Free Gemini API key hitting quota limit (0 requests) even with single-user Flutter app

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Hi everyone,

I’m running into an issue with the free tier API key for Gemini and wanted to check if anyone else has experienced this or can clarify what’s happening.

I’m using the Gemini API inside a Flutter app (simple chat feature), and currently there is only one user (myself) interacting with it. Despite this, I’m consistently getting a rate limit / quota error:

Daily API quota exhausted. You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details.

Quota exceeded for metric:
generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_input_token_count, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.0-flash

Quota exceeded for metric:
generativelanguage.googleapis.com/generate_content_free_tier_requests, limit: 0, model: gemini-2.0-flash

Please retry in ~7s

What’s confusing:

  • This is a free tier API key

  • Only one user is making requests

  • The error shows limit: 0, which suggests no quota is available at all

  • Happens even with very minimal usage

Questions:

  1. Is the free tier currently restricted or disabled for gemini-2.0-flash?

  2. Does the free tier require billing to be enabled to get any usable quota?

  3. Is this a known issue with new API keys or certain regions?

  4. Are there specific limits or setup steps that I might be missing?

Any guidance would be really helpful. Right now it seems like the free API key isn’t usable at all due to the quota being set to zero.

Thanks in advance!

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