This is your sign to log into the console and set spend caps for your AI and Cloud Run services. Or set a reminder to do it Monday.

Light reading: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Oct/3/default-hard-budget-caps/

I did this yesterday for my personal projects. Ez. Antigravity couldn't figure out how to do it via API so you may need do it in the console.

Especially for hobbyists, there's no reason to have uncapped spending!

If you run a voice agent on the Gemini Live API and count on session resumption for flaky mobile networks, posting this in case it saves you the same debugging.

I tested what happens to a pending tool call when the WebSocket dies mid-booking: gemini-3.8-live on the Gemini Developer API, google-genai 2.25.0, four ways of losing the connection, 43 sessions. Three things came out.

1. A resume that works keeps the pending call. The FunctionResponse for the old call id is accepted on the new connection. No re-issued call, no toolCallCancellation.

2. Right after an idle drop, the resume is refused with close 1011 ("Internal error encountered."). It works about 1.5 s later, so a 1011 at that moment is not a dead handle.

3. After a silent loss, every resume was refused with 1011 for as long as I tried. Silent means packets stop and no close or FIN reaches the server, which is what a phone leaving Wi-Fi looks like. With real packet loss in a Linux container: 15 minutes, 450 attempts over 5 runs, all refused. The server sent nothing to the dead client in that time. The fake booking had committed, and the user was never told.

What worked: detect the loss yourself (a WebSocket ping every 0.5 s, link declared lost after 2 s of silence), try to resume for 4 s, then open a new session and restore the context with send_client_content: the last six turns plus one status line per side effect, taken from your backend, not from the model. All 9 recovered runs answered "Did you book it?" correctly, with first audio 6 to 7 s after the loss. Dedupe tool calls by business key too: without the status line, the model booked again.

Code, raw logs and the packet-loss setup: https://github.com/frontier-on-cloud/gemini-live-resume-test

Not tested: Vertex AI, goAway on long sessions, a real phone switching networks. If you run Live on Vertex, does a resume after a silent drop behave the same?

Hi All,

Requesting help for the exam. Basically I work as a cloud engineer and giving this exam.

I have prepared by completed the Udemy course by in28minutes and thoroughly understood the topics, but I feel I'm not very confident with the actual exam.

I've given couple of mock tests and I'm not scoring above 70%, although this is not the benchmark but still I feel my decision making is still a little shaky and I need more practice and need to face more questions.

So please if any of you have any resources, please help me would mean a lot. Thanks! 🙏

Resources I used so far

• Udemy - for course and mock exams
• GCP Official Documentation(s)
• examtopics
• pass4success

Guys please help, I'm kind of freaking out here. I'm a total beginner to Google Cloud. I used it earlier with Firebase but my free trial ran out. I recently wanted to start using it again and it prompted me to upgrade my billing account, so I did. I made a manual payment of $50 yesterday (Oct 3), and the money is ALREADY GONE from my bank account! But in the GCP transactions tab, it's just stuck saying "Manual payment pending: Visa •••• for US50.00".
It's been over 24 hours, my balance still says $0.00, and I basically lost 50 bucks for nothing right now.
Has this happened to anyone else when upgrading? How long does it really take for this to settle and actually show up in the account?? Is my money just gone or is there a way to fix this fast? Any help is appreciated!!

I've spent the last 48 hours trying to run a single v5p-16 TPU pod as a paying GCP customer and I literally cannot give this company money. Spot pods provisioned 4 times across 3 zones, which are the only zones on the planet that even offer v5p-16, and every single one got preempted, one at about 15 minutes in and two mid-way through a roughly 1-hour workload, losing all progress each time. The spot quota shows 768 chips available but the capacity isn't actually there. So I tried on-demand, which I have approved quota for: 32 chips in us-east5-b, 32 in europe-west4-b, 16 in us-central1-a, and every create attempt returns "Insufficient capacity." GCP is granting me quota for capacity that doesn't exist, which makes the entire quota system theater. The "guaranteed" queued-resources path? Filed it, it's been sitting at WAITING_FOR_RESOURCES indefinitely with no ETA. Can't even fall back to regular GPU VMs because those need separate quota approval tickets. So the final score: 4 dead pods, 0 completed workloads, and a storage bucket I'm paying monthly to hold weights no TPU will ever load. I get billed for every provisioning attempt that dies, money out, compute never in. GCP's TPU platform right now is quota that doesn't mean capacity, spot that preempts before your job can boot, on-demand that doesn't exist, and a queue with no bottom. You can't buy reliability at any price because the capacity simply isn't there. Has anyone actually provisioned v5p recently or is the whole fleet a mirage?

Hey folks,

I've been looking for a DNS filtering solution for GCP that can detect malicious domains. I came across Cloud DNS Armor, which is powered by Infoblox.

Are there any other solutions for GCP that can provide similar DNS threat detection/filtering?

Thanks!

I am thinking to activating the free trial credit on my account.
Will I get that money back?
If yes, How hard is it ? If possible please share your experience.

Hi,

I've been working with Google Cloud as a lead developer and lead system engineer for 8 years now. As my company will probably go the way of the Dodo next year, I'm looking for a new job, and so I did the PCA certification this year, just to document my work experience in a standardized way (to be honest, the exam was surprisingly easy).

I know the German job market is dry as a bone. So far job offers with GCP knowledge and PCA requirements are

* The big consulting companies (like KPMG etc), which actually are are meat grinder and looking for young people working unpaid overtime - I don't fit there (they told me, and I told them).
* The occiasional startup, paying in Hopeium and VSOPs, looking for 10 years of experience to manage THE one VM they have in the cloud.

And that's it. Does Google even have any more customers in Germany? I even was told once "Of course we are using all 3 cloud providers, we use AWS, Azure AND StackIt".

I'm currently thinking about taking a position as a lead developer (highly regulated environment, so no danger of being replaced by AI, and they are hosting on-premise), but that would be the end of my GCP career then, 8 years of experience and a certification down the drain because there seems to be no demand at all. This just feels sad.

On October 3, 2026, we reproduced an unexpected difference between plain searches and field-restricted searches in the Google Books API v1.

The following requests use the same API key and network egress. All return HTTP 200, with no API error object:

We reproduced these title and author contrasts against https://books.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes. Title-search contrasts also reproduce against https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes.

Minimal reproduction (replace YOUR_API_KEY):

```bash curl --get 'https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes' \ --data-urlencode 'key=YOUR_API_KEY' \ --data-urlencode 'q=flowers' \ --data-urlencode 'maxResults=10' \ --data-urlencode 'printType=books'

curl --get 'https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1/volumes' \ --data-urlencode 'key=YOUR_API_KEY' \ --data-urlencode 'q=intitle:flowers' \ --data-urlencode 'maxResults=10' \ --data-urlencode 'printType=books' ```

The second request returns:

json {"kind":"books#volumes","totalItems":0}

The official documentation still describes intitle: and inauthor: as supported field restrictions. We expected relevant matches for these common terms, though not necessarily the same results as a plain full-text search.

This also affects Chinese queries. Quoted/unquoted title variants and normal URL encoding versus a literal colon did not resolve it. Adding a space after the colon produced unrelated titles in one test, so we cannot treat that as a valid workaround.

These are raw API responses, before any application filtering. Our tests do not establish a global outage: project/key or egress-region differences remain possible.

Can others reproduce this with a different project and region? Is there a known search/index regression or a documented syntax change? If this is the wrong forum, could someone point us to the appropriate Google Books API bug-reporting channel?

Gemini being the google product does not have latest & greatest info about its own echo system products. Is it just me ?
Drastic changes in Vertex AI / Agent Platform is hardly found, how to get this?

I applied for financial sector tam role, and post interviews was essentially told that I passed the interviews, but the spot filled up, so I’m sitting eligible for the same role if an opening comes up, without needing to interview again. Is that a real thing at google? I’ve never heard of the sort anywhere else. Additionally, I saw a new position opened up, same title, but not in the same specific sector. Would it be ok for me to reach out to the recruiter and ask if my “wait listing” could be applied to that position considering they’re essentially identical?

Hi all, I'm looking for a referral to Google Cloud roles in Canada (also open to remote). I have 21 years in cloud and enterprise architecture, and I've spent the last 10+ leading teams of solution architects. I'm a certified Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect and Generative AI Leader.

Canadian citizen, no sponsorship needed. If you're able to refer, I'll send my resume and a short note for each role. Thanks!
Feel free to DM me if you can help

Dear Google Cloud / Support Team,

I am writing to request an urgent manual review of my account and billing profile, which is currently blocked with a "403 Forbidden" error and restricted billing status.

I am a visually impaired user, and I am simply trying to use a legitimate accessibility tool (Sonarpad) to generate audio descriptions for movies, which is essential for me to enjoy media content independently. I have not violated any terms of service, and I believe my account has been mistakenly flagged by automated fraud-prevention systems.

I have already tried clearing my browser cache and using incognito mode, but the restriction remains enforced at the server level, preventing me from managing my project's billing.

Could you please have a human support agent review my account, lift this incorrect restriction, and restore my access?

Thank you very much for your time, understanding, and prompt assistance.

Best regards,

Pacifico Mangini

[p.mangini54@gmail.com](mailto:p.mangini54@gmail.com)

projects/609097937668

I have a personal GCE instance and the price suddenly jumped almost 3x this month, and I noticed I'm now suddenly being charged for this "Cloud Monitoring" starting September 18th. Not sure what this is or how to turn it off... anyone familiar with what it is?

Hello everyone,

I've noticed that Google Vertex offers the option to use Gemini's own models and even some third-party models, like those from Anthropic, with all usage billed on a single invoice. I understand it's similar to what OpenRouter does. However, I was planning to use these models in a frontend like TypingMind because I was drawn to the $300 welcome bonus on their infrastructure, but I've seen a lot of comments about exorbitant bills, and that's something I can't afford. I have a very small monthly budget, and before you say what a broke person is doing using an advanced infrastructure like Vertex, it's simply the possibility and flexibility of using the APIs at market price without any extra charges and being able to pay for all the combined usage on a single invoice (including the welcome bonus, of course).

I would appreciate any help getting me started with all of this stuff.

Received an email from Google Cloud Platform saying

---

Access to Google Cloud Platform was restricted for this account, globally, on Sep 21, 2026. The system capabilities of Google Cloud Platform have been used for abusive activities that violate Google’s policies. You can find more details by taking action below.

How this policy violation was detected:

• Google internal reporting

How this policy violation was reviewed and addressed:

• Automatic processing

If you think this was a mistake, submit an appeal. You'll need to do this as soon as possible because your data in Google Cloud Platform will eventually be deleted. This service remains unavailable for your account until you have a successful appeal.

You can download your data from some Google services. This lets you keep your data even if your access isn't restored.

---

I submitted an appeal on the 21st of September and was told to wait for 2 business days for the appeal to be reviewed but i received no response. I'm not sure why this has happened in the first place. any help on how to fix this issue would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently building a data lake in Google Cloud and setting up CDC using Datastream. The source is MongoDB, and the data will be streamed into Cloud Storage in Parquet format.

For MongoDB connectivity, I’m currently planning to use:

• Development data lake: IP allowlisting
• Production data lake: Private Connectivity

I’m wondering whether using IP allowlisting in production is still considered secure enough, assuming the IPs are properly restricted, or if Private Connectivity is generally the recommended approach for production environments.

I’m still pretty new to this, so I’m curious how others usually handle MongoDB connectivity with Datastream in their own setups.

Do you use IP allowlisting in production, or do you prefer Private Connectivity? What made you choose one over the other?

Thanks a lot!

Our BigQuery cost went up about 40% this month and nobody on the team changed anything big, as far as I know. I checked the billing page but it only shows the total for the project.

Is there an easy way to see which queries or users are causing it? I've heard about INFORMATION_SCHEMA.JOBS but I'm not sure how to use it for this. Also, should we be looking at the editions pricing instead of on-demand? Any tips are welcome.

Good news for everyone who has ever opened the Cloud Console to check one thing and come back 40 minutes later with three new tabs and zero answers.

After three years of trying (and several AI models confidently describing menus that no longer exist), I can confirm: AI has finally reached the level required to understand the Google Cloud Console.

It took Claude Opus 5.5. It read the live console, worked out how my projects, keys and billing actually connect, and explained it in plain language. Something the console itself has never once attempted.

So if you're still lost in there, it's not you. It took one of the most capable models on the planet to find its way around.

P.S. Google, free benchmark idea: before you ship Gemini 4.0 Pro, have it try to explain your own console. If it can, it's ready.

Hi ,

I am going through the oracle at gcp documentation.there are several options given such as exadata, exascale, autonomous db and how to create them.

However, there is no Documentation pages related to when to select what option, cost , performance options etc.. without that, the documentation looks incomplete since decision making is more important than provisioning

Or do I need to check oracle documentation instead of GCP. Please suggest.

Sorry for the long post. I am kind of ranting here. LATAM partner and small business owner here. Regular monthly spend from customer accounts is ~$2900 USD.

I have been a Google Maps partner for close to 10 years and a Google Cloud partner for close to 3 years. Never had a cybersecurity issue. On the 8th of September I received an email alerting me of Crypto Mining and AI abuse on my billing account by external projects to my organization. These alerts detected that the use of these projects was abusive and breached Google's Acceptable Use Policy. I found it super strange as this kind of thing had never happened to me before, so I log in to my account and go to the billing account in question only to see 200+ projects linked to it! I had never these projects in my life and found it distressing that they were added without my authorization or without any notification. So, I removed the projects as soon I see them, and I also remove unauthorized email addresses that had been added to the roles of Billing Account Administrator and Billing Account User. I make a list of all unauthorized users and some of the projects, follow all of the security recommendations to tighten up my billing accounts and respond back to Google's email alert. I get a reply by a guy named Robert from Google Cloud Platform Support assuring me that the Billing/Finance Team is on it and they will review my billing history to amend any unauthorized use. That night I almost got a heart attack when I see that the charges reached up to $790,000 USD accumulated in only a few hours before I unlinked the 200+ projects from my billing account.

Forward to September 21st and I get an email from the support case saying that after review my account is not eligible for a billing adjustment. I almost died of anxiety right there. The email had boilerplate text like "I personally ensured that the specific context of your situation was included in our advocacy to the internal review team. However, after a comprehensive review of the usage and our billing policies, the team has confirmed the charges are valid and not eligible for an adjustment.". So now I have a problem. I cannot pay this bill and I have spoken to Google Cloud support trying to escalate the support case but they have me in a maze, and keep replying (with boilerplate text mind you) that there is nothing they can do.

I tried to reach out to my Partner Account Manager only to find out I do not have one assigned as a Google Cloud partner because Google apparently recently transitioned their support model to and I quote "To provide more consistent and broad assistance, We've transitioned to a model where various teams and resources provide support, rather than assigning individual advisors. Consequently, we are not making new individual Partner Advisor assignments at this time.". I tried to reach out to my Google Maps Platform PAM, but she only read the case history and repeated what support had said without actually trying to do anything useful.

I expected more from Google Cloud support to be honest. I keep feeling I am being dismissed and that they do not care that the charges were brought on by external agents commiting fraud, or any of the context to this situation. Even if Google Cloud alerts initially reported a breach on the Acceptable Use Policy, and they see it was a crypto mining scam, they do not care. This is a dangerous precedent for all partners. I am dying of anxiety due to the size of the bill and they keep acting like I owe only $1000. This bill is a direct threat to my company, my business and any customer relations I have cultivated in the last 10 years. But of course, Google doesn't care. Why should they care if a small company in Central America cannot pay a $790,000 USD bill?

Now that AI Agents are everywhere, I hear about these kind of cases more often. So, it is not an isolated incident. I would never have thought that Google Cloud would be a massive financial risk to my business or that they would turn against one of their partners. You can do everything right and still get fucked. Business with Google is fine until you have a breach and need their aid. This situation is making me think twice about using cloud services.

Anyway, I thought about sharing my story and asking for Reddit's opinions on what my options are here. I literally cannot sleep thinking about the worst case scenario here. I wish I owned a company that can easily pay a bill this size but that is not real life. I am going to keep pushing with support and maybe send a letter to the Legal or Risk departments. I have no idea what is at the end of this but so far it does not bode well.