Gemini API 403 Permission Denied — Project access denied

Gemini API
1

Hello Gemini API Support,

I am developing a student project called OQELA and my Gemini API requests are failing with:

403 PERMISSION_DENIED
“Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.”

Project:
OQELA Free Test

Project ID:
gen-lang-client-02063086..

The Gemini API is enabled in Google Cloud Console.

I tested the API directly using curl.

GET /v1beta/models works successfully and returns the available models.

However:

gemini-2.5-flash → 404 because the model is no longer available to my project.

gemini-3.6-flash → 403 PERMISSION_DENIED:
“Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.”

I am using a valid Gemini API key created for this project.

Google AI Studio shows the project as Free Tier.

I do not want to enable paid billing.

Please review the project/account restriction and restore Gemini API access if this is an incorrect restriction.

Thank you.

2

Hello @Kushagra_Vispute ,

Please try the below steps:

  1. 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.

  2. Verify your Google Account:

  3. Upgrade to a Paid Tier:

    • If verifying your account does not restore access (or if using a model requiring a paid tier), you can unlock access by adding prepayment credits directly in Google AI Studio or attaching a Google Cloud Billing account in the Google Cloud Console.