403 PERMISSION_DENIED — "Your project has been denied access" (Project ID: youtube-shorts-5020..)

Gemini API
1

Hi Google AI Team,

My account has been flagged with an automated restriction, causing all newly created free-tier projects to be born with a Billing Tier status of “Unavailable” and throwing a 403 PERMISSION_DENIED error.

  • Project ID: youtube-shorts-5020..
  • Model: gemini-2.5-flash
  • Use Case: Running a local, personal Python script to generate YouTube Shorts highlights from video transcripts.

There are no policy violations or warning banners on my console. Could someone from the team please manually review and restore API generation access for this project/account?

Thank you!

2

Hello @Niteesh ,

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:

  1. Check for banners / error callouts in the AI Studio Projects page & the Billing page.

  2. If the issue isn’t clear from the above, contact Cloud Billing Support.