Request for manual review — Gemini API free tier project restricted, 403 PERMISSION_DENIED

Gemini API
1

My free-tier project has been restricted and I would like to request a manual

review.

**Project ID:** [gen-lang-client-03989989..]

**First observed:** 2026-09-27, 15:45 UTC

Every `generateContent` call returns:

{

  "error": {

    "code": 403,

    "message": "Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.",

    "status": "PERMISSION_DENIED"

  }

}

There is no `ErrorInfo` block and no reason code.

Details:

- Affects `gemini-3.5-flash-lite`, `gemini-3.1-flash-lite` and `gemini-3.5-flash`

identically.

- `GET /v1beta/openai/models` returns **200** — only generation is blocked.

- I created **five** separate API keys in this project; all five return the same

403, so it is not key-specific. The most recent one was created after reading

the June 2026 notice about unrestricted keys: it is restricted to the Gemini

API only and bound to a service account, and it is denied identically.

- The Generative Language API is enabled on the project.

- In AI Studio the project shows as Restricted, billing tier Unavailable.

- Cloud Console briefly refused to let me create API keys in this project

(“you do not have permission”), though it allowed it again shortly after.

Usage is modest: generating short summaries for a news aggregation site, well

inside free-tier limits. I am not aware of anything that would have triggered a

restriction, and I would welcome being told if something did, so I can correct it.

Could someone from Google review this project? Happy to provide the project

number privately.

2

Hello @groq03user ,

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:

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

  1. 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.

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

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

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

  5. 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

Thank you — I have completed every step in that list and the 403 persists.

On the Google Account associated with the project:

- Age verification: completed.

- Phone verification: completed.

- 2-Step Verification: enabled.

All three were done **before** I created a new API key, and I created that key in

Google AI Studio rather than the Cloud Console, as instructed. It returns the

same error:

{

  "error": {

    "code": 403,

    "message": "Your project has been denied access. Please contact support.",

    "status": "PERMISSION_DENIED"

  }

}

On model availability: the request is `generateContent` against

`gemini-3.5-flash-lite`, `gemini-3.1-flash-lite` and `gemini-3.5-flash`. All

three are free-tier models and all three return the identical 403. The same

request, byte for byte, succeeds on other free-tier keys, so this is not model

eligibility.

**Six** API keys have now been created for this project — five in Cloud Console,

one in AI Studio after full verification. Every one is denied on every model.

`GET /v1beta/openai/models` still returns 200, so only generation is blocked.

I have not attached billing, since your guidance notes that doing so forfeits the

free-tier quota, and I would like to understand the flag before making that

trade.

Could someone check what flag is on this account and what is required to clear

it? Project ID: [gen-lang-client-03989989..]. Happy to provide anything else needed.