Dear Team,
I’m an individual user (exclusively using the AI Studio Playground chat environment, since I lack sufficient coding abilities and don’t feel comfortable with delegating tasks to AI models in cases where I am not able to reliably verify if done properly). My API key was generated via AI Studio, linked to my bank account in May 2026, and until yesterday this worked fine: The amount due was successfully debited from my bank account on a monthly basis (postpay).
Yesterday I was notified that Google AI Studio users would need to switch from postpay to prepaid. Google noted during the switch that this cannot be undone by the user — but I had no way of knowing it would effectively lock me out of my API key. I also didn’t know that I would have until October to do this, because the relevant email arrived only after I had already made the switch.
What happens now:
-
When I try to use a paid model (e.g.,
gemini-3.1-flash-image, which has no free tier), I get an error saying my prepaid credit is exhausted, and I should buy credit or switch to a project in a different billing account. (German UI; paraphrased.) -
When I then try to buy prepaid credit using my verified bank account (SEPA direct debit) — the exact same account that was successfully used for postpay billing before the switch — I get:
“This payment method cannot be used. Please select a different payment method and try again. [OR_PMCR_48]”
-
A similar error also appears when I try a prepaid debit card that has sufficient balance on it.
So: the billing account demands prepaid credit, but rejects every payment method I have – including one that Google itself had already verified and charged successfully under postpay.
Why this matters to me: It’s not only the image models. I can no longer use Gemini 2.5 Pro, 2.5 Flash, and 2.5 Flash Lite either. Google suggests Gemini 3.x models as alternatives, but for most of my use cases they aren’t substitutes: in my experience, all the Gemini 3.x models are significantly less reliable than the 2.5 generation, and the extra intelligence doesn’t help me if the reliability drops. So restoring access to the 2.5 models matters even more than the image models.
Please help me:
- Is there any way – via support, if not self-service – to revert my billing account from prepaid back to postpay, given that postpay worked flawlessly with the same bank account?
- If reverting is impossible: How can I top up prepaid credit when both SEPA direct debit and a funded prepaid debit card are rejected? My bank won’t issue me a standard credit card because I live on state benefits (i.e., insufficient creditworthiness – even though I have no debt and never have had).
- Alternatively: Can I attach my project to a new billing account, and can such a new account still be set up as postpay?
I’m not planning to use autonomous agents; mainly need modest, hobby-scale access restored. Any help or pointers would be much appreciated.
Sincerely,
Nervli
(Transparency Notice: A Claude model helped me write this. I’m not a native English speaker.)