Request for manual review — Gemini API 403 PERMISSION_DENIED & Project Restricted

Gemini API
1

Hello Gemini API / Google AI Studio team,

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

Project name: ai-venture-lab
Project ID: ai-venture-lab-50781..
Intended tier: Free Tier
Model tested: gemini-3.6-flash

Google AI Studio currently shows:
Billing tier: Unavailable
Status: Restricted

API calls return:
403 PERMISSION_DENIED
Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.

The project was created for personal development of a low-volume multi-agent AI research/orchestration application. The Gemini API would be used only for research and summarization tasks.

I have confirmed that:

  • I am the Owner of the Google Cloud project
  • the API key was created successfully
  • the request reaches the Gemini API correctly
  • gemini-3.6-flash is the model being requested

I would like to remain on the eligible Free Tier and would appreciate a manual review of this restriction. If this was triggered by an automated security flag, could you please restore Gemini API access?

I can provide additional project/account details privately if required.

Thank you.

2

Hello @Nass ,
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:

  1. If you’re on the free tier with no billing attached, please try the below steps:

  2. 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.

  3. Ensure you have completed age verification by navigating to Google Account Age Verification and verifying date of birth in Google Account Personal Info.

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

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

  6. 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

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

I have now completed all the recommended account verification steps:

  • Age verification completed
  • Phone verification completed
  • 2-Step Verification enabled
  • I am using the correct Google account and I am Owner of the project
  • The project is still shown as Restricted
  • Billing tier is still Unavailable
  • gemini-3.6-flash still returns 403 PERMISSION_DENIED

AI Studio now explicitly shows:
“This Project’s API access is restricted. Please set up billing to continue.”

I would prefer to remain on the eligible Free Tier and avoid enabling billing solely to clear an automated restriction.

Could you please perform or escalate a manual review of project:
ai-venture-lab-50781..

If the restriction cannot be manually reviewed or removed, could you please confirm whether enabling billing is currently the only supported way to restore Gemini API access?

Thank you.

4

Hello,

I am facing the same issue with my Gemini API project.

I have completed all the recommended verification steps:

  • Age verification completed
  • Phone verification completed
  • 2-Step Verification enabled
  • Correct Google account is being used

However, AI Studio still shows:
“Project quota tier unavailable. Please contact your project administrator for assistance.”

It also says that my project requires attention, and API requests from n8n return:
403 Forbidden / PERMISSION_DENIED

I am trying to use Gemini API for a personal student project and would prefer to use the eligible Free Tier without enabling billing.

Could you please review my project/account and let me know why API access is restricted and whether the restriction can be removed?

Thank you.