diff --git a/api/index.php b/api/index.php
index 8cae7d4..0c7f332 100644
--- a/api/index.php
+++ b/api/index.php
@@ -5414,6 +5414,7 @@ function saveSettings(): void {
  */
 function callGemini(string $url, array $payload, int $timeout = 60): array {
     $maxAttempts = 4;
+    $maxTotalElapsed = 45; // budget de sécurité pour ne jamais approcher le set_time_limit(120) de PHP
     $lastCode    = 0;
     $lastBody    = '';
     $promptLen   = strlen(json_encode($payload));
@@ -5445,26 +5446,38 @@ function callGemini(string $url, array $payload, int $timeout = 60): array {
 
         if ($body !== false) $lastBody = $body;
 
-        // Success or non-retryable error → stop immediately
+// Success or non-retryable error → stop immediately
         if ($lastCode === 200) break;
         if ($lastCode !== 429 && $lastCode !== 503) break;
         if ($attempt >= $maxAttempts) break;
 
+        // Quota épuisé (RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED) n'est PAS transitoire — retenter le même modèle
+        // dans cette requête ne servira à rien. On échoue vite plutôt que de risquer que PHP
+        // tue le script en plein milieu (ce qui remonte comme un 502/504 moche côté client).
+        $errData = $body ? json_decode($body, true) : null;
+        if (($errData['error']['status'] ?? '') === 'RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED') {
+            EverLog::warn('AI quota exhausted, failing fast', ['code' => $lastCode]);
+            break;
+        }
+
         // Determine how long to wait -----------------------------------------------
         // Priority 1: Retry-After header (set by Google in some 429 responses)
         $waitSec = $retryAfterHeader ?? ($attempt * 2);   // default: 2 s, 4 s, 6 s
 
         // Priority 2: Google's retryDelay inside the error body (e.g. {"retryDelay":"10s"})
-        if ($body) {
-            $errData = json_decode($body, true);
-            foreach (($errData['error']['details'] ?? []) as $detail) {
-                if (!empty($detail['retryDelay'])) {
-                    $parsed = intval(preg_replace('/\D/', '', $detail['retryDelay']));
-                    if ($parsed > 0) { $waitSec = min($parsed, 60); break; }
-                }
+        foreach (($errData['error']['details'] ?? []) as $detail) {
+            if (!empty($detail['retryDelay'])) {
+                $parsed = intval(preg_replace('/\D/', '', $detail['retryDelay']));
+                if ($parsed > 0) { $waitSec = min($parsed, 60); break; }
             }
         }
 
+        // Filet de sécurité : jamais laisser le cumul des attentes dépasser le budget
+        if ((microtime(true) - $t0) + $waitSec >= $maxTotalElapsed) {
+            EverLog::warn('AI retry budget exhausted, failing fast', ['elapsed' => microtime(true) - $t0]);
+            break;
+        }
+
         EverLog::warn('AI rate-limited, retrying', ['attempt' => $attempt, 'wait_s' => $waitSec, 'code' => $lastCode]);
         sleep($waitSec);
     }