I just generated a fresh API key and connected it to my WordPress plugin for displaying YouTube videos. However, the plugin shows that my API key is not working properly.
I have already turned on the YouTube Data API v3 service in my Google Cloud console. When I check the usage statistics, it shows zero requests have been made. My daily quota appears to be completely unused.
Testing the same API key using Postman gives me a 403 error with this response:
{
"error": {
"code": 403,
"message": "Request failed due to quota limit exceeded",
"details": [
{
"message": "Request failed due to quota limit exceeded",
"domain": "youtube.quota",
"reason": "quotaExceeded"
}
]
}
}
What might be causing this quota error when I have not made any API calls yet?
Had this exact problem when setting up YouTube API integration for a client project. The issue was that my Google Cloud project was still in a restricted state even though I had enabled the API. Check if your project has been properly verified - Google often puts new projects through a verification process that can take 24-48 hours. During this period, you might see quota exceeded errors even with zero usage. Also verify that the API key restrictions are properly configured - if you set IP or referrer restrictions incorrectly, it can trigger quota errors instead of the expected authentication errors. Try creating a completely unrestricted API key temporarily for testing purposes.
might be a region issue - some youtube api endpoints dont work properly in certain geographic locations or have different quota restrictions. also double check that you copied the api key correctly without any extra spaces or characters, ive seen that cause weird quota errors before.
sounds like ur project might not have proper billing setup. even with free tier, google sometimes requires billing account linked to prevent abuse. try adding a payment method in cloud console even if you dont plan to exceed free limits - this fixed same issue for me last month.
Check if you’re using the correct project ID in your requests. I encountered similar quota errors when my API key was generated from one project but my application was somehow referencing a different project ID in the requests. This happens more often than you’d think, especially if you have multiple Google Cloud projects. Another possibility is that your API key might be hitting some kind of rate limiting due to the specific endpoint you’re calling - certain YouTube API endpoints have different quota costs and some have additional restrictions beyond the standard daily limits. Try testing with a simple videos.list request first to isolate whether it’s a general API access issue or specific to your use case.