Google's Gemini API Free Tier Fiasco: Developers Hit by Silent Rate Limit Purge

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46223311 Switching to paid version was already problematic as it uses GCP account system which doesn't have a spending limit, and API keys do not have an expiration date. So the free offer was great for freelancers and SMEs and yet the paid version was the worst possible scenario you can imagine for same freelancers and SMEs. OpenRouter + free models and the increased rate limit you get after buying 10 credits (10€) is my current favourite choice for learning/teaching.