How to figure out cost drivers?

Google AI Studio
1

I received a surprise bill from Google Cloud, over $800! When I went to investigate, it was impossible to trace back the reasons for the costs. Was it a single app? Was a key somehow exfiltrated?

Probably, if I were an enterprise and had someone dedicated/specialized in working with the Cloud Platform, this would be fine. But it does reveal Ai Studio as an inadequate hobbyist platform.

In the meantime, I’ve deleted every key associated with the project. I should just shut everything running in GCP down.

The bummer is, I used to be a huge evangelist for AI Studio as a way not just to build stuff but to learn about building stuff.

2

Hello @Joshua_Herzig-Marx ,
Google Cloud Billing aggregates Gemini API usage at the GCP Project level rather than per API key or application. You have 2 options to avoid such surprises:

For better visibility in Google Cloud Billing:

  • Project Isolation: Create a separate GCP project per app to view charges per app.
  • Billing Support: Contact Google Cloud Billing Support to review specific charges.

For better control, use Prepaid Billing:

  • Setup prepay in Google AI Studio and set spend caps if enabling auto-reload; API requests stop automatically when the balance reaches $0.