Gemini for Google Cloud API seems to run on its own ?

[Rifad]

Hello everyone,

I’m seeing unexpectedly high usage for “Gemini for Google Cloud API” in my project, even though I haven’t deployed any services or made any explicit Generative AI calls in my code. Here’s the situation:

1. No Active Deployments or Scripts

   • I have not written or deployed any Vertex AI / Gemini-based code (no notebooks, no webhooks, no scheduled jobs).

   • I haven’t clicked any “Try this API” buttons in the documentation or run any REST calls myself.

2. API & Services Dashboard

   • When I navigate to APIs & Services → Dashboard, I see that “Gemini for Google Cloud API” (service name cloudaicompanion.googleapis.com) shows very high request counts.

   • Under “Metrics → Credentials,” most of that traffic is listed as Unspecified, which suggests it’s coming from the Cloud Console rather than a named service account or API key. 

3. Cost Impact

   • My billing page shows large token‐count SKUs (e.g. “Generate content input token count Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental long input text”) with thousands of input/output tokens, resulting in a hefty charge even though I didn’t consciously run any inference.

4. What I’ve Checked So Far

   • I verified that I never manually ran a projects.locations.models.predict RPC.

   • I confirmed there are no Cloud Functions, Compute Engine VMs, or Cloud Run services in this project making AI calls.

   • In IAM & Admin → Audit Logs, “Data Read” was initially disabled for both cloudaicompanion.googleapis.com and aiplatform.googleapis.com, so I wasn’t seeing any “per‐request” logs. (After enabling it, I still don’t see any Vertex AI audit entries related to these charges.)

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Questions:

1. Why is the Console’s “Gemini for Google Cloud” assistant generating usage when I haven’t clicked any buttons or run any code myself?

2. How can I identify exactly which console action is triggering these token‐billing SKUs?

3. What steps can I take to prevent the Cloud Console from automatically calling Gemini on my behalf (so that I don’t accrue charges without realizing it)?

Any guidance on why “Gemini for Google Cloud API” appears under heavy usage even when I thought I wasn’t using it and how to lock it down would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!