Tier 3 repeatedly reverts to Tier 1 every few hours — production API keeps getting blocked

Gemini API
1

Title: Tier 3 repeatedly reverts to Tier 1 every few hours — production API keeps getting blocked

My Gemini API billing account has a serious recurring billing tier issue that is now causing repeated production outages.

Originally, the account was operating on Tier 3. At first, it occasionally reverted from Tier 3 to Tier 1. However, the problem has become dramatically worse.

It is now happening repeatedly, sometimes within only a few hours.

The cycle is approximately this:

  1. My account unexpectedly reverts from Tier 3 to Tier 1.
  2. The Tier 1 billing account cap is immediately hit and my production Gemini API usage is blocked.
  3. I submit a Billing Account Spend Cap Increase request / contact support.
  4. After approximately 2–3 hours, Tier 3 is restored and the API starts working again.
  5. Sometimes only about an hour later, the account automatically reverts back to Tier 1 again.
  6. Production stops again and I have to repeat the entire process.

This has now happened approximately 7–8 times.

This clearly does not appear to be a normal tier eligibility issue anymore. Tier 3 is successfully restored, works correctly, and is then removed again by the automated system.

There is also clear evidence in the billing history that this account previously operated above Tier 1. My monthly Gemini API spend is already higher than the Tier 1 monthly spend cap. If this account had actually remained on Tier 1 for the entire month, this level of usage would not have been possible.

The repeated downgrade is causing real production outages. I cannot operate production servers where every few hours Gemini API may suddenly stop working, after which I have to submit another request, wait several hours for Tier 3 to be restored, and then potentially have it disappear again shortly afterward.

I am not requesting another temporary Tier 3 restoration.

I am asking for this issue to be escalated to the Gemini API billing/tiering engineering team and for the underlying cause of the repeated automatic Tier 3 → Tier 1 downgrade to be investigated and permanently fixed.

Please let me know what information you need from me privately (Billing Account ID, Project ID/Number, screenshots, billing history, previous requests, etc.).

This is affecting a production service and has now become a recurring reliability issue rather than a one-time billing problem.

2

Hello @Rajnandini_Bairagi ,

Sincere apologies for this issue.

Please use this form to report sudden tier downgrades, our team will look into it: Gemini API Tier Downgrade Report Form

3

How long exactly does it take for your team to look into our forms ? I think this problem is taken as a minor problem when it’s causing major production outage for all your loyal customers.

4

Back to back production outages for us and going through the community posts seems like a common pattern to most paying customers. This needs to be officially acknowledged and fixed permanently ASAP!

5

The teams are working on a fix.

In the interim please use the form shared by Sai Deepika to keep letting us know about the specific project ids that are facing the issue.

The issue should have been already resolved for the entries that have been filled so far.