Gemini API New Account Free Tier Immediately Returns 429 Error

Gemini API
,
1

Using a brand new Google account to apply for Gemini API free service, but getting immediate 429 quota exceeded errors when calling image generation endpoints, even with very low request frequency.

Environment

Brand new Google account with fresh API key
Using free tier service
Very low call frequency (1-2 requests per minute)

Code Sample

import aiohttp
import json

async def call_gemini_api(api_key, prompt):
url = “https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.5-flash-image-preview:generateContent”

headers = {
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'x-goog-api-key': api_key
}

request_data = {
    "contents": [{
        "parts": [{
            "text": f"Create and generate an image: {prompt}. Return the generated image."
        }]
    }],
    "generationConfig": {
        "temperature": 0.3,
        "maxOutputTokens": 8192
    }
}

async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
    async with session.post(url, headers=headers, json=request_data, timeout=60) as response:
        response_text = await response.text()
        print(f"Status: {response.status}")
        print(f"Response: {response_text}")
        
        if response.status == 429:
            print("❌ Quota exceeded error")
            return None

Error Response

Status: 429
Response: {
“error”: {
“code”: 429,
“message”: “Quota exceeded for aiplatform.googleapis.com/generate_requests”,
“status”: “RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED”
}
}

Free quota: What should be the free quota for new accounts? Why does the first call return 429?
Quota reset: How often does the free quota reset?
Solutions: Has anyone encountered similar issues? How did you solve it?
Tried multiple new API keys and all have the same problem. Feels like account or IP-level restrictions.

3

@Kien_Truong_Trung did you solve the problem?

5

Hello,

Welcome to the Forum!

This error suggests that you may be exceeding your quota limits. I recommend checking your input token size and retrying once the quota has been replenished.

If the issue persists, could you please share more details about your input specifically where you are receiving this message, whether you consistently observe the error, and if it starts occurring after a specific time? These details will help us analyze the issue more effectively.

7

Yes same issue I am facing evening sending a normal Hii message, i even check at multiple places like Google cloud console, AI studio (I see there at the quota tier column it’s showing Unavailable the free tier is not showing) i tried this multiple accounts like in my Old account it’s showing free tier but in new project or new Google account is showing unavailable & I can’t even make a single request with this new account

1 Like
8

I also encounter the problem :429 all the time.

10

I’m experiencing the same issue. My free-tier API key for Gemini worked fine for a while, but today I started getting the following error:

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.', 'status': 'RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED'}}

Even after waiting for a week, the same error still occurs when I call the API again.
In AI Studio, the “Past 90 days” API usage shows “No data”, even though I definitely made API calls about two weeks ago.

Has my API key been restricted or suspended by Gemini?