Ultra account still rate-limited in Google AI Studio during solo use; refund requested

Google AI Studio
1

I am using Google AI Ultra, and Google AI Studio shows my account as ULTRA, but I am still receiving:

You've reached your rate limit. Please try again later.

The UI also tells me I have reached my quota for the day and suggests upgrading or linking an API key. This does not make sense to me because I already purchased Google AI Ultra, and I am a solo user, not sharing the account with a team.

The workflow is OSINT / research-oriented. In this workflow, the model often does not return accurate or complete information on the first attempt, so I need to run more checks and use more tokens. That makes the current Google AI Studio limits extremely inefficient. I upgraded because I expected Ultra-level usable limits, but I am still blocked by rate limits during ordinary solo use.

This is especially painful because I am paying in two places:

  • Google AI Ultra subscription
  • Separate Gemini API usage through Google Cloud

Google Cloud billing already shows meaningful Gemini API charges for the current month, and I do not have additional budget to keep paying API charges while also paying for Ultra if AI Studio remains blocked by rate limits.

I have screenshots showing:

  • Google AI Studio account marked ULTRA while showing the rate-limit message
  • Google Cloud Billing showing Gemini API spend and forecasted monthly cost
  • Google Cloud Credits showing used/remaining credits

I am not posting those screenshots publicly because they contain account/project/billing identifiers, but I am providing them to Google support in a private refund request.

Questions:

  1. Does Google AI Ultra actually increase Google AI Studio usage limits?
  2. If yes, why is a solo Ultra user still hitting You've reached your rate limit in AI Studio?
  3. Are AI Studio limits completely separate from both Ultra and paid Gemini API billing?
  4. If Ultra does not materially help AI Studio usage, what is the correct refund/support path?

I am requesting a refund of the Google AI Ultra subscription through Google support / Google Play and asking that the refund be returned to Google Play balance because the subscription was purchased with Google Play balance.