Is Gemini Down? Developer's Guide to Handling Google AI Outages (2026)

TLDR: Check Google Gemini API status at apistatuscheck.com/api/gemini. Learn how to detect Gemini outages, implement multi-model fallbacks, and keep your AI features running when Google's AI services go down.

TLDR: When Gemini API goes down, check status.cloud.google.com and apistatuscheck.com/api/google. Build resilient AI apps with multi-provider fallbacks to OpenAI or Anthropic, implement retry logic with exponential backoff, and use Gemini's 1M token context window strategically to reduce call frequency.

Gemini just stopped responding. Whether you're using the consumer chatbot at gemini.google.com, building with the Gemini API, or running models through Vertex AI, an outage means your AI features are dead in the water. Google's AI infrastructure is vast but not invincible — here's how to confirm it's down, what to do about it, and how to build AI applications that survive the next outage.

Is Gemini Actually Down Right Now?

"Gemini" spans multiple Google products. Check the right status page:

Gemini Consumer App (gemini.google.com)

1. API Status Check — Google — Independent monitoring
2. Google Workspace Status — Gemini is part of Workspace
3. Downdetector — Gemini — Community-reported outages

Gemini API / AI Studio (Developers)

1. API Status Check — Google — Real-time monitoring
2. AI Studio Status — Google's official API status
3. StatusGator — Gemini API — Incident history

Vertex AI Gemini (Enterprise/GCP)

1. Google Cloud Status — Check "Vertex AI" component
2. Vertex Gemini API History — Incident log

Understanding Google's Gemini Architecture

These are separate systems that can fail independently:

Service	Who Uses It	Status Page	Can Fail Alone?
gemini.google.com	Consumers	Google Workspace Dashboard	✅ Yes
Gemini in Google Search	Everyone	No dedicated page	✅ Yes
Gemini API (AI Studio)	Developers (free tier)	aistudio.google.com/status	✅ Yes
Vertex AI Gemini	Enterprise (paid)	status.cloud.google.com	✅ Yes
Gemini in Workspace	Google Workspace users	Workspace Dashboard	✅ Yes
Gemini Code Assist	Developers in IDEs	Cloud Status	✅ Yes

Key insight: The consumer Gemini app and the developer API are separate infrastructure. gemini.google.com can be broken while the API works perfectly — and vice versa.

Recent Gemini Incidents

• Jan 7, 2026 — AI Studio and Gemini API warning lasting ~1 hour 45 minutes
• Dec 3, 2025 — API warning for ~1 hour 20 minutes
• May 2025 — Consumer Gemini showed "Gemini is currently on a break" errors

Common Gemini API Error Codes

Error	Meaning	Action
429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED	Rate limited or quota exceeded	Check quota in Cloud Console, retry with backoff
500 INTERNAL	Server error	Retry, likely transient
503 UNAVAILABLE	Service down	Outage — switch to fallback
400 INVALID_ARGUMENT	Bad request	Not an outage — check your request
403 PERMISSION_DENIED	API key or billing issue	Check API key and billing status
DeadlineExceeded	Request timed out	Model overloaded or input too large
"Gemini is currently on a break"	Consumer app overloaded	Wait, or use the API instead

Gemini vs Other AI APIs: Unique Considerations

Free Tier Limits

Gemini's free tier is generous but has specific limits that can look like an "outage":

Model	Free RPM	Free RPD	Free TPM
Gemini 2.0 Flash	15	1,500	1M
Gemini 1.5 Flash	15	1,500	1M
Gemini 1.5 Pro	2	50	32K

Common trap: Hitting 2 RPM on Gemini 1.5 Pro feels like an outage if you don't check the error code. Always check for 429 RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED before assuming the service is down.

Safety Filters

Gemini has aggressive content safety filters that can block legitimate requests:

response = model.generate_content(prompt)

# Check if the response was blocked
if response.prompt_feedback.block_reason:
    print(f"Blocked: {response.prompt_feedback.block_reason}")
    # This isn't an outage — it's content filtering
    # Try rephrasing or use safety_settings to adjust

# Adjust safety settings (use responsibly)
from google.generativeai.types import HarmCategory, HarmBlockThreshold

model = genai.GenerativeModel(
    'gemini-2.0-flash-exp',
    safety_settings={
        HarmCategory.HARM_CATEGORY_HARASSMENT: HarmBlockThreshold.BLOCK_ONLY_HIGH,
        HarmCategory.HARM_CATEGORY_HATE_SPEECH: HarmBlockThreshold.BLOCK_ONLY_HIGH,
    }
)

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Monitoring Gemini Proactively

Health Check for Your Integration

// API route: /api/health/gemini
export async function GET() {
  const checks = {
    aistudio: false,
    vertex: false,
    latencyMs: 0,
  }
  
  const start = Date.now()
  
  // Test AI Studio
  try {
    const model = genAI.getGenerativeModel({ model: 'gemini-2.0-flash-exp' })
    await model.generateContent('Reply with OK')
    checks.aistudio = true
  } catch { checks.aistudio = false }
  
  checks.latencyMs = Date.now() - start
  
  // Test Vertex AI if configured
  try {
    const vertexModel = new GenerativeModel('gemini-2.0-flash-001')
    await vertexModel.generateContent('Reply with OK')
    checks.vertex = true
  } catch { checks.vertex = false }
  
  const healthy = checks.aistudio || checks.vertex
  return Response.json(checks, { status: healthy ? 200 : 503 })
}

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The "Gemini Is Down" Checklist

1. Check apistatuscheck.com/api/google — confirm the outage
2. Identify WHICH Gemini — consumer app, API, or Vertex?
3. Check error code — 429 = your quota, 503 = actual outage
4. Test directly:

   curl "https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.0-flash-exp:generateContent?key=$GEMINI_API_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"contents":[{"parts":[{"text":"Say hi"}]}]}'
   

5. Try a different model — Flash and Pro have separate capacity
6. Try Vertex AI — separate infrastructure from AI Studio
7. Activate fallback — Claude or GPT-4o
8. Check Google Cloud Status if using Vertex

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Get Notified Before Your Users Do

1. Bookmark apistatuscheck.com/api/google for real-time status
2. Set up instant alerts via API Status Check integrations
3. Subscribe to aistudio.google.com/status for API updates
4. Monitor your own latency — your metrics detect degradation faster than any status page

The AI market's biggest advantage is redundancy. Gemini, Claude, and GPT-4o are largely interchangeable for most tasks. Build the fallback chain once, and individual provider outages become non-events.

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