URGENT: Tier 3 Downgraded to Tier 1 Unexpectedly - Production Paused

Gemini API
1

Hi,

Our production environment is experienced completely down due to an unexpected billing tier downgrade. We suspect we are hitting the same background billing synchronization bug reported by other users.

Our Account Status:

  • Active Gemini API user since December 2025.
  • Consistent billing averaging around US$1,300 monthly.
  • Paid US$2,000 last month. Our account history clearly qualifies us for Tier 3.

The Issue:
Despite our clean payment history and having sufficient prepaid headroom, our project was suddenly downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 1.

As a result, we immediately hit the Tier 1 billing cap and our API was paused with the error: “You’ve reached the billing account tier cap and service has been paused.”

Interestingly, when we manually topped up (adding HK$3,000, equal to around US$385), the UI briefly showed us back at Tier 3. But after an hour, the backend sync ran again and forcefully dragged us back down to Tier 1, pausing our service once more. Once again, we manually topped up (HK$100, equal to around US$13). We back at Tier 3 again. Now, the API is working, but I don’t know when it will downgrade to Tier 1 again.

Could an admin please look into this urgently?

Thank you so much for your help!

2

Similar issue here! We’ve been using Gemini API for a long time on Tier 3, and suddenly, without any spike and way below the monthly cap, we’ve got a “Action Required: Your Gemini API service is paused” mail, with requests hitting 429.

Please fix asap!

3

I received the same email a few days ago. However, the API did not downgrade to Tier 1 at that time. The API key suddenly downgraded from Tier 3 to Tier 1 today. If I manually make a payment, the API key will temporarily restore to Tier 3 again. However, Tier 3 will only last for 1-2 hours before it becomes Tier 1 again.