and apologize for the issues. We have escalated this issue to our internal team for further investigation. They are currently reviewing it, and we will keep you updated as soon as we have more information.

56

I faced the issue after registering and setting up a billing account today. But it has been reported 15 days ago all over the internet, including here. Also on this forum there are multiple posts pointing to the same issue. Has the being escalated only now?

I am asking because perhaps it would be better to reconsider provider choices if so.

58

I’m facing the same issue, why havent you guys fixed this.

59

Be aware if you are using the free credits with this when you first register. They still charge you for it. Even though you are locked to free tier quotas they are charging you for tier 1 use.

61

Hey All,

We’ve pushed a fix that should resolve the problem. Please let us know if you are still experiencing any issues.

Thanks for your patience while we sorted this out!

63

I am still facing the same 429 ‘resource exhausted’ issue even though I am nowhere near the Tier 1 limits. I’m afraid this is unusable at present. Can anyone investigate this please? Many thanks, B

1 Like
67

Was this issue fixed?

I am facing the same issue.

1 Like
68

Hi,

I am facing the same problem. Upgraded to Tier 1 already. Its already Jan 22, 2026, I am surprise that Google has not fix this already. Free Tier is no good for demo of an app, Tier 1 give me same 429 error as if I am I am still at Free Tier.

69

Just to say (as the OP), my woes seem to be over. I have though exited my ‘free credits’ time period, so I wonder if that might have helped. Whatever for the time being I am up and running and all seems to be working as it should on Tier 1.

I would be very interested to know if anyone is having this problem while they are OUTSIDE the free credit period? I just wonder if that is part of the problem. Will update if I hit the same problems again.

71

Hello, maybe you can help me.

I have been using gemini-3-flash model for a personal programming project. I’m on a paid tier 1 and should have RPD of 10k, but I’m constantly hitting error 429. I’m not sure why. Based on the reports of AI studio, I seem to be well within the 10k RPD and should still be able to work, but I can’t. So could you please help we try and get to the bottom of this?

I’ll be awaiting your response.

72

Hey folks! Hoping to have an updated experience for this in the coming week, sorry for the delay and hassle on this.

73

Hello it’s me again. Thank you for the hard work, I emailed you last time, and you guys worked through it, and it’s working. I really appreciate that. I just wanna ask, I got the same error just today. Is there some kind of update on this? Until when is it going to happen? I can email you again for the proof.

74

I have been experiencing this same issue for the past few days. (For context: I am currently on the Tier 1 plan. I have been using the same token for my work without any prior issues, and my status is explicitly displayed as Tier 1 in Google AI Studio.)

I waited for about a week hoping it would be resolved, but since the issue persisted, I searched online and found this page.

I suspect there are many other users facing this exact problem who either haven’t identified the cause yet or couldn’t find the proper channel to report it.

A prompt resolution is urgently needed. While I am not sure if it is the exact same bug, looking at the history, it seems this issue has been persistently reported for about a month now. This appears to be a critical issue.

75

Can you please send me a DM? I am also facing issues with this.

76

Thanks for the update, Logan..appreciate it.

Just to add context from our side: our website is normally stable and functional, but over the past 24–48 hours we’ve been seeing consistent failures specifically with Gemini 3 Pro Image Preview (503/429), which is blocking image generation in production.

Looking forward to the updated experience you mentioned, thanks again for the transparency.

77

I’m in Free Tier and haven’t used the API keys, it’s the first request with the new key and get the 429 Issue.

Didn’t work for me the method of creating the Project from Google Console and Enabling Gemini API Service aka Generative Language API to then import it into Google AI Studio.

As seen in: API Quota Tier “Unavailable” despite active billing
———
Project details

Name: MacroLogTest

———
I have even created another Gmail account but it didn’t work either.

———-
Shell Input and Output

curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.0-flash:generateContent" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'X-goog-api-key: [CENSORED_API_KEY]' \
  -X POST \
  -d '{
    "contents": [
      {
        "parts": [
          {
            "text": "Explain how AI works in a few words"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }'
{
  "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/rate-limit. \n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.0-flash\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.0-flash\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_input_token_count, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.0-flash\nPlease retry in 27.416418769s.",
    "status": "RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED",
    "details": [
      {
        "@type": "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.googleapis.com/google.rpc.QuotaFailure",
        "violations": [
          {
            "quotaMetric": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests",
            "quotaId": "GenerateRequestsPerDayPerProjectPerModel-FreeTier",
            "quotaDimensions": {
              "model": "gemini-2.0-flash",
              "location": "global"
            }
          },
          {
            "quotaMetric": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests",
            "quotaId": "GenerateRequestsPerMinutePerProjectPerModel-FreeTier",
            "quotaDimensions": {
              "location": "global",
              "model": "gemini-2.0-flash"
            }
          },
          {
            "quotaMetric": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_input_token_count",
            "quotaId": "GenerateContentInputTokensPerModelPerMinute-FreeTier",
            "quotaDimensions": {
              "location": "global",
              "model": "gemini-2.0-flash"
            }
          }
        ]
      },
      {
        "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.RetryInfo",
        "retryDelay": "27s"
      }
    ]
  }
}
78

Hi all. I’ve been frustrated by this same issue and finally found this thread. I am on tier 1 billing and get this same 429 error repeatedly. Has there been any solution? Can anyone from Gemini help case by case?

79

Same issue. We need a fix ASAP. Please give us some updates. Thanks!