How to Resolve 'Free credits temporarily have restricted access' Error in Vercel AI Gateway
Vercel AI Gateway is an incredibly convenient service that allows you to easily switch between multiple AI providers and supports fallback options.
However, during development, you might suddenly encounter the following error and find yourself confused:
UnknownError: Free credits temporarily have restricted access due to abuse. We are working on a resolution. Paid credits continue to have unrestricted access. Purchase credits at https://vercel.com/d?to=%2F%5Bteam%5D%2F%7E%2Fai%3Fmodal%3Dtop-up
This article provides a detailed explanation of why this error occurs and how to solve it.
Looking at the error message, it states that “free credits have temporarily restricted access due to abuse.”
In our case, we were using the “BYOK (Bring Your Own Key)” model with AI Gateway, providing our own API keys for services like OpenAI. So we wondered, “Shouldn’t Vercel credits be irrelevant?”
The conclusion is: Even when using BYOK on the free plan, Vercel still imposes rate limits and other restrictions.
According to Vercel’s support team, these restrictions are measures to prevent abuse based on past incidents. In other words, they’ve implemented certain usage limits for users who utilize Vercel’s infrastructure for free.
The simplest and most reliable way to solve this problem is to purchase Vercel AI credits.
By purchasing even a small amount of credits through the link in the error message or from the Vercel dashboard, your account will be recognized as a “paid credit user,” which lifts or relaxes the following restrictions:
This resolves the error and allows you to use AI Gateway smoothly again.
When you encounter the Free credits temporarily have restricted access error in Vercel AI Gateway, it’s due to Vercel’s free plan restrictions, regardless of whether you’re using BYOK or not.
This issue can be resolved by purchasing even a small amount of Vercel AI credits. To fully leverage the powerful features of Vercel AI Gateway, consider purchasing credits.
That’s all from the Gemba, where we’re committed to making the most of Vercel AI Gateway.