A Stolen Gemini API Key Ran Up an $82,000 Bill for a Three-Person Startup

According to the developer, a Google Cloud API key connected to their project had somehow been compromised between February 11 and February 12.

Mar 5, 2026

by Ogbonda Chivumnovu

Late one night, a developer from a small three-person startup in Mexico opened their cloud dashboard, and what they saw seemed unreal. The company usually spends about $180 a month running AI tools. Over the span of two days, that number had jumped to more than $82,000.

“I am in a state of shock and panic right now,” the developer wrote in a Reddit post describing the situation.

According to the developer, a Google Cloud API key connected to their project had somehow been compromised between February 11 and February 12. During that short window, attackers they claimed used the key to run large volumes of requests on Google’s Gemini 3 Pro Image and Gemini 3 Pro Text models.

The spike was staggering. What normally costs the startup about $180 a month suddenly turned into a bill of $82,314.44 in just 48 hours.