URGENT: AI Studio prepay balance dropped from -₩100,866 to ₩0 overnight; API returning 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED

Gemini API
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1

Hello,

My production Gemini API calls are failing today due to what appears to be a severe billing synchronization bug between Google Cloud and Google AI Studio. My project has been incorrectly downgraded from Tier 2 to Tier 1.

The Issue:

Yesterday, my Google AI Studio Prepay dashboard correctly showed a credit balance of -₩100,866.

Today, that balance suddenly reads as ₩0, and my “View transactions” button is disabled. Between yesterday and today, my actual API usage was less than ₩7,000, so the funds were not legitimately depleted.

Meanwhile, my Google Cloud Postpay transaction ledger still confirms I have an active overpayment credit of -₩100,866.

Because AI Studio has suddenly lost sync with this balance, the same API key that worked yesterday is now throwing this exact error:

429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. {'error': {'code': 429, 'message': 'Your prepayment credits are depleted. Please go to AI Studio at https://ai.studio/projects to manage your project and billing. Learn more at https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing#prepay. ', 'status': 'RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED'}}. Falling back to inlined prefix (no cache discount).

Request: > Could you please investigate this sync issue, restore AI Studio’s access to my existing credit balance, and reinstate my paid tier so my application can come back online? If these funds need to be manually transferred from the Postpay bucket to the Prepay bucket due to the recent billing migration, please process that transfer.

Account Details:

  • Project ID: gen-lang-client-01618008..

  • Project Number: 8142257096..

  • Billing Account ID: 01D901-7A7346-CE4..

I have screenshots of the Cloud Billing ledger confirming the -₩100,866 credit if needed. Thank you for your prompt assistance!

2

Hi,

Thank you for sharing this.
I am taking a look into it.

I have DM’d you for more details.

3

I am also facing a similar issue with my profile, can you please help me too? My balance suddently dropped to 0 and the api key is throwing “resource depleted” errors.

4

Hi Mustan, can you please DM me as well? Same error message.

5

Same issue, and Google’s own Cloud Billing support has now CONFIRMED it in
writing. After the recent AI Studio billing migration, my prepaid credit
(~R$198, paid by bank transfer — NOT consumed by usage) did not sync to the
AI Studio Prepay bucket, which now shows R$0.00. All my Gemini API keys fail
with: 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED “Your prepayment credits are depleted.”

Quote from the Google Cloud Billing support assistant: “the credit balance
from your Cloud Billing account was not synced correctly with the AI Studio
prepay bucket, which is why your API calls are failing… I don’t have the
tools to transfer funds or resolve issues within the AI Studio platform.”

So Cloud Billing confirms the bug but says only the AI Studio team can fix it.
Could a Google AI Studio staff member please restore/sync the prepay balance?
This is NOT a refund request — the credit was paid and never consumed, it was
detached by the migration. Billing account ID: 01C4D6-0D2F2A-767… Happy to
share more details via PM.

6

Hi @Mustan_lokhand We are having a similar issue where it seems our credits are not being consumed, we are getting the 429 error code and this error on the AI Studio “You’ve reached the billing account tier cap and service has been paused.” Even though we have credits. It also seems to be stuck on Tier 1 when it should have been upgraded to tier 2.

7

Hi

Can you DM me your project ID ?