Gemini API 403: project denied access — request for review

Gemini API
1

Hello Gemini API team,

I am requesting a review of Gemini API access for Google Cloud project gen-lang-client-08173654...

I created an API key in Google AI Studio. A request to list models returns HTTP 200, but a text-only request to /v1beta/interactions using gemini-3.8-flash returns HTTP 403 with this message:

Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.

AI Studio shows the project as Restricted and its billing tier as Unavailable. I found no explanation or appeal option in the Google Cloud Console dashboard or notifications, or on the AI Studio Projects and Billing pages. No billing account is attached. Cloud Billing Support could not assist because this account is not an administrator of a billing account.

Could the Gemini API team review the project’s access status and advise how to resolve or appeal this restriction? I can provide further details privately if needed.

2

Hello @sota_inoue ,

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:

If you’re on the free tier with no billing attached, 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. Ensure you have completed age verification by navigating to Google Account Age Verification and verifying date of birth in Google Account Personal Info.

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

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

  5. 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.

3

Thank you for your reply. Age verification, phone verification, and 2-Step Verification are all complete for the Google Account associated with this project.

On the AI Studio Rate Limit page, the project shows: “This project’s API access is restricted. Set up billing to continue.” No model rate-limit data is displayed. As noted above, listing models returns HTTP 200, while a text-only request returns HTTP 403.

Before setting up billing, could you confirm whether this restriction is due solely to Free Tier eligibility and whether adding billing and prepayment would enable API access for this same project? If it might remain restricted after payment, please advise which review or appeal channel I should use.