Gemini Live API - sessions exceeding 15 minute limit without compression?

Gemini API
,
1

Hi,

According to the https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/live-guide#context-window, sessions are limited to approximately 15 minutes without context window compression:

“Without compression, the practical session limit is approximately 15 minutes.”

However, I’m observing sessions significantly exceeding this limit in production. Looking at our Daily co (WebRTC) session logs, I see sessions lasting 27 minutes and even 51 minutes without compression enabled.

My setup:

  • Model: gemini-2.5-flash-native-audio-preview-12-2025
  • Using Pipecat framework with GeminiLiveLLMService
  • No context_window_compression parameter set

Questions:

  1. Is the 15-minute limit an approximation that varies based on conversation density (tokens per minute)?
  2. Has this limit changed with the newer native audio models?
  3. What happens when the 128k context window fills up - does the session gracefully end or error?

Any clarification on the actual behavior would be helpful for capacity planning.

Thanks!

3

Hi @sbenodiz, welcome to the community!

Yes, 15 min is an approximation. It really depends on the context window size, which is, as you mentioned, 128k tokens. Context Window

When the 128k context window fills up, it leads to the termination of the session. Session Lifetime

Thank you!

5

Oh thank you that useful! I am using contextWindowCompression , so I guess in that case it’s not relevant.