AI Studio unavailable for 7 days – “Upgrade to unlock more” / “Permission denied”

Google AI Studio
1

Hello,

I have been unable to use Google AI Studio for 7 days. I repeatedly get:

  • “Upgrade to unlock more”
  • “Failed to create interaction: permission denied”
  • “An internal error has occurred.”

The problem occurs on two different Google accounts, on both computer and phone, and also when using mobile data instead of Wi-Fi. The second account was newly created and confirmed by Google, but it has the same problem.

Could you please check whether there is any restriction on my accounts or access to AI Studio, and whether this is a temporary issue?

Most importantly, would upgrading to Google AI Pro actually resolve this problem, or could these errors continue after payment? I do not want to subscribe unless I know that it will restore my AI Studio access.

Thank you.

2

Hello @Vija_Znotina ,

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

  2. 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.

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

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

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

  6. 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.

  7. If you are on a paid tier:

    1. Check for banners / error callouts in the AI Studio Projects page & the Billing page. Mostly these flags cause visible banners or other errors on these pages with concrete next steps / appeal links. You can also check the email address associated with your project for information on next steps.

    2. If your GCP project/ billing account is suspended, you must submit an appeal directly through the Google Cloud Console following the Project Suspension Guidelines (Help Center)

3

Thank you for the instructions.

First of all, I want to make it clear that I am willing to pay for a subscription only after my free access has been restored and I can confirm that Google AI Studio works normally again. I do not want to pay in order to find out whether payment will fix the problem.

I followed the steps you suggested:

My date of birth is correct (I am old enaugh).
My phone number has been linked to my Google account for a long time.
I checked 2-Step Verification and found that it was off. I have now enabled it.
I then opened Gemini again and tried to send a simple message.

Unfortunately, this did not restore access. I still cannot get a response.

Instead, I now see:

“Link an API key, Choose project and API key, Set up billing, Continue setting up billing for project ‘Default Gemini Project’ to use key ‘Default Gemini API Key’.”

I do not want to set up Google Cloud Billing or make a payment just to test whether this will fix the problem.

Could you please tell me whether there is a way to restore my free access to Gemini/AI Studio without setting up billing? If free access cannot be restored, please explain why and what specifically is preventing my account from using the free tier.

Thank you, Vija

4

Dear Gemini,

This disaster started 11 days ago when I probably exceeded a limit. I worked with complicated text (biology, species) and at the same time chatted about several other subjects (gardening, kitchen). No images, statistics etc.

I checked what you recommended to check; enabled 2-step verification.

Still I CAN NOT access AI Studio chat with:

  • Edge and Mozilla on my PC;
  • Mobile phone (Chrome) with WIFI off;
  • My other google email address which is never used with any AI.

It is sad. Could you please help me. I am ready to pay but I am sure that this will not help to access your service as it continuously shows “An internal error has occurred”.

Vija

5

Hello @Vija_Znotina ,

To restore access, you must add prepayment credits in Google AI Studio Billing and link a GCP billing account to your project.

6

(13 days.)

  1. I do not understand the whole approach. Do I need to pay in order to restore my free access? Is my free access to AI Studio closed forever? Do I need to pay for the rest of my life just to be able to exchange a few sentences monthly with AI?

Then you must inform your users about this. That one single mistake with limits will cause lifetime ban.

  1. Please confirm that adding billing will actually restore access to my AI Studio chat and remove the current “Internal error / Permission denied” problem. Payment should be made after the other problems are solved, and not just to see whether it works or not.

Vija

7

I will summarize my problem clearly because I feel misunderstood.

I am a free user, using AI studio for texts only. No images, no statistics, etc.

During last weeks, I used AI for two things.

  • I worked with difficult text (biology, species);
  • At the same time, I chatted about several other subjects: gardening, food, psychology. There was also chat where I used AI as a sparring partner for discussions (Socratic style).

I agree that it was too much. One evening (8th September), a message appeared in the window (something about the limits), but I did not pay attention because it was already late.

Since then, I have not been able to access AI Studio chat using:

  • Edge and Mozilla on my PC;
  • Mobile phone (Chrome) with WIFI turned off;
  • My other google email address which is never used with any AI.

Every morning since September 8, I have tried writing “.” in the chat line, and I get either:

  • Link an API key, set up billing
    or
  • An internal error has occurred. Failed to create interaction: permission denied. Please try again.

I have checked my age information, my phone number has been verified for years, and I have enabled 2-step verification.

I can certainly use AI less. I need about one more month to finish my species project, and if I stop using the other chats, I will not exceed your limits.

Your suggestion that I should pay in order to get back my free access seems illogical to me. Is this a penalty for using too much? If so, why is this not clearly explained to users?

I am willing to pay for the service if necessary, but I do not want to pay just to find out whether payment will restore access or not.

Vija

8

(2 weeks and 2 days.)

Well, I paid 5 euros. I got access to Antigravity Agent (I think so) which kindly explained me details about the payment but when I tried to get back to my old AI Studio chats I got “Link an API key” followed by “Upgrade to unlock more”.

So I paid but I did not get access.

Antigravity Agent was so worried about it that now it is on "An internal error has occurred. "

:smiley: :smiley: sorry but it is so amusing.

9

After an hour, the Agent woke up. With its help, I pressed various buttons in a strange sequence and have now gained access.

The concept is that the settings store information about my locked free mode and recall it after every refresh.

The crucial action was :
Link an API key, set up billing → … → Continue with pay per request → Default Gemini API Key

(and no refresh) .

So, thank you and good night.