google-gemini
[BUG] Paid Ultra Subscriber Falsely Locked Out by GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT Error & Unacceptable Support Experience
What happened?
A severe bug has completely locked my paid Gemini Ultra subscription out of the CLI and web app.
The Technical Failure: After only 1-2 hours of minimal use, the CLI completely blocked me with the following error:
Failed to login. Message: This account requires setting the GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID env var. This is a false error because I am a personal, paid "Ultra" subscriber and am not using a Workspace account. This indicates a systemic bug that is falsely flagging Ultra accounts as needing a GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT ID or applying a false quota lock. The issue also impacts the web app (image generation is blocked).
The Support Failure: When I contacted support to report this obvious bug, the experience was unacceptable:
Case ID: 5-3551000040819
Date/Time: November 23, 2025, approx. 8:33 PM PST
The agent was rude, refused to investigate the known bug, and insisted the product was "working as intended."
The agent's dismissive and unprofessional conduct escalated the call to a point where I ended up cussing him out (which I never do). I demand that the call recording for this Case ID be reviewed immediately.
What did you expect to happen?
The Gemini CLI should authenticate successfully via the "Login with Google" option.
The Ultra subscription should be recognized immediately, granting full, unrestricted access to the service without demanding an environmental variable reserved for enterprise/cloud projects.
Support should have acknowledged and escalated the clear, documented bug instead of dismissing it.
Client information
Client Information Platform: macOS
Login information
No response
Anything else we need to know?
This issue must be treated as a high-priority escalation and should not be automatically marked as a duplicate.
I have reviewed the existing threads (on this repository, Reddit, etc.) regarding the GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT error and the false quota lock. None of the existing threads contain a viable, permanent solution for paying Google One AI Premium (Ultra) subscribers.
The proposed workarounds (API key, setting an environmental variable) confirm this is a systemic bug, and the threads are all dead ends. Because this is a complete failure of a paid service that is now being compounded by abusive support, this report requires immediate human attention and a full, permanent fix. This is an extremely urgent matter.
Found possible duplicate issues:
- #13719
- #12529
- #10110
- #10835
- #13305
- #10153
- #13246
- #13158
- #2150
If you believe this is not a duplicate, please remove the status/possible-duplicate label.
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Same here: gemini ultra business plan. No problems with authorization of my account previously. Now, I'm suddenly getting:
Failed to login. Message: This account requires setting the GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT or GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT_ID env var. See │
│ https://goo.gle/gemini-cli-auth-docs#workspace-gca
I'm running gemini cli from the headless linux server. This authentication issue does NOT occur when running gemini cli locally with the same google account.
Using v0.18.4.
It's more like a Toy Project but paid. I have never see a paid application has so many bugs. It always give us some 'surprising feature' after updating. I believe there are no tester and product manager at here otherwise they must funning with us.
Hi @cyruszad , sorry for this inconvenience, can you try following the steps here https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/discussions/13516
I already unsubscribed. Sorry. Next time.
From: Gal Zahavi @.> Sent: Monday, December 1, 2025 1:00 PM To: google-gemini/gemini-cli @.> Cc: Cyrus Zad @.>; Mention @.> Subject: Re: [google-gemini/gemini-cli] [BUG] Paid Ultra Subscriber Falsely Locked Out by GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT Error & Unacceptable Support Experience (Issue #13722)
[https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/38544478?s=20&v=4]galz10 left a comment (google-gemini/gemini-cli#13722)https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/issues/13722#issuecomment-3598806653
Hi @cyruszadhttps://github.com/cyruszad , sorry for this inconvenience, can you try following the steps here #13516https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/discussions/13516
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