404 Not Found error for embedding-001 and text-embedding-004 via v1beta API

Gemini API
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1

Hello everyone,

I am experiencing a persistent 404 Not Found error when attempting to call the embedding models via the Generative Language API. This setup was working perfectly until a few days ago, but now fails consistently for both embedding-001 and text-embedding-004.

Request Details:

  • Endpoint: https://generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/{model}:embedContent?key={API_KEY}

  • Models tried: embedding-001, text-embedding-004

Error Message:

“404 models/embedding-001 is not found for API version v1beta, or is not supported for embedContent. Call ListModels to see the list of available models and their supported methods.”

Observations:

  1. The API key is valid and has not reached any quota limits.

  2. I have checked the documentation, and while there are mentions of deprecations, embedding-001 was previously stable.

  3. Calling ListModels on the v1beta endpoint does not seem to return these specific IDs anymore for my project.

Questions:

  • Have embedding-001 and text-embedding-004 been officially retired or removed from the v1beta path as of February 2026?

  • Is gemini-embedding-001 the mandatory replacement for these models now?

  • Does the new model require a change in the API version (e.g., switching from v1beta to v1)?

Any clarification on the current status of these embedding endpoints would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

2

i’m also have the same issue. did you have some news about how to fix that?

3

Hi, sorry for the issues.

Have embedding-001 and text-embedding-004 been officially retired or removed from the v1beta path as of February 2026?

Yes, both models have been deprecated. The recommended replacement is gemini-embedding-001 (it does not require switching API versions).

You can find more info on the Embeddings docs page.

You can find the deprecation announcements in the release notes, and you can check the deprecations page for all model deprecations (although gemini-001 is currently missing on that page, we’ll get that updated).

4

Pretty annoying that we’ll have to constantly recompute all embeddings to as models get deprecated

5

Sorry for the hassle, this has been a long time coming. The old embedding models were free and never ended up having billing, were based on an old architecture, and not setup to scale with the API.

Gemini Embeddings are the new mainline way to do this and are fully supported and will continue to get better over time : )