Please review my Gemini API Free Tier access. I created a new AI Studio project, but its status is “Restricted” and its billing tier is “Unavailable.” API requests return HTTP 403 PERMISSION_DENIED with “This Project’s API access is restricted. Please set up billing to continue.”
Project ID: gen-lang-client-00866769..
Model: gemini-3.1-flash-live-preview
Use: Low-volume local testing of a voice-agent prototype. I want to use the Free Tier and do not want to enable billing.
Can you explain why this project is restricted and whether its Free Tier access can be restored without billing?
Hello @Louis_Cena ,
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:
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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.
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Ensure you have completed age verification by navigating to Google Account Age Verification and verifying date of birth in Google Account Personal Info.
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Once age verification is configured, retry your request or create a new API key in Google AI Studio.
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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.