The incident · october 2025
Here's the part nobody warns you about: revoking the key doesn't stop the bleeding.
Gemini billing isn't real-time. Costs accumulate against the key for hours after disable, and only appear in the dashboard on a delayed cadence. By the time I saw the first spike, the abuse had already been running for half a day.
I emailed Google support. I escalated. I begged. Form replies. "We can offer a payment plan." Two installments of $24,000. I had neither.
So I filed an incident report with the FBI, got a case number, and replied to Google collections with that case number attached. I paid $1,000 out of pocket to show good faith. Five months later, the entire bill was waived.
TokenLedger is the thing I wish I'd had sitting between my key and Google's billing pipeline. It wouldn't have saved past-me. It might save present-you.
Read the full incident report →