Paid Tier 1 Gemini API project is still being classified as Free Tier – 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED

Gemini API
1

Hello Gemini API Team,

My Gemini API project is already showing Tier 1 in Google AI Studio and is linked to an active paid billing account.

However, requests from Cline repeatedly fail with HTTP 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED.

The important part of the error is:

Quota metric:

generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests

Quota ID:
GenerateRequestsPerDayPerProjectPerModel-FreeTier

Quota value:
20

Model:
gemini-3.5-flash

This is unexpected because Google AI Studio clearly shows my project as Tier 1.

What I have already verified:

  1. Google AI Studio shows Tier 1.
  2. An active billing account is linked.
  3. I have made a $10 payment.
  4. The AI Studio rate-limit dashboard shows Tier 1 limits.
  5. A direct REST API test from PowerShell has successfully returned a Gemini response.
  6. Cline sometimes completes a very small connection test, but subsequent requests again receive the Free Tier 429 error.
  7. Even a tiny Cline task that only reads client/pubspec.yaml fails with the same Free Tier quota:
    generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 20.
  8. I replaced the API key in Cline and restarted VS Code, but the problem persists.

Could you please check whether my project is incorrectly mapped to Free Tier quotas on the Gemini API backend and correct the Tier 1 quota mapping?

I can provide my Project ID, API Keys page screenshot, billing screenshot, rate-limit screenshot, and complete 429 response privately if required.

Thank you.

2

Hello @Ripa_Biswas ,

I have DM’ed you for more details.