I am on a paid (tier 1) account. But as of yesterday I have been hitting a 429 ‘resource exhausted’ error on the basis that I have exceeded my quota for ‘free tier’ requests. I am getting this error using gemini-2.5-flash, gemini-2.5-pro, and gemini-3-pro-preview. Error code pasted below.
I have checked that my billing account is properly set up (it is), and that my project is correctly linked to that account (it is). I have tried setting up new projects and generating the API key from the main Google Cloud console (not AI Studio), but each time I hit the same problem.
The service is presently unusable. I tried the Google Cloud support, but they could not assist. I escalated it through to a ‘human’, and they could also not help. Could someone please help? It seems as though this is a very common issue at the moment.
I am also concerned that the privacy policies of the paid account have not been applied to my API requests, which have been treated as being under the ‘free tier’.
Here is an example error code (they are substantially the same across all models):
Thank you for the report. To assist with debugging, please DM me your Project ID and a screenshot of your API keys page: https://aistudio.google.com/api-keys.
Thank you. But I do not know how to DM you. And I am sure it is nothing that anyone outside of Google can help with. There are a lot of others with this same issue. It has meant that Gemini API has been unavailable for me this week.
For what it is worth, in Google AI Studio the API keys are shown in the ‘Quota Tier’ column as ‘Tier 1’ . The project in Google Cloud is attached to a billing account.
BUT… I am being excluded from any calls using these ‘Tier 1’ API because the ‘resource is exhausted’ - for example on my very first call to gemini 3 pro preview.
There is a problem somewhere in the interface between Google AI Studio and Google Cloud. I have tried deleting all my projects, and then starting again with new projects and new APIs, but I still hit exactly the same issue.
@chunduriv i also dont know how to DM you. Can you give us a link or something ?
{"name":"ApiError","message":"{\"error\":{\"code\":429,\"message\":\"You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. For more information on this error, head to: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits. To monitor your current usage, head to: https://ai.dev/usage?tab=rate-limit. \\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-3-pro\\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests,
Same error, and same config : i’m on a paid plan (level 1).
Same - also on Paid Tier, also hit 429 today, upgrading from Tier1 to Tier2 seems to have fixed it, even though limit breach was not visible anywhere other than logs. Would appreciate knowing how to spot this in advance in future.
Similar issue here 429 error saying its free tier but was on tier one with credits to spare. In the logs, rate limit page there is minimal usage
weirdly enough at times i am also hitting
400 INVALID_ARGUMENT. {‘error’: {‘code’: 400, ‘message’: “The GenerateContentRequest proto is invalid:\n * tools[0].tool_type: required one_of ‘tool_type’ must have one initialized field”, ‘status’: ‘INVALID_ARGUMENT’}}
I also use API key from a project which is of paid tier 1(being shown in google AI studio). Nor did I breach any rate limit today still I get this error:
{\n \"error\": {\n \"code\": 429,\n \"message\": \"You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. For more information on this error, head to: https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits. To monitor your current usage, head to: https://ai.dev/usage?tab=rate-limit. \\n* Quota exceeded for metric: generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 20, model: gemini-2.5-flash\\nPlease retry in 2.164532333s.\",\n \"status\": \"RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED\",\n \"details\": [\n {\n \"@type\": \"type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.Help\",\n \"links\": [\n {\n \"description\": \"Learn more about Gemini API quotas\",\n \"url\": \"https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits\"\n }\n ]\n },\n {\n \"@type\": \"type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.QuotaFailure\",\n \"violations\": [\n {\n \"quotaMetric\": \"generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests\",\n \"quotaId\": \"GenerateRequestsPerDayPerProjectPerModel-FreeTier\",\n \"quotaDimensions\": {\n \"location\": \"global\",\n \"model\": \"gemini-2.5-flash\"\n },\n \"quotaValue\": \"20\"\n }\n ]\n },\n {\n \"@type\": \"type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.RetryInfo\",\n \"retryDelay\": \"2s\"\n }\n ]\n }\n}\n
I do have 1k INR credits in google cloud. Then how my quota gets exhausted after just answering one query?
Now the interesting part. Everything was working perfectly 2 months ago. My app is a RAG app. So when I ask something about BIT Mesra(about which it has been queried before with similar data) it always answer with no error. But when I ask about any other institute (about which we asked rarely before), It errors 429! Tell me if any other detail I need to share.
So sorry to hear about the ongoing API key issues. To move this forward, please DM me the following information: your project number and the detailed error message.
The 400 INVALID_ARGUMENT error happens because the Tool object you are sending is arriving empty at the API.
Specifically, the error tools[0].tool_type means the SDK failed to set the file_search field inside the tool. This usually happens if:
The store_name variable is empty or None when you initialize file_search_config.
The file_search_store_names list is malformed.
Please verify that store_name actually contains a valid resource string before passing it to types.FileSearch."
Regarding the 429 error: Since you are on the paid tier but seeing ‘Free tier’ limits, this sounds like a billing misclassification. Please DM me your Project Number (do not send your API Key) and details error message.
To view past API errors, you can check the “Total API Error Per day” metric on the [AI Studio Usage page]https://aistudio.google.com/usage). For proactive error prevention, your current rate limits are available on the AI Studio Rate Limit page
Same issue happened for me, 429 error with Tier 1 paid account, the account has been activated and shows “Tier 1” in my API key dashboard. Could you please help?
I am having the same problem, all is well for the past few weeks but today I can’t even use Gemini 3 properly, I am always hitting the limit: Error generating article: 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. {‘error’: {‘code’: 429, ‘message’: ‘Resource has been exhausted (e.g. check quota).’, ‘status’: ‘RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED’}}
Error generating article: 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED. {‘error’: {‘code’: 429, ‘message’: ‘Resource has been exhausted (e.g. check quota).’, ‘status’: ‘RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED’}}