Manual review request: account-level 403 on two no-billing Gemini API projects

Hello Gemini API team,

I am requesting a manual review of what appears to be an account-level Gemini Developer API restriction on a personal Google account.

Affected projects:

  • codex-gog-florence-ai-202604.. (project number 2100404347..)
  • gemini-florence-free-2608.. (project number 10464752242..)

Both projects are ACTIVE, have no organization parent, and have no Cloud Billing account attached. The account is a personal Gmail account, not a Google Workspace or enterprise account.

A minimal direct REST request to gemini-2.5-flash returns HTTP 403 PERMISSION_DENIED with: “Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.” The same result occurred on the older project and on a newly created clean project immediately after creation, which rules out a single-project configuration problem and strongly suggests an account-level flag.

Troubleshooting completed:

  • Verified there is no billing account and no organization parent.
  • Created one clean no-billing project and enabled the Gemini API.
  • Generated a fresh restricted API key and tested a minimal request.
  • Confirmed the same 403 response.
  • Deleted all test API keys afterward; no affected-project key remains active.

Use case: low-volume personal AI assistant and Cherry Studio testing. I am not aware of any policy violation.

The dedicated unexpected-403 Google Form is now closed and directs users to Cloud Billing Support. Because this account has no billing account, the Billing Support troubleshooter does not offer a truthful matching contact option.

Please review the restriction at the account level and restore Gemini Developer API free-tier eligibility if this is a false positive. I can provide redacted logs or screenshots privately if needed.

Thank you.