Handling Gemini API Errors Gracefully — 429, 503, and the Free Tier Reality

All tests run on an 8-year-old MacBook Air. The Gemini free tier is generous. It's also shared with everyone else using the free tier. At peak times, you'll hit 503s. Heavy usage will trigger 429s. If your app just shows "error" and dies, users blame your app - not Google's infrastructure. Here's how I handle it gracefully in HiyokoLogcat. The error codes you'll actually see 429 Too Many Requests - you've hit your rate limit. For the free tier, this is 15 requests per minute (RPM) and 1M tokens per day. 503 Service Unavailable - the API is overloaded. Usually transient.