# Critical Tier 1 (Prepaid) Error: 404 Not Found for Gemini 1.5 Flash on both v1 and v1beta

**URL:** <https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/critical-tier-1-prepaid-error-404-not-found-for-gemini-1-5-flash-on-both-v1-and-v1beta/143486>\
**Category:** Gemini API\
**Tags:** gemini-flash\
**Created:** [May 4, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/critical-tier-1-prepaid-error-404-not-found-for-gemini-1-5-flash-on-both-v1-and-v1beta/143486 "2026-05-04T14:26:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Desi\_Garcia](https://d1dlmcr85iqnpo.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.ai.google.dev/desi_garcia/32/119740_2.png) [@Desi\_Garcia](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/u/Desi_Garcia)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 2:26pm UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/critical-tier-1-prepaid-error-404-not-found-for-gemini-1-5-flash-on-both-v1-and-v1beta/143486/1 "2026-05-04T14:26:45Z")

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Project ID: [Gembot]

Billing Status: Prepaid (Tier 1) - $25.00 Balance Confirmed.

​Description of Issue:

My API calls are consistently failing with a 404 Not Found error when using a Tier 1 (Prepaid) API Key. This occurs despite having a confirmed balance and a correctly linked billing account.

​Tested Endpoints & Models:

​Models: gemini-1.5-flash, gemini-1.5-flash-latest, gemini-flash-latest.

​API Versions Tested:

​[https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1/](https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1/) (Failed with 404)

​[https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/](https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/) (Failed with 404)

​Authentication Methods: Tested via URL parameter (?key=) and Header (X-goog-api-key).

​Key Comparison:

​Free Tier Key: Works perfectly using the exact same code and endpoints.

​Tier 1 (Prepaid) Key: Returns: “message”: “models/gemini-1.5-flash is not found for API version v1, or is not supported for generateContent.”

​Troubleshooting Steps Taken:

​Verified that the project is in “Pay-as-you-go” mode in AI Studio.

​Confirmed the API Key is active and restricted to the correct project.

​Forced the use of the production v1 endpoint to rule out beta-only issues, with no success.

​Requested Action:

Please synchronize my Tier 1 quota across your production clusters. It appears that the billing status is not being propagated to the API Gateway, preventing access to production-grade models for this paid account.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mustan\_lokhand](https://d1dlmcr85iqnpo.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.ai.google.dev/mustan_lokhand/32/86726_2.png) [@Mustan\_lokhand](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/u/Mustan_lokhand)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 12:44am UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/critical-tier-1-prepaid-error-404-not-found-for-gemini-1-5-flash-on-both-v1-and-v1beta/143486/2 "2026-05-12T00:44:47Z")

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Hi

Gemini-1.5-flash is a deprecated model and would not be supported

gemini-flash-latest is supported on /v1beta, are you getting a 404 on this endpoint as well ?