403 PERMISSION_DENIED — Default Gemini Project denied access

Gemini API
1 
Hello Google Gemini API Team,

Please manually review and restore access to my Gemini API project.

Project name: Default Gemini Project
Project ID: gen-lang-client-01376775..
Tier: Free Tier

Every Gemini generation request returns:

HTTP 403 PERMISSION_DENIED
“Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.”

I have confirmed:
- Generative Language API is enabled.
- A fresh Gemini API key successfully lists available models.
- Google OAuth authentication and project access work.
- The error is reproducible directly against the documented Gemini Interactions endpoint using gemini-3.8-flash.
- No warning, restriction, or appeal banner appears in AI Studio Projects or Billing.
- This is a low-volume internal business-research workflow using public YouTube URLs only. No videos are downloaded.

This appears to be an account or project access flag rather than a key, API, billing, or code issue. Please review the restriction and restore Gemini API generation access.

I have not included any API keys or credentials. Thanks
2

Hello @Jack_Geyer ,

Getting a 403 API error response and / or seeing “Unavailable” next to your project in AI audio indicates a flag has been placed on your account. To proceed:

If you’re on the free tier with no billing attached, please try the below steps:

  1. Check Model Availability & Rate Limits:

    • Ensure that the model you are requesting is available on your current plan. For example, not all models are available on the free tier. You can verify model availability, quotas, and limits on the AI Studio Rate Limit dashboard.

  2. Ensure you have completed age verification by navigating to Google Account Age Verification and verifying date of birth in Google Account Personal Info.

  3. Complete Phone Verification and turn on 2-Step Verification (2SV) on the Google Account associated with your project.

  4. Once age, phone and 2sv are configured, retry your request or create a new API key in Google AI Studio.

  5. If completing these steps still does not restore access (or if using a model requiring a paid tier), you might want to consider adding prepayment credits directly in Google AI Studio and/ or attaching a Google Cloud Billing account in the Google Cloud Console. Please note this will mean you lose your free tier quota.

3

Hello Pooja,

Thank you for replying. I have completed the age, phone and 2-Step Verification checks you suggested. The access problem remains.

Here is what Google AI Studio shows:

  • My original Default Gemini Project and newly created free-tier projects show Restricted and billing tier Unavailable. The Rate Limit page says “Project quota tier unavailable” and “This Project’s API access is restricted. Please set up billing to continue.” My earlier API request returned HTTP 403: “Your project has been denied access.”
  • My ProfitFlowing OS project is shown as Tier 1 · Postpay, but its status is Prepay required. The Billing page says no prepayment method is set up and prepay is required for the billing account.
  • The Rate Limit page lets me choose “Compare: Free tier”, but that appears to be a comparison setting, not a usable free-tier plan on any of these projects.

I am in Australia and want to use the Gemini API within the free-tier limits to analyse public YouTube videos. Is Australia itself a reason that my projects require billing or prepay? If not, could you please arrange a review of why the free-tier projects are Restricted, or direct me to the team that can review this? Please confirm whether I can restore free-tier API access without linking billing, and what exact step is required.

Thank you,
Jack