Vertex AI Quota Increase Blocked (Service Usage History Error)

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1

Hey everyone,

I’m running into a frustrating block and hoping someone here or a Googler can point me in the right direction.

I’m currently building the infrastructure for my startup, Checkoutify, and our project is fully backed by Google for Startups credits. I want to use Claude Sonnet via the Vertex AI Model Garden, but my base model quota is hard-locked at 0.

When I try to request an increase in the console, I get an error saying I’m not eligible due to my “service usage history.” Since our usage is 100% covered by our startup credits, we don’t have the out-of-pocket cash billing history the automated system is looking for.

I already reached out to Billing Support, but they said they don’t have the permissions to manually override partner model quotas.

Has anyone else on a startup tier found a workaround for this? Or is there a DevRel/Googler here who can manually review my project and lift the restriction?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

4

Hi, facing the exact same issue. New personal project with Google AI Pro credits, Claude models enabled in Model Garden, but quota hard-locked at 0 with instant auto-rejection citing “service usage history.”

Project is ~15 days old. Planning to resubmit at the 30-day mark (May 18th) to see if that’s the actual threshold.

Has anyone confirmed whether 30 days + some billing history is the magic combination? Or did anyone find a faster workaround?

Would love to know if a Googler can manually review — this seems to be a systemic issue with new projects trying to use partner models on Vertex.