ReadBridge — Help

Almost every problem is one of four things, and ReadBridge usually tells you which. When a key fails, read the message it gives you and find it below.

Read-aloud is silent

The most common problem, and almost always the same cause.

Read-aloud uses a different Google service from everything else: Cloud Text-to-Speech. Your key can be perfectly valid for passages and word-tap tools and still not be allowed to speak, because that service is switched off by default on every new project.

Work down this list — the first one is right about nine times in ten:

The API is not enabled. Open the Text-to-Speech page and press Enable. If it already says "Manage", it is on.
It is enabled on the wrong project. This trips up more people than anything else. Check the project name in the bar at the top of that page matches the project your key was created in. A key only works with its own project.
You just enabled it. Give it a minute and try again — Google takes a moment to propagate.
The key is restricted. If you added API restrictions when creating the key, Cloud Text-to-Speech has to be one of the allowed APIs.
Billing is not linked. Text-to-Speech has a free monthly allowance, but the project still has to have a billing account attached.

The key is real, but this API is not switched on in that Google Cloud project. That is ReadBridge reading Google's own answer back to you. It means cause 1 or 2 above.

If read-aloud still will not work and everything else does, you can put a separate key in just for it: on the Connect Google AI screen, tick Use a separate key for read-aloud. That lets you point speech at a project you know is configured, without touching the other one.

Daily caps and "quota" errors

What the limit actually is, and how to tell which one you hit.

The key works but has hit its quota. Two very different limits produce this, and the fix is different for each.

Which limit	What it feels like	Fix
Daily cap free tier, ~20 requests a day per model	Works for a few minutes at the start of the day, then nothing until tomorrow.	Link a billing account to the project. This is the wall the setup guide warns about — it is not enough for one lesson.
Rate limit too many requests too quickly	Fails in a burst — say, tapping many words in a row — then works again moments later.	Wait a few seconds. Nothing to fix; ReadBridge already moves to another model when one is busy.

Caps reset at midnight Pacific time, not local midnight. A cap hit during an afternoon lesson on the east coast clears in the small hours, not at the end of your school day.

To see where you stand: open the API dashboard, choose your project, and look at requests and errors per API. Spend is under Billing.

Which model it uses, and choosing one

Short answer: ReadBridge chooses, and you do not have to.

Every AI request starts on Google's smallest, fastest, cheapest current model. If that model is busy or overloaded, ReadBridge automatically tries the next one up and then the one after that, so a lesson does not stop because Google is having a moment.

Tried	Why
1st — the lite model	Fastest and by far the cheapest. Good enough for definitions, syllables, morphology and comprehension questions, which is most of what ReadBridge asks for.
2nd and 3rd — larger models	Only used when the first is unavailable. Slightly slower and dearer per request, so they are a fallback rather than a default.

Should you pick a bigger model? Generally no. The work here is short and well-specified — define this word, split this word, write five questions about this passage — and the lite model does it well. A larger model costs more per request for output that is usually indistinguishable in this context. If you ever do want a different one, it is a one-line change in the file; ask whoever sold you the copy.

Current model names are on Google's model page, and prices on the pricing page. Google retires older models over time; if ReadBridge one day reports that a model no longer exists, that is what has happened, and the fix is updating the names in the file.

Other messages you might see

That key was rejected. Check for a stray space, or create a new one. Usually a copy-paste that missed a character or picked up a space. Keys begin AQ. or AIza. Re-copy the whole thing, or create a fresh key.

Billing is not enabled on that project. The free-tier wall. Link a billing account to the same project the key belongs to.

The key is restricted and is not allowed to call this API. You applied API restrictions when creating the key. Either allow the Generative Language API and Cloud Text-to-Speech, or remove the restriction.

Could not reach Google at all. A connection problem rather than a key problem. On a school network, check whether generativelanguage.googleapis.com and texttospeech.googleapis.com are blocked by a filter — this is worth asking your technology department about before anything else.

Nothing to do with keys

Saved texts or records disappeared	They live in the browser's storage for that exact address. Clearing site data, using a private window, or opening a different copy of the file all look like data loss. Records do not follow you between devices.
PDF upload does nothing	Reading a PDF needs an internet connection even though the decks and drills work offline.
It works on one computer but not another	The key is stored per device. Each computer or iPad needs the key entered once.
Everything AI is dark, no error	No key has been entered on that device. The home page will say so.

Still stuck?

One screenshot usually settles it in a single reply.

Before writing, press Test & save. Open ReadBridge, go to the AI key screen, and press Test & save even if the key is already in. It checks the two Google services separately and tells you which one is failing and why — that is almost always the whole answer, and it is faster than waiting on a reply.

If you do need to write, include:

a screenshot of that screen after pressing Test & save;
what you were doing when it went wrong;
whether it has ever worked on that device.

Please do not send student work. The AI key screen contains no passages, no names and no records, which is why it is the screenshot to send. Crop anything else out, and never send a running record, a student label, or a passage a student has read — support cannot accept student information, and does not need it to answer a setup question.

The support form at readbridge.education/support.html asks for exactly what is needed and nothing else. It will not submit without the screenshot, which saves a round trip.

Support: kyle@readbridge.education · on weekdays, within two business days · included for 30 days from purchase.

Google's own billing, quota and account problems are between you and Google — see Billing and the API dashboard. Nobody else can see or change your Google account.