The real question is. Will it come back. If it’s a yes then when will it come back? Most of us rely on “pro-2.5 free” and now that it’s gone most of us are in shambles. So could we get that answer? will it come back?
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In my opinion, Google doesn’t understand that the audience they attracted with free plans, which forced developers to actively use these plans in their projects, cannot be forced to connect to billing.
If it weren’t for free plans, all these developers would be working on other projects, and secondly, they would be using the ChatGPT API.
I see it this way: Google actively used free plans to train its Gemini 3. And once the job was done, they simply jettisoned all the developers who helped them with it.
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Another important point.
Connecting your API key to Google billing for the average user. Does anyone on the Google team understand how problematic and complicated this is from the average user’s perspective?
You’ve overcomplicated the entire project creation and billing process, making it difficult for even the developer to navigate. And for the average user for whom this app is being developed and who needs to obtain their own API key and link it to billing, this is simply impossible.
No app developed using free plans will make it to production, because everyone understands that forcing users to go through the hassle of creating Google billing is impossible.
Not every app is released ready for use, where the developer uses their own keys and billing.
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You are not answering anything. We are asking, will Gemini 2.5 pro return in free tier. Not just the stability of free tier. As its still showed as free of charge in the Gemini Developer API pricing page, but there’s no way to access it in free tier currency. My entire project is forced to a halt because of the sudden changes.
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YES 
YES YES YES
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The thing is, most developers really cannot afford a paid tier, especially those outside US, because of Dollar values. Here in Brazil, it’s 5x more expensive.
Regarding what you mentioned about the high demand, it doesn’t make much sense, Gemini ALWAYS had a high demand on its models. Even as of now, Flash 2.5 free tier is still showing Overload messages. Even Paid users for Pro 2.5 are reporting the same. While the dev team thought of a solution, instead it created a snowball of issues, and the only ones who are mainly going to be affected, are US, the users.
- No announcements when this happened, not even an email notice. Many people already afraid of the consequences from this;
- No communication on when this is gonna be fixed, or even IF this is permanent, which is unfortunately the worst scenario;
- User base is starting to migrate to other services, as i’ve been seeing some on social media reporting after this scandal;
While we understand it costs money to operate this, what exactly is Google, and the Gemini API project losing with users using a Free Tier AI API to build projects? I’m not trying to be unreasonable, but with this kind of response, as a Gemini user, and costumer of Google services, it makes me skeptical of keeping using Gemini again.
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I expected this, free tier was good while it lasts.
Like in Chat Bot/RAG flow, besides OpenAI; Gemini API is an option for me just because of free tier so I could try freely, even if it’s buggy. If not then I will just focus on OpenAI most company will use it anyway.
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A reputation takes years to build and only moments to destroy. If there are Google staff monitoring this thread, consider sending this message upstream.
I don’t expect a free lunch.
But what Google have done here is dirty. Give a couple of weeks’ warning. Don’t just pull the plug silently and then come up nonsense post-justifications.
Were people abusing the free tier? If so then SAY that.
So, I use aistudio. But now I don’t know if it will be running the next day. How about my gmail?
Now my brain has associated Google with this feeling of wavering uncertainty.
Be a little graceful in your actions. If only out of well-calculated self-interest.
Poor show. I expected better from you people.
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This is a huge struggle I found that too. Who is gonna use your app when thay have to manualy configure its api key first, create project in google cloud console / google ai studio etc. It’s way to complicated for avarege Joe. Google must do something with it. Not everyone use google services also. Gemini is great for its multimodal purposes - none is eve close right now.
Don’t even imagine that Google employees will escalate these issues.
Just like before, when I reported problems to Google’s official customer service by phone and email, the support staff openly replied on the phone:
If you have any issues,
you can fill out the feedback form.
The relevant team might read it,
but there will be no reply and no action!
And you shouldn’t have any expectations of Google.
This is not defamation — it’s simply the truth!!
Has anyone had their account restored yet, or will this situation continue indefinitely? It’s been almost a week and no one has replied to my emails. Is this how Google employees work? Everyone tells me to message them, but they just ignore me.
I think it’s time to find another solution 
Well what a surprise. Today aistudio, after a very light use (< 10% my usual), is reporting:
You are out of free generations.
You can continue by using your own paid API key.
Again, unheralded. No top-banner saying “We’re reducing our free-tier allowance on $DATE, click for info”
Nope. Just a surrepticious dial-down.
Is it RAM prices? Are Google struggling financially? New management? Elon Musk with a chainsaw?
aistudio has long been recognized by AI devs around me as a Last Bastion of freely available AI Excellence.
What a pity to hamstring it. Well, at least it’s something nonzero.
But again, it is the MANNER in which this is done – this is what has lost my trust.
And what does the Whale care for the trust of a plankton?
But maybe the other plankton will respond similarly, and the Whale may come to suffer the consequences of its actions.
:/
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I searched for this topic on YouTube, but found nothing. Is there a way to spread awareness about this issue on YouTube?
This will only lead to everyone switching to ChatGPT.
They won’t buy a Google subscription on principle.
If they have to choose which paid plan to choose, it’s obvious who will win.
You say, “You can use the paid tier for now to access 2.5 Pro still!”, but the paid tier 1 returns a 429 error!! It’s unusable! I’ve pushed my project into production and am getting a 429 error, even though no limits have been reached! How is this possible?! Is it really possible to present everything so beautifully to sell the product, and then, when it comes to providing the service, simply silently sabotage it?
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What are the limits for the paid tier 1?
I’ve been looking for them for a while.
I’m willing to use the paid tier, but I need to know what I am paying for, or how much it will cost me.
The whole problem is that what they’ve written isn’t being followed. The quotas for Tier 1 are good and sufficient, but in reality, they’re not being followed, and it’s impossible to work with Gemini API.
well, free tier has access to gemini 3 flash preview now. so all good!
what is the limit for flash on free tier btw
Limit Free tier: If you using ‘Flash Models’
gemini-2.5-flash: 5 RPM, 250K TPM, 20 RPD
gemini-3.0-flash: Same as 2.5 flash.
Eh. I really hoped they, added back Gemini-1.5-pro or the Gemini-2.5-pro in ‘Free-tier’, It’s was better making my project with 100 RPD was better, than 20 RPD when they nerfed by alot.
Without any error around few months before The Error 429 when can’t used it in a weeks. I’m just dissapointment for now, moving on ChatGPT. (And I’m don’t have that money much ‘per month’, soo not gonna buy Pro Tier even same Errors going give, or ‘Limit reached’.)