Cloud Support confirmed no account/billing restriction, but two projects still return 403 "project denied access"

Gemini API
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1

Hello Gemini API team,

I am requesting a manual review of what appears to be a Gemini API product-side or project-level access restriction affecting multiple projects on my account.

Affected projects

  • gen-lang-client-08486882..
  • astrbot-gemini-5020..

Both projects consistently return:

403 PERMISSION_DENIED

Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.

The issue is not limited to a single API key or a single project.

Google Cloud Support investigation

I previously contacted Google Cloud Support under:

  • Case #74243402
  • Case #74335034 — GCP Account Suspension Inquiry

For case #74335034, the Google Cloud Account and Security Team manually reviewed my account and explicitly confirmed that there are no account-level restrictions and no billing restrictions on their end.

However, Gemini API access for both projects is still denied.

Cloud Support explained that Gemini API permissions are outside the direct scope of the Account and Security Team and therefore could not resolve the issue themselves.

I have also reviewed the standard Gemini API troubleshooting guidance, but there is currently no visible warning, suspension banner, policy violation notice, or appeal option in Google Cloud Console that explains this specific project-level denial.

Previous forum report

I previously reported the same issue here:

That thread is now locked, so I am posting this follow-up because I now have additional information from Google Cloud Support confirming that Cloud account-level and billing restrictions have been ruled out.

Request

Could a member of the Gemini API team please review the Gemini-side access state for these projects?

Specifically, I would appreciate confirmation of whether there is a project-level Gemini API deny flag, risk flag, permission restriction, or another service-side state that is causing the API to return:

Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.

If this needs to be escalated to the Gemini API engineering/product team, please route it accordingly.

I am happy to provide additional project numbers, request logs, timestamps, screenshots, or other verification information if required.

Thank you.

2

Additional update from Google AI Studio:

I checked both the Projects and Billing pages in Google AI Studio.

Both affected projects are currently shown as Restricted:

  • astrbot-gemini-5020..

  • gen-lang-client-08486882..

On the Gemini API Billing page, AI Studio explicitly displays the following warning for the affected project:

“API access to this project is restricted. Set up billing information to continue.”

There is currently no Appeal / Request Review button shown anywhere on the Projects or Billing pages.

This appears to confirm that the restriction is being surfaced directly by Google AI Studio itself, while Google Cloud Support case #74335034 has already confirmed that there are no account-level or billing restrictions on the Cloud Support side.

Could the Gemini API / AI Studio team please review why these projects are marked Restricted, and whether a Gemini-side flag can be manually reviewed?

I can provide screenshots of both the Projects page and Billing warning if needed.

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Follow-up — verified proxy routing and direct API retest (September 8, 2026)

Both affected projects remain marked Restricted / Billing Tier Unavailable:

  • astrbot-gemini-5020..
  • gen-lang-client-08486882..

I have now completed an end-to-end network audit of the production runtime.

The application runs in a fail-closed Docker network. HTTP(S) traffic is explicitly routed through Mihomo, and generativelanguage.googleapis.com has a dedicated GEMINI_PROXY rule. The current Gemini egress is in Los Angeles, United States. Bypassing the proxy from the container fails even at DNS resolution, so Gemini requests cannot silently use the mainland China host’s direct route.

Proxy logs from August 14 through today show 1,115 requests to generativelanguage.googleapis.com: 1,112 via the US route and 3 via a Japan route, with no direct/CN route entries.

I also retested both existing project keys directly from inside the application container against:

  • gemini-3.6-flash
  • gemini-3.5-flash
  • gemini-3.5-flash-lite
  • gemma-4-31b-it

Every generateContent request returned:

403 PERMISSION_DENIED

Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.

The Google account satisfies the age requirement, has phone verification, and has 2-Step Verification enabled. Google Cloud Console shows no suspension banner or appeal option, and Cloud Support previously confirmed no Cloud account-level or billing restriction.

This evidence rules out an application bug, a missing proxy, a model-specific failure, and a direct mainland-China egress path. Could the Gemini API team please manually review the Gemini-side account/project restriction and advise whether it was triggered by a project risk flag, egress reputation, or another entitlement issue?

I can provide full project numbers, request timestamps, and redacted proxy evidence privately. No API keys are included.

Thank you.