# Gemini API stuck on free-tier 429 despite confirmed Tier 1 Prepay billing (3+ days)

**URL:** <https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/gemini-api-stuck-on-free-tier-429-despite-confirmed-tier-1-prepay-billing-3-days/182155>\
**Category:** Gemini API\
**Tags:** billing\
**Created:** [September 9, 2026, 9:02am UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/gemini-api-stuck-on-free-tier-429-despite-confirmed-tier-1-prepay-billing-3-days/182155 "2026-09-09T09:02:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![H\_ng\_H\_nh\_V\_ng\_Th](https://d1dlmcr85iqnpo.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.ai.google.dev/h_ng_h_nh_v_ng_th/32/148449_2.png) [@H\_ng\_H\_nh\_V\_ng\_Th](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/u/H_ng_H_nh_V_ng_Th)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 9:02am UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/gemini-api-stuck-on-free-tier-429-despite-confirmed-tier-1-prepay-billing-3-days/182155/1 "2026-09-09T09:02:48Z")

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Project: gen-lang-client-0914656621

My billing account (My Billing Account 1, ID 010DCF-6E3D95-DA5C..) was  
upgraded from Free Trial to a Paid account on Sep 7, 2026 (confirmed in  
Cloud Billing Console account details). It shows Tier 1 Prepay status with  
a real, non-trial credit balance of 500,000 VND (charged via Visa card,  
confirmed by my bank). The ai.dev/rate-limit dashboard confirms Tier 1 for  
this project (500 RPM / 2,000 RPD for Nano Banana / gemini-2.5-flash-image).

Despite all of this, every generateContent call to gemini-2.5-flash-image  
still returns 429 RESOURCE\_EXHAUSTED with free-tier quota (limit: 0),  
continuously for over 3 days now:

Endpoint: POST [https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.5-flash-image:generateContent](https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.5-flash-image:generateContent)  
Body: {“contents”: [{“parts”: [{“text”: “…”}]}], “generationConfig”: {“responseModalities”: [“IMAGE”]}}

Error:  
{  
“error”: {  
“code”: 429,  
“message”: “…Quota exceeded for metric: [generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate\_content\_free\_tier\_requests](http://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests), limit: 0, model: gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image…”,  
“status”: “RESOURCE\_EXHAUSTED”  
}  
}

I opened a Google Cloud Billing support case (#75232607) which was closed  
with a generic answer and redirected to “technical team,” but my current  
support plan doesn’t allow creating a Technical case for this product. Has  
anyone else hit this billing/quota sync bug, or does a Google team member  
here have visibility into why this project’s paid tier isn’t being  
recognized by the quota enforcement layer?

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mahesh\_Sutar](https://d1dlmcr85iqnpo.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.ai.google.dev/mahesh_sutar/32/31644_2.png) [@Mahesh\_Sutar](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/u/Mahesh_Sutar)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/gemini-api-stuck-on-free-tier-429-despite-confirmed-tier-1-prepay-billing-3-days/182155/2 "2026-09-09T10:41:59Z")

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Hello @H_ng_H_nh_V_ng_Th ,

If you’re receiving 429’s and have checked no [rate limit](https://aistudio.google.com/rate-limit) was breached for the period, please add your details to [this form](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIHhj38oNf5an12JSu2SK4bQY9V6HrOc6g76LC0wKM13WiXw/viewform?usp=header) & we’ll check it out.

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**Author:** ![edescamps](https://d1dlmcr85iqnpo.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/discuss.ai.google.dev/edescamps/32/151739_2.png) [@edescamps](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/u/edescamps)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2026, 11:58pm UTC](https://discuss.ai.google.dev/t/gemini-api-stuck-on-free-tier-429-despite-confirmed-tier-1-prepay-billing-3-days/182155/3 "2026-09-21T23:58:25Z")

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Hello. How can some one request help in the case where a spend limit was reached in the current billing period, but have since met all requirements for a Tier increase?

Thank you.