Account restricted to AQ. tokens after accidental key exposure on GitHub — requesting AIza key restoration - Gemini API - Google AI Developers Forum
= 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="desktop"  /
= 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="discourse-ai_desktop"  /
= 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="discourse-reactions_desktop"  /
= 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="poll_desktop"  /
= 40rem)" rel="stylesheet" data-target="desktop_theme" data-theme-id="13" data-theme-name="google ai"/
Google AI Developers Forum
Account restricted to AQ. tokens after accidental key exposure on GitHub — requesting AIza key restoration
Gemini API
gemini-api,
ai-studio,
api-key
sandeep_kaki
June 6, 2026, 10:56am
1
Hello Google AI Developer Support Team,
I am writing to request restoration of my account’s ability
to generate standard AIza… format API keys in Google AI Studio.
Account email: s...@gmail.com
Project number: 598655878…
Issue:
All API keys generated from my account now produce AQ. prefix
tokens instead of the standard AIza format. This affects all
projects including newly created ones.
Root cause I believe triggered this:
Approximately 2-3 weeks ago, I accidentally committed a Gemini
API key to a public GitHub repository ( GitHub - sandeep-kaki/AutoPulse · GitHub ).
I believe Google’s automated security scanner detected this and
restricted my account.
Actions I have already taken to secure my account:
Added config.properties to .gitignore immediately after discovery
Removed the exposed key from all config files
Stored the API key exclusively in GitHub Secrets (encrypted)
The codebase now reads the key only from environment variables,
never from committed files
The old exposed key is no longer in use
Current impact:
The AQ. tokens generated by my account are not accepted by the
Gemini API via x-goog-api-key header or ?key= query parameter,
returning 401 UNAUTHENTICATED with reason ACCESS_TOKEN_TYPE_UNSUPPORTED.
Request:
Please review my account and restore the ability to generate
standard AIza… format API keys. I have fully secured my
development workflow and this will not happen again.
Thank you.
Mahesh_Sutar
June 18, 2026, 10:36am
2
Hello @sandeep_kaki ,
We are moving away from Traffic keys (Alza) and towards a more secure Authentication Key (AQ). AI Studio will now only generate Authentication Key (AQ) keys. More information on key usage can be found in the Using Gemini API keys documentation.
Related topics
Topic
Replies
Views
Activity
Account restricted to AQ. tokens — Requesting standard AIza key restoration PLS
Gemini API
api
1
48
June 11, 2026
Account restricted to AQ. tokens - requesting AIza key restoration
Gemini API
api
2
77
June 12, 2026
Account restricted to AQ. tokens after key exposure — requesting AIza key restoration
Gemini API
api
1
38
June 22, 2026
Account restricted to AQ. keys - requesting AIza key restoration
Gemini API
api
1
82
June 12, 2026
Account restricted to AQ. keys after key exposure — requesting AIza restoration
Gemini API
api-key
1
54
June 12, 2026
Home
Categories
Guidelines
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled