Try temporarily switching to a different network (e.g. try with the hotspot from your phone if available).
Trying switching between IPv6 / IPv4.
Make sure you are accessing AI Studio from one of the supported regions, disconnect any VPN, proxy, or iCloud Private Relay and access AI Studio directly.
Thank you. I have already tried all of these steps: different networks including a mobile hotspot, IPv4/IPv6, Incognito mode, and accessing AI Studio without VPN or proxy. The same “Failed to list models: permission denied” error persists.
There is also an important security detail: my Google Account was compromised on August 31. There was an unauthorized Windows sign-in, my Authenticator was removed and replaced, and my recovery email was changed without my permission.
I have since fully recovered and secured the account: changed the password, restored my recovery information, removed unauthorized access, and configured new 2FA.
Google AI Studio worked before this security incident. The permission denied issue appeared afterward.
I have contacted Google One Support twice. Case ID: 9-8176000040945. They said the issue would be escalated, but I have not received the promised follow-up yet.
Could a Google AI Studio staff member please review whether my account has an account-level security/eligibility restriction following the compromise? I can provide my account email and security screenshots privately via DM.
Do you see a banner somewhere that says, “This Project’s API access is restricted. Please set up billing to continue”? Our records indicate that your account has been flagged by automated systems and you will need to link a billing account to your project to resume service.
Hey everyone, dropping some console logs here because Gemini and I think the sporadic 403 “Permission Denied” flag we’ve been seeing since late August/September might not be an account ban or quota limit, or what have you. It looks like a straight-up streaming crash on the frontend.
I’m on the paid Ultra tier, low usage (1-2 RPM, well under 60k tokens), and my consumer Gemini app and AI mode on google search works fine. But AI Studio randomly hits a wall after an hour or so of usage. Switching models from 3.1 Pro to 3.8 Flash temporarily wakes it up, but then the cycle repeats.
Popped open the developer console when it threw the flag just now, and this is what showed:
Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: TextDecoder.decode: Decoding failed.at gaa (https:/gstatic.com…)
I put this through some checks with Gemini given I’m really not much for this stuff, and its suggesting what might actually be happening is the server sends back a broken or poorly chunked binary stream, and the frontend web app’s TextDecoder completely chokes on it. Because that network promise crashes unhandled in the boq-makersuite client code, the UI loses its mind and falls back to displaying the generic “Permission Denied” error message.
Toggling models just kills the broken connection and opens a fresh one, which is why it fixes the symptom for a bit. It’s a pure client-side stream parsing bug in the playground UI. Anyone else seeing the TextDecoder failure in their console logs when this happens?
Can anyone from the Dev team confirm this as the issue or just another random thing with no relation to the actual problem?
I have an important update: today the issue suddenly disappeared and both Google AI Studio and Antigravity started working normally again. Everything worked correctly for approximately 1–2 hours.
Then, without me changing anything on the account, network, browser, or billing configuration, the exact same problem returned.
I am now again seeing:
“Failed to list models: permission denied. Please try again.”
“Failed to list bundled Applications: permission denied. Please try again.”
“Failed to list imported projects: permission denied. Please try again.”
In Antigravity, agent executions now immediately terminate with “Agent execution terminated due to error.”
During the period when access was restored, Antigravity was working normally and I was actively using it. Then it suddenly stopped again.
Regarding your previous question: I do not see a banner saying:
“This Project’s API access is restricted. Please set up billing to continue.”
Instead, the web interface itself fails to load models/apps/projects because of permission denied errors.
This is why I suspect that an automated account restriction is being re-applied after access is restored.
Could you please check my account again and, if possible, remove or reset the automated flag permanently, rather than temporarily?
It would also be very helpful if you could confirm:
What exactly is triggering the automated restriction?
Why access was restored for 1–2 hours and then blocked again?
Whether this is related to the previous security compromise on my Google Account.
Whether there is a permanent account-level fix that can be applied by the AI Studio team.
I can provide the affected Google Account email privately if needed.
I am attaching fresh screenshots showing the current state of Google AI Studio and Antigravity.
Thank you, but unfortunately this solution does not work in my case.
I cannot even set up billing or move to paid API access because my account is already blocked at the permission level.
Google AI Studio fails before I can properly access the relevant paid/API functionality. I continue to receive errors such as:
“Failed to list models: permission denied.”
“Failed to list bundled Applications: permission denied.”
“Failed to list imported projects: permission denied.”
So the problem is not simply that I have not added billing yet. The problem is that the account itself appears to have an account-level restriction that prevents normal access.
This is also not a standard browser/network issue:
I already tested different networks, including mobile hotspot.
I tested IPv4/IPv6.
I tested Incognito.
I tested without VPN/proxy.
My age is verified.
Google AI Pro is active.
Most importantly, AI Studio and Antigravity suddenly started working again for about 1–2 hours, and then the same permission-denied restriction returned without me changing anything.
That behavior strongly suggests that the automated restriction on my account is being removed temporarily and then applied again.
At this point, could you please review the actual account state directly or escalate this to someone who can inspect the account-level restriction?
Repeating general billing instructions does not resolve the issue because I am unable to reach the normal billing/API setup flow while the account is restricted.
My case is not a standard “free tier vs paid tier” problem. There appears to be a persistent or repeatedly re-applied permission/security flag on the account.
I am happy to provide the affected Google Account email privately so that someone can check the account directly.
Could you please investigate the actual restriction on the account instead of sending the standard setup steps again?
Can you share the specific error message you’re seeing when you try to add prepayment credits or attach a billing account to your project? A screenshot of the error would be extremely helpful for us to investigate this further!
@Mahesh_Sutar Hi, yes, of course. It’s an error that occurs when creating the API key—first error 1 appears, then error 2. I can’t attach screenshots here; which email address should I send them to? Or please email me so I can attach the relevant screenshots and a screen recording in my reply.
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Failed to list models: permission denied. Please try again.
