Owner Role getting PERMISSION_DENIED / 400 Error for Vertex AI Gemini API

[helloworld2]

Hi Community,

I'm setting up a new personal project to use the Vertex AI Gemini API with Python, and I'm running into persistent permission issues despite having the Owner role. I'd appreciate any insights!

My Goal:

• Use the google-cloud-aiplatform Python library to call Gemini models (like gemini-1.5-flash-001 or gemini-1.0-pro-002) via Vertex AI.

My Setup:

• Project ID: woven-art-456200-i9
• Project Number: 804321510322
• Account: <PII Removed by Staff>
• IAM Role: Confirmed via the IAM console page that robmadison2006@gmail.com has the Owner role for this project.
• Billing: Free Trial ($300 credit) is active, Billing Overview page shows no errors or alerts.
• Environment: Windows PC, Python installed, gcloud CLI installed.
• Auth: Successfully ran gcloud init (logged in, project set) and gcloud auth application-default login (credentials file created).
• Python Lib: Successfully ran pip install google-cloud-aiplatform.

Problem & Errors Encountered:

1. Python Script Error: When running a simple Python script (code below) to call model.generate_content(), it fails with:

   An error occurred: 400 Project '804321510322' is not allowed to use Prediction API on '.../publishers/google/models/[MODEL_ID]'

   (This happened for both gemini-1.5-flash-001 and gemini-1.0-pro-002 models).

2. gcloud Command Error: When trying to troubleshoot by ensuring APIs are enabled via gcloud, running gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com fails with:

   ERROR: (gcloud.services.enable) PERMISSION_DENIED: Not found or permission denied for service(s): [compute.googleapis.com] reason: SERVICE_CONFIG_NOT_FOUND_OR_PERMISSION_DENIED

Contradiction / Confusion:

• The Google Cloud Console UI (APIs & Services -> Library) shows that Vertex AI API, Compute Engine API, and Cloud Storage API are all ENABLED for the project.
• Despite the APIs showing as enabled in the UI and me having the Owner role, I still get PERMISSION_DENIED trying to enable compute.googleapis.com via gcloud, and the 400 Project ... not allowed error when trying to use the prediction service via the Python SDK.

Troubleshooting Steps Tried:

• Confirmed Owner role via IAM console.
• Confirmed Billing status is Active (Free Trial) with no alerts.
• Confirmed main APIs (Vertex AI, Compute Engine, Storage) show as enabled in console UI.
• Tried enabling recommended APIs via the Vertex AI dashboard button (button showed activity but reappeared without confirming success).
• Tried enabling Compute Engine and Storage APIs manually via gcloud (failed with PERMISSION_DENIED).
• Tried different Gemini models (1.5-flash-001 and 1.0-pro-002).
• Waited several minutes after enabling APIs / trying fixes.
• Confirmed Application Default Credentials were created using gcloud auth application-default login.

Question: Why would I be getting these permission errors (PERMISSION_DENIED for enabling services, 400 Project not allowed for prediction) when I have the Owner role and the relevant APIs appear enabled in the console? Is there potentially an issue with the project state, free trial limitations, or an Organization Policy I might not be aware of (though this should be a personal project)?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

(Optional: Include the Python Code)

Python

# Import the Vertex AI library
import vertexai
from vertexai.generative_models import GenerativeModel

# --- Configuration ---
PROJECT_ID = "woven-art-456200-i9"
LOCATION = "us-central1"
MODEL_ID = "gemini-1.0-pro-002" # Also tried gemini-1.5-flash-001

# --- Initialize Vertex AI ---
vertexai.init(project=PROJECT_ID, location=LOCATION)

# --- Load the Gemini Model ---
model = GenerativeModel(MODEL_ID)

# --- Send a Prompt ---
prompt = "In simple terms, what is a large language model?"
print(f"Sending prompt: '{prompt}'")

try:
    response = model.generate_content(prompt)

    # --- Print the Response ---
    print("\n--- Model Response ---")
    if response.candidates and response.candidates[0].content.parts:
         print(response.candidates[0].content.parts[0].text)
    else:
        print("No text content found in the response.")
        # print(response) # Uncomment to see full response structure if needed

except Exception as e:
    print(f"\nAn error occurred: {e}")

print("\n--- Script Finished ---")