Abnormal Gemini API billing on beta-stage project, Google Cloud review pending for 9 days
I’m a solo developer building a beta-stage research/survey platform.
The product has not been publicly launched yet. It has no paying customers, no production-scale traffic, and no revenue. Normal usage was limited to development, deployment, and a few internal/test survey workflows.
On May 2, 2026, my Google Cloud project generated an abnormal charge of about ₺124,899.88, approximately $2,740. Google Cloud Billing shows that almost all of it, about ₺124,730.55, approximately $2,737, came from Gemini API usage.
Google Cloud’s own cost anomaly alert flagged the spike on the same date, showing an expected cost of about ₺60.79, approximately $1.33, and an actual cost of about ₺92,278.65, approximately $2,025, during the anomaly period, with Gemini API as the top contributor.
I filed an unauthorized transaction/payment claim and received a standard denial. I then submitted a detailed Google Cloud Billing escalation with service-level billing reports, SKU-level CSV, Google’s cost anomaly alert, payment claim records, and API key remediation evidence.
The case has now been pending for 9 days. While waiting, I added a new card only to avoid further suspension or termination of Google Cloud services, and Google’s automated billing system immediately charged an additional TRY 40,000, approximately $878, threshold payment. I added that payment to the same dispute and clarified that it should not be interpreted as acceptance of the disputed charges.
I’m not trying to avoid legitimate cloud costs. I’m asking for a fair manual technical review of abnormal Gemini API usage that is completely disproportionate to the real activity of a beta-stage project.
Has anyone here successfully escalated a similar Gemini API billing abuse or abnormal usage case with Google Cloud? Any advice on getting this reviewed by the right team would be appreciated.