ACCESS_TOKEN_SCOPE_INSUFFICIENT error comes for Ge...

sivapuppala75

Hello,

I am using the ADC Key Method to authenticate the Google Generative AI api in Node JS. But getting the below error
Code:

const ai = new GoogleGenAI({
    keyFile: process.env.GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS,
    scopes: [
        'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/generative-language'
    ]
})
const response = await ai.models.generateContent({
     model: 'gemini-2.5-pro',
     contents: prompt
})

Response:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 403,
    "message": "Request had insufficient authentication scopes.",
    "status": "PERMISSION_DENIED",
    "details": [
      {
        "@type": "type.googleapis.com/google.rpc.ErrorInfo",
        "reason": "ACCESS_TOKEN_SCOPE_INSUFFICIENT",
        "domain": "googleapis.com",
        "metadata": {
          "service": "generativelanguage.googleapis.com",
          "method": "google.ai.generativelanguage.v1beta.GenerativeService.GenerateContent"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

I have given Owner & Editor Roles to the Service Account. But still facing the issue

caryna

Hi @sivapuppala75,

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

You can review this developers guide which provides detailed information on how to set up authentication for the Gemini API using ADC method.

To gain further insight, refer to this documentation that explains how Application Default Credentials works. Also try checking this related discussion from Google Cloud Community, there are mentioned links that might be helpful based on your case scenario and possible reason why you’ve encountered this error.

Was this helpful? If so, please accept this answer as “Solution”. If you need additional assistance, reply here within 2 business days and I’ll be happy to help.

ericdong

Please try authenticating including the correspondent API scope, e.g: generative-language.retriever allows SDK usage, for example:

scopes='https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform,https://www.googleapis.com/auth/generative-language.retriever'

ACCESS_TOKEN_SCOPE_INSUFFICIENT error comes for GenerativeAI with ADC Key