Account restricted to AQ. tokens — requesting AIza key restoration (paid account)

Gemini API
1

Hello Google AI Developer Support Team,

I am writing to request restoration of my account’s ability to generate standard AIza-format API keys in Google AI Studio.

Account Details:

  • Account email: a....@gmail.com
  • Project name: gen-lang-client-08140690..
  • Billing: Active paid account with Google-issued credits attached

Issue:
All API keys generated under my account — including in newly created projects — now produce “AQ.” prefix tokens instead of the standard “AIza” format.

These AQ. keys return 401 UNAUTHENTICATED (reason: ACCESS_TOKEN_TYPE_UNSUPPORTED) on the generativelanguage.googleapis.com endpoint, regardless of whether the credential is sent via x-goog-api-key header, Authorization: Bearer, or ?key= query parameter. The official @google/genai SDK also fails with the same error.

Impact:
This is blocking two active production workloads on this account:

  1. BridgeDesk AI — a live SaaS product (apinfinitebridgetech.om) serving e-commerce customers, with paying users depending on AI availability.
  2. A stock video/photo analysis automation pipeline used for daily content submission to Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Pond5.

Both workloads are currently non-functional due to this restriction.

Actions already taken:

  • Deleted all previously generated AQ. keys
  • Confirmed no API keys are publicly exposed in any repository or environment
  • Verified billing account is active and linked to the project
  • Confirmed generativelanguage.googleapis.com API is enabled on the project

Given that this account has active billing, Google-issued credits, and two production workloads depending on API access, I respectfully request an urgent manual review and restoration of standard AIza API key generation.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

2

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!