I created a new API key (also paid Tier 1) and tested via curl with the same result.
This is a Google-side misconfiguration or API bug.
Here are my console logs:
```
ian@Mac Desktop % API_KEY=“[REDACTED]”
MODEL=“gemini-2.5-flash-image”
ENDPOINT=“https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/${MODEL}:generateContent”
echo “ENDPOINT = $ENDPOINT”
curl -i -sS -X POST “${ENDPOINT}” \
-H “x-goog-api-key: ${API_KEY}” \
-H “Content-Type: application/json” \
-d '{
"contents": \[{
"parts": \[
{ "text": "Create a picture of a nano banana rocket in space" }
\]
}\],
"generationConfig": {
"imageConfig": {
"aspectRatio": "1:1"
}
}
}’
ENDPOINT = https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.5-flash-image:generateContent
HTTP/2 429
vary: X-Origin
vary: Referer
vary: Origin,Accept-Encoding
content-type: application/json; charset=UTF-8
date: Thu, 04 Dec 2025 23:30:52 GMT
server: scaffolding on HTTPServer2
x-xss-protection: 0
x-frame-options: SAMEORIGIN
x-content-type-options: nosniff
server-timing: gfet4t7; dur=72
alt-svc: h3=“:443”; ma=2592000,h3-29=“:443”; ma=2592000
accept-ranges: none
{
“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. \\n\* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_input_token_count, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image\\n\* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image\\n\* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image\\nPlease retry in 7.588829772s.",
"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": \[
{
"quotaMetric": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_input_token_count",
"quotaId": "GenerateContentInputTokensPerModelPerMinute-FreeTier",
"quotaDimensions": {
"location": "global",
"model": "gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image"
}
},
{
"quotaMetric": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests",
"quotaId": "GenerateRequestsPerMinutePerProjectPerModel-FreeTier",
"quotaDimensions": {
"location": "global",
"model": "gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image"
}
},
{
"quotaMetric": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests",
"quotaId": "GenerateRequestsPerDayPerProjectPerModel-FreeTier",
"quotaDimensions": {
"model": "gemini-2.5-flash-preview-image",
"location": "global"
}
}
\]
},
{
"@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.RetryInfo",
"retryDelay": "7s"
}
\]
}
}
```
