Request for manual review — Gemini API 403 PERMISSION_DENIED

Gemini API
1

Hello Gemini API team,

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

Project name: Clocktower
Project ID: clocktower-50801..
Account type: Personal Google Account
Intended tier: Free Tier

Google AI Studio currently shows:

Billing Tier: Unavailable
Status: Restricted

API requests using gemini-3.6-flash return:

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

The API key was created successfully and the request reaches the Gemini API.

I have completed:

  • Age verification
  • Phone verification
  • 2-Step Verification

This is a newly created project intended for personal development/testing.

Could you please review whether the Free Tier restriction was applied in error?

Thank you.

2

Hi @lp_sun ,

Getting a 403 API error response and/or seeing “Unavailable” or “Restricted” next to your project in Google AI Studio indicates an automated access restriction on your account/project.

Since you have already completed Age Verification, Phone Verification, and 2-Step Verification (2SV), please review the remaining steps below:

  1. Check Model Availability & Rate Limits:

    • Verify that the model you are requesting is available on the Free Tier and that you haven’t hit rate limits. You can monitor model quotas and limits in the Google AI Studio Rate Limit Dashboard.

  2. Generate a New API Key:

    • Create a new API key in Google AI Studio for your project and test your request with the newly generated key.

  3. 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.