Gemini API billing issue: downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 1 despite no failed payments

Google AI Studio
1

Hi,

I’m having an issue with my Gemini API billing tier and I’m hoping someone can help me understand what is happening.

My account was previously Tier 3, but it has now been downgraded to Tier 1.

As far as I can see, there have been no failed, declined, invalidated, or rejected payments on my Google Cloud Billing account.

My billing account uses automatic postpaid payments. Google currently shows:

  • Automatic payment threshold: €1,000

  • When the balance reaches €1,000, Google charges it automatically.

  • Otherwise, the accumulated balance is charged on the 1st of each month.

The problem is that Gemini API currently limits my account to approximately $250 of monthly spend at Tier 1.

This creates what seems to be an impossible situation:

Tier 1 spend limit: ~$250 → Automatic payment threshold: €1,000

I cannot reach the €1,000 automatic payment threshold because Gemini stops me from spending after approximately $250.

At the same time, if progression to a higher tier depends on completed payments, I cannot generate the payment required to progress because the billing threshold is much higher than the Gemini Tier 1 spending limit.

I also cannot manually reduce Google’s €1,000 automatic payment threshold.

So I’m effectively stuck in Tier 1 despite previously being Tier 3 and having no failed or rejected payments.

My questions are:

  1. Why was my account downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 1 if there have been no failed or rejected payments?

  2. How am I supposed to progress from Tier 1 if the spending limit is ~$250 but Google’s automatic payment threshold is €1,000?

  3. Does Gemini tier eligibility consider actual accumulated usage/spend, or only payments that have already been processed?

  4. Can I make a manual payment on my postpaid Google Cloud Billing account to have that payment recognized by Gemini?

  5. Is there any way to request that Google lower my automatic payment threshold from €1,000?

  6. Since my account was already Tier 3, can my previous tier be restored instead of requiring me to progress through the tiers again?

  7. Could this be a synchronization issue between Google Cloud Billing and Google AI Studio?

At the moment this seems like a catch-22: I need to make payments to progress to a higher tier, but Gemini prevents me from spending enough to trigger Google’s automatic payment.

This is significantly affecting my API usage, so I would really appreciate clarification or assistance from the Gemini/Google AI team.

Thanks!

2

Sorry for this experience, is this issue still there? If yes, can you please DM me with your project id/ number?

3

I have DMed you with our projects, please look into them. Thanks

4

It happened with my billing account today as well. It was unexpectedly downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 1, causing a production disruption.

This bug has happened a few times before, a few months ago. Each time, it automatically resolved itself after a few hours. It happened again last week, and now the bug is back today.

Please investigate this issue, as every occurrence causes disruption to production.

I’ve DM’ed you my project and billing account IDs. Please take a look.

5

Happens to me every 2-3 days. Usually will back to Tier 3 after I complete another payment. But this time not happened.

Project: 7055198632..

6

It has happened to us too, we are always tier 2, it downgraded us to tier 1 without warning, it upgraded us back to tier 2 (they even sent us an email confirming it) a few days ago and now tier 1 again

7

Same issue here
Got downgraded twice in 24h from T3 to T1.
This is getting really annying.

8

Sincere apologies for this issue.

All - Please use this form to report sudden tier downgrades, our team will look into it: Gemini API Tier Downgrade Report Form

9

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10

Same thing just happened to me as well. Decreased from tier 3 to tier 1. Already filled out a from for “Gemini API Quota and Billing Cap Increase Request”.

11

Same here, from T2 to T1. It happened at least once a day in the last few days.

12

I also want to add that we have submitted several support/escalation forms throughout this morning, explaining the situation and its impact on our production systems.

Unfortunately, several hours later, we are still in exactly the same situation, with our critical processes affected and no effective solution or workaround.

This is particularly concerning because this is not a development or testing environment. These are production systems used by companies that depend on the Gemini API for critical business processes.

We have followed the available support channels, submitted multiple forms, and reported the issue here, but our production remains affected by something we cannot resolve from our side.

At this point, we urgently need someone from Google to escalate this as a production-impacting incident and provide an actionable solution.

It cannot be acceptable for multiple companies to have critical production processes stopped or severely limited for hours because of an internal Google billing/tier issue, while having no mechanism to resolve it themselves.

13

Filled out the form. The same thing happened again today.

My billing account has been moving back and forth between Tier 3 and Tier 1, and each time, it causes service disruptions to our production workload.

Hope Google can figure this out soon.

14

Hi everyone,

I am experiencing the known issue where my Google AI Studio account has been incorrectly downgraded from Tier 2 (Pay-as-you-go) to Tier 1.

I have verified my Google Cloud Console, and my billing account is fully active and properly linked to the project. However, AI Studio still restricts me to the Free tier quotas. This bug is completely blocking my workflow right now, as I am in the middle of processing a 40-chapter audiobook project and I absolutely need the Tier 2 quotas to run my scripts.

Could an engineer please look into this and manually re-sync my tier status?

Here is my Google Cloud Project ID: gen-lang-client-08369*****

Thank you in advance for your help!

15

All the entries that were made to the form so far should have been fixed now. Please let me know if it isn’t.

For newer sudden tier downgrade, please continue filling the form.

Apologies again for this issue!