I dug further into the August 10–14, 2026 reports and Google’s own troubleshooting documentation. The evidence is considerably stronger now.
Most likely diagnosis
The exact combination:
“Failed to list models: permission denied”
“Failed to list imported projects: permission denied”
“Unable to check your Google AI Subscription”
is being reported by multiple users in the same period. The August 10 report is almost an exact match, including the fact that Google Cloud and the ordinary Gemini service continued working.
Google AI Developers Forum
There are also fresh August 11–13 reports involving:
AI Studio model-list permission failures
inability to create AI Studio projects
Gemini API 403 PERMISSION_DENIED
projects suddenly becoming Restricted
quota/billing tiers becoming unavailable
AI Studio redirecting to /520 while project listing fails.
Google AI Developers Forum +3
So this is not looking like an isolated browser problem.
The most important distinction
Google’s current troubleshooting documentation says AI Studio permission failures can originate from several layers:
Google Cloud IAM permissions
account/security checks
Terms acceptance
supported-region checks
Trust & Safety/project restrictions
Google specifically documents that AI Studio can return PERMISSION_DENIED when security/compliance checks fail, even when ordinary Cloud access works.
Google AI for Developers
However, the subscription-verification failure makes a simple IAM problem less likely.
The strongest clue: account/entitlement state.
The August 10 report is especially valuable because that user tested:
same computer
same internet
Chrome
Incognito
no VPN
personal Gmail
supported location
and AI Studio worked with another personal Gmail account.
That is almost a textbook account-specific backend/entitlement problem rather than a browser/network problem.
Google AI Developers Forum
And the August 11–13 reports show related account/project restrictions occurring at the same time. One current report explicitly shows:
Project status: Restricted
Quota tier: unavailable
Billing tier: unavailable
API access: restricted
with Gemini returning 403
PERMISSION_DENIED.
Google AI Developers Forum
Another August 11 report received a Google forum response saying that a 403 can indicate an account flag, with the user directed to look for an explanatory banner in Cloud Console.
Google AI Developers Forum
What is the most likely actual fix?
- Check the affected project’s status in Cloud Console
This is now the first thing I’d recommend.
Google forum staff have repeatedly instructed users experiencing project-denied/403 problems to:
Cloud Console → select the project associated with AI Studio → look for a warning/banner explaining the restriction or providing an appeal mechanism.
This advice appears repeatedly in 2026
Google AI Developers Forum threads.
Google AI Developers Forum +2
If a banner exists, follow the appeal/review process rather than attempting to work around the restriction.
- Check AI Studio’s project/billing status
If AI Studio loads far enough, inspect its project/API-key area.
Look for states such as:
Restricted
Unavailable
quota tier unavailable
billing tier unavailable
API access restricted
Those states are particularly important because current reports show that a project/account restriction can manifest as apparently unrelated permission denied errors.
Google AI Developers Forum
3. Verify IAM only if this is a Cloud project issue
Google’s documentation says AI Studio’s project operations require specific IAM permissions.
For example, searching/importing projects requires:
resourcemanager.projects.get
Creating API keys additionally requires permissions including:
apikeys.keys.create
and serviceusage.services.enable.
Google also notes that the Generative Language API must be enabled for relevant API-key operations.
Google AI for Developers
But don’t start randomly adding roles.
If the affected user is already the Owner of the project, IAM is unlikely to explain why the subscription itself suddenly cannot be verified.
A current August 13 report is particularly telling: the user says they are Owner, gcloud projects list works, gcloud projects describe works, and the Generative Language API is enabled, yet AI Studio still says:
Failed to list imported projects: permission denied and eventually redirects through /520.
Google AI Developers Forum
That strongly argues against a basic Cloud IAM misconfiguration.
What about region/IP?
It’s possible, but not my leading explanation.
Google explicitly says supported-region and automated security checks can produce access restrictions.
Google AI for Developers
There are also historical reports where changing network characteristics fixed Failed to list models, including one user who reported that disabling IPv6 solved it.
Google AI Developers Forum
But the August 10 case is much more compelling for an account-side issue because another Google account worked on the same machine and same connection.
Google AI Developers Forum
Therefore:
Don’t start by changing IP addresses or networks.
Instead, compare the affected account against another account on the same device/network.
What about clearing cookies?
Worth trying, but it isn’t the likely permanent fix.
Incognito testing in the August 10 report didn’t resolve the problem.
Google AI Developers Forum
So if the person has already tested Incognito and another browser, I wouldn’t waste hours repeatedly clearing browser data.
My recommended diagnostic sequence
I’d have the affected person do this in order:
A. Open AI Studio with the affected account.
B. Check whether the error remains in Incognito.
C. If possible, sign into another eligible Google account on the same device/network.
D. Check the affected account’s AI Studio project/API-key area.
E. Open the corresponding project in Google Cloud Console and look carefully for restriction, abuse, billing, quota, or appeal banners.
F. Check whether the project is showing Restricted/Unavailable rather than merely having a normal quota.
G. Verify the Generative Language API and IAM only if the project itself appears normal.
H. If all of that is normal but AI Studio still cannot verify the subscription, treat it as an account-side AI Studio entitlement/authentication synchronization problem and escalate to Google rather than modifying the project repeatedly.
My conclusion as of August 14
I would not describe this as a confirmed global Google AI Studio outage.
But I would describe it as a currently active cluster of AI Studio/Gemini authorization and entitlement problems, with multiple reports appearing August 10–13.
The exact error being reported on August 10 is essentially identical to the person’s error.
Google AI Developers Forum
And the August 11–13 reports show related failures involving account flags, restricted projects, unavailable quota/billing tiers, project creation, and model/project listing.
Google AI Developers Forum +3
Therefore my highest-confidence explanation is:
An account/project authorization or entitlement state is failing on Google’s AI Studio backend.
If the person is an Owner, their Cloud Console works, the Generative Language API is enabled, another account works from the same machine/network, and Incognito doesn’t help, I would stop treating this as a local configuration problem and escalate it as an account/backend authorization issue.
Google’s official AI Studio troubleshooting documentation
Google AI Developers Forum — August 10 matching report
Google Cloud Service Health
I am the developer of google AI studio but I have limited access to Google’s technical previllages to incorporate an automated error issue handler. I would recommend users submit signatures proposing an overhaul of their administration policies on developers access previllages
King regards
Joseph lual
