Request for Manual Review – Gemini API 403 PERMISSION_DENIED / Project Access Denied

Gemini API
1

Hello Gemini API Team,

I am requesting a manual review of Gemini API access for my Google Cloud project.

Project name:
no-money-api-00

Project ID:
no-money-api-00

Google AI Studio currently shows:
Billing Tier: Unavailable

Every Gemini API content-generation request returns:

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

I have already completed the recommended account verification steps:

  • Age/date-of-birth information is correctly registered.
  • Phone number verification is complete.
  • 2-Step Verification (2SV) is enabled.
  • A Gemini API key was successfully created in Google AI Studio.
  • The API key has been tested, but the same 403 error persists.

This project is intended for a low-volume educational application
called “Kakao ai news.”

Its purpose is to collect recent AI education news, summarize the
main articles, and send the resulting educational news digest to
my personal KakaoTalk account.

I would like to use the Gemini API Free Tier and am not requesting
a Paid Tier upgrade.

Could you please manually review whether my project/account has
been restricted by an automated verification or risk-control
system and restore Gemini API access if the restriction was
applied in error?

I have intentionally not included my API key or other credentials
in this post.

I also verified the API key configuration in Google Cloud Console.

  • The API key is explicitly restricted to the Gemini API.
  • It is not an unrestricted API key.
  • Therefore, the key complies with the API key restriction
    requirements introduced on June 19, 2026.
  • The API key is also shown as bound to a service account.

Despite these settings, Google AI Studio still shows
“Billing Tier: Unavailable”, and generateContent requests return:

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

Additional information:

The complete application workflow has already been successfully
tested using the Gemini API Paid Tier.

The workflow is:

Tavily search
→ Gemini API summarization/content generation
→ KakaoTalk “Send to Me”

The entire workflow works correctly with the Paid Tier API.

This 403 PERMISSION_DENIED issue appeared only when I switched
to a new Free Tier project/API key for testing.

Therefore, the application code and external integrations have
already been verified to work correctly.

The issue appears to be specific to Free Tier access for the
project:

Project ID: no-money-api-00

Google AI Studio shows:
Billing Tier: Unavailable

and Gemini API requests return:

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

I would appreciate a manual review of the Free Tier eligibility
or access status for this project.

Thank you.

2

Hello Gemini API Team,

I’m following up on my September 9 request regarding project no-money-api-00.

As of September 19, Google AI Studio still shows “Billing Tier: Unavailable” and “Restricted.” The rate-limit page says that API access is restricted and asks me to set up billing.

As described in my original post, I have completed account verification and restricted the API key to the Gemini API. I would like to use the Free Tier without enabling paid billing.

Could you please clarify:

  1. Is this project eligible for the Free Tier?
  2. What is causing the restriction, and can it be resolved without enabling billing?
  3. If this forum cannot handle the review, which support or appeal channel should I use?

I can provide additional non-sensitive diagnostic information if needed. Thank you.

3

Hello @Ant_W

It seems like your projects are flagged by automated account security checks. To unblock this error, you should consider upgrading to a paid plan. You could add prepayment credits directly in Google AI Studio and/ or by attaching an active billing account in the Google Cloud Console.