PERMISSION_DENIED Error Despite Full Admin Permissions on Manager and Client Accounts

[Vineeth N]

Hello Google Ads API Team,

I am consistently receiving a PERMISSION_DENIED error when trying to make a simple API call (MutateCampaignBudgets), despite having verified that my permissions are correct.

The core problem is that the API is denying permission, while the Google Ads UI confirms that I have full Admin access.

Here are the specific details:

Error Message: PERMISSION_DENIED - User doesn't have permission to access customer. Note: If you're accessing a client customer, the manager's customer id must be set in the 'login-customer-id' header.

My User Email: nvine...@gmail.com
Manager Account ID (used as login-customer-id): 622-762-0999
Client Account ID (the target customer): 871-444-9229
Most Recent Request ID: -AoWnh794iLmSH8coVP-_g

Troubleshooting Steps I Have Already Taken:
Verified Admin Access: I have confirmed via the UI that my user (nvine...@gmail.com) has Admin level access on BOTH the Manager Account (622-762-0999) and the Client Account (871-444-9229).

Activated Client Account: The client account (871-444-9229) was fully activated by creating a manual campaign, which is currently paused. The account is no longer in a "Setup in progress" state.

Performed Full Token Revocation: I have gone to my Google Account settings, completely removed access for my OAuth app, deleted my local database containing the old refresh token, and re-authorized from scratch to generate a completely fresh token.
Despite all of these steps, the PERMISSION_DENIED error persists. This strongly suggests there is a backend permission synchronization issue between the Google Ads UI and the API.

Could you please investigate this issue on your end?

Thank you for your help.

[Google Ads API Forum Advisor]

Hi,

Thank you for reaching out to the Google Ads API support team.

Please be informed that we don't have visibility over your previous conversation with other support teams. By reviewing your concern, I see that you are encountering a USER_PERMISSION_DENIED authorization error, it means the user doesn't have permission to access the customer. Also, kindly check if you have the correct access level to the Google Ads account that you are accessing. Please make sure that the email ID that you're using to generate OAuth credentials is added to your account with 'Admin' or 'Standard' access to make mutate operations.

In order to assist you further, could you please confirm whether you are passing your MCC account ID as login-customer-id in your API request? Also, kindly confirm whether the email ID 'nvine...@gmail.com' that you have shared is the one that is used to generate the OAuth credentials.

You can send the details via Reply privately to the author option, or direct private reply to this email.

Thanks,
 

Google Ads API Team

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[2025-10-09 05:14:14Z GMT] This message is in relation to case "ref:!00D1U01174p.!500Ht01u8fFo:ref" (ADR-00335003)