Account restricted to AQ. prefix keys — requesting AIza key restoration (project gen-lang-client-07747872.. / 5285733113..)

Gemini API
1

Hi Gemini API team,

Every API key generated for my account is issued with an “AQ.” prefix, and these keys are rejected by the Gemini API. Calling
generativelanguage.googleapis.com/v1beta/models/gemini-2.5-flash:generateContent returns:

401 UNAUTHENTICATED
“Request had invalid authentication credentials. Expected OAuth 2 access token, login cookie or other valid authentication credential.”
reason: ACCESS_TOKEN_TYPE_UNSUPPORTED

This happens whether I pass the key via ?key= or the x-goog-api-key header.

What I have already tried:

  1. Google AI Studio → only issues “AQ.” prefix keys.
  2. Cloud Console → Create credentials → API key, in my project gen-lang-client-07747872..
    (project number 5285733113..) → the flow forces the key to be bound to a service account,
    producing an “AQ.” key.
  3. A brand-new project with NO organization (perfect-nature-502104-..) with the Generative
    Language API enabled → the “Gemini API” restriction checkbox is disabled unless the key is
    bound to a service account, and unrestricted keys are not allowed, so I still cannot generate
    a standard “AIza” key.

I need a standard “AIza” API key to call the Gemini API from a server-side Google Apps Script.
Could you please restore standard “AIza” API key generation for my account / project
gen-lang-client-07747872.. (5285733113..)?

I have not exposed any key value in this post. Thank you.

2

Hello @Jinwon ,

We are moving away from Traffic keys (Alza) and towards a more secure Authentication Key (AQ). AI Studio will now only generate Authentication Key (AQ) keys. More information on key usage can be found in the Using Gemini API keys documentation.

Please submit any compatibility issues with services / SDKs etc. in this form for our engineering team to review. Thanks!