"Internal Error" after switching from Free to Paid Tier (Tier 1)

Google AI Studio
1

I am experiencing a persistent “Internal Error” in Google AI Studio as soon as I switch to my Paid Tier (Tier 1) API key. In the Free Tier, everything works perfectly. When using the Paid Key, stable models (like 1.5 Flash) occasionally work with high latency, while others (like Gemini 3 Flash Preview) fail 100% of the time.

What I have already tried/verified:

  • Project Setup: Created a completely new Google Cloud Project to avoid “auto-generated” project issues.

  • Billing: The project is actively linked to a verified billing account. No budget restrictions are blocking the usage (confirmed via GCP console).

  • API Activation: The “Generative Language API” has been deactivated and reactivated to refresh the billing status.

  • API Keys: Created fresh API keys directly within the new GCP project and imported them into AI Studio.

  • Safety Settings: All safety filters are set to “Block none”.

  • Quotas: GCP Console shows “Unlimited” for Tier 1, but logs show a high error rate (up to 66%) or simply “No data found” despite failed requests in AI Studio.

Observation: The error seems to be related to the backend validation of the Paid Tier. It feels like my account is “stuck” between tiers or being throttled by a silent security check.

Project ID: Region: Europe (Germany)

Could you please check if there is a manual verification hold or a synchronization issue on the backend for my Tier 1 access?

3 Likes
2

Same problem, bro! What are going on, Google???

1 Like
3

Really hoping they fix this ASAP! I’m in the US with the same issue.

4

I’m more frequently seeing people trying to use the paid tier. Did they cut the free tier’s limit so much?

In the past, I had to vibe-code 12-14 hours straight before hitting the limits.

How is it now? (I’m not touching my projects until they bring back the chat reset button)

5

The same thing, and as always – on the eve of an important presentation. Guys at Google – have you hopelessly lost the methodology for locally testing service innovations before implementing them in production?

6

Same here, also from Germany. Since 5 days having the same problems when switching to the paid key after free qouta limit is reached. Everything is connected correctly, im also paying for some requests which fail. 99% percent of all requests leading to a “error occured” message.

7

Same here! I am completely blocked right now. I just used up my free tier quota, but the moment I switch to my paid key, I get endless “Internal Errors” on my requests.

2 Likes