Hello,
I’m experiencing the same billing sync issue reported by other developers
recently. I added €10,00 in prepay credits on August 13, 2026, and the
transaction shows up correctly on the Billing page. However, my project’s
Billing Tier is still stuck on “Free trial”, and clicking “Activate billing”
returns:
“Error during billing setup”
No further detail is shown.
Details:
Project ID: gen-lang-client-00391803..
Billing Account ID: 01F8BE-5712C1-83D6..
Prepay amount: €10,00
Date added: August 13, 2026
The prepaid balance is confirmed on the Billing/Transactions page, but the
project is not being upgraded off the Free tier. This matches several other
threads reporting the same “Error during billing setup” sync mismatch between
Cloud Billing and AI Studio’s prepayment system.
Could someone please manually sync my project status?
Thank you.
Hello,
I am experiencing the same Gemini API billing synchronization issue.
Project:
Default Gemini Project
Project ID:
gen-lang-client-07296238..
Billing account:
01BEF7-1BB308-3CC5..
Billing plan:
Prepay
Prepaid credits:
€10.00 added on August 25, 2026
The project is already linked to the billing account in Google Cloud Console.
However, Google AI Studio still shows:
Free tier
When I click “Activate billing”, I get:
“Error during billing setup”
The Rate Limit page also still shows Free Tier limits.
Could you please manually synchronize/refresh the Gemini API billing status for this project and upgrade it to the appropriate Paid Tier?
Thank you.
Hello @lucianonp2 , @efstratios_gkaidatzi
Can you share more details about when you encounter “Error during billing setup”? Is this displayed immediately upon clicking “Activate billing” in AI Studio, or does it occur after selecting a billing account? Would it be possible for you to share a screenshot of the error screen?
Hello,
I am experiencing the same Gemini API billing synchronization issue.
My AI Studio project is still being treated as Free Tier even though:
- Google Cloud billing account: Paid / active
- AI Studio Prepay balance: ₹1,000
- The ₹1,000 payment appears successfully in AI Studio Billing
- Project: Compliance policy
- Project ID: gen-lang-client-04170993..
When I click “Set up billing” / “Activate billing” in AI Studio, I get:
“Setup incomplete — To finish setting up Google Cloud billing account, please make a prepayment in the Google Cloud billing section.”
However, Google Cloud already shows the billing account as a Paid account.
I tested the API directly with the API key. The key authenticates successfully, but generation returns:
429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED
Quota ID:
GenerateRequestsPerDayPerModel-FreeTier
This confirms that the project is still receiving Free Tier quota despite the active billing account and ₹1,000 Prepay balance.
Could you please check the billing/tier synchronization for this project and upgrade it to the appropriate Paid Tier?
Thank you.
