diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 1e689dc1..ed0b1fe8 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
 # gargle (development version)
 
-* Fixed a bug when displaying a request failure that includes a localized
-  message in the error details (#293).
+* Fixed some bugs around surfacing the details of a request failure:
+  - Better handling when the error details include a localized message (#293)
+  - Defensive escaping of `{..}` in Google-provided error messages, to prevent
+    `cli::cli_abort()` from trying (and failing) to do string interpolation
+    (https://github.com/tidyverse/googlesheets4/issues/319)
 * gargle is better able to detect when it's running on Posit Workbench, but not
   necessarily in RStudio, such as in Positron or VS Code (#291).
 
diff --git a/R/response_process.R b/R/response_process.R
index d0bf8dce..368e5ad9 100644
--- a/R/response_process.R
+++ b/R/response_process.R
@@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ gargle_error_message <- function(resp, call = caller_env()) {
       "*" = content$error,
       "*" = content$error_description
     )
-    return(message)
+    return(escape_braces(message))
   }
 
   if (is.null(error)) {
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ gargle_error_message <- function(resp, call = caller_env()) {
       httr::http_status(resp)$message,
       "*" = content$error_description
     )
-    return(message)
+    return(escape_braces(message))
   }
   errors <- error[["errors"]]
 
@@ -190,7 +190,7 @@ gargle_error_message <- function(resp, call = caller_env()) {
 
     error_details <- error$details
     if (is.null(error_details)) {
-      return(message)
+      return(escape_braces(message))
     }
 
     # https://github.com/googleapis/googleapis/blob/master/google/rpc/error_details.proto
@@ -219,7 +219,7 @@ gargle_error_message <- function(resp, call = caller_env()) {
       "",
       reveal_details(error_details)
     )
-    return(message)
+    return(escape_braces(message))
   }
 
   # developed from
@@ -371,3 +371,17 @@ gargle_html_error_message <- function(resp) {
     )
   )
 }
+
+# Google APIs might return error messages containing curly braces, e.g.
+# "metadata.quota_unit: 1/min/{project}/{user}"
+# This can cause problems when eventually process by cli::cli_abort(), e.g.
+# Error:
+# ! ! Could not evaluate cli `{}` expression: `project`.
+# Caused by error in `eval(expr, envir = envir)`:
+# ! object 'project' not found
+# So we need to escape them by doubling them, so they are taken literally.
+# Seen by me and by a user:
+# https://github.com/tidyverse/googlesheets4/issues/319
+escape_braces <- function(msg) {
+  gsub("([{}])", "\\1\\1", msg)
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/_snaps/response_process.md b/tests/testthat/_snaps/response_process.md
index c0df8696..e591b253 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/_snaps/response_process.md
+++ b/tests/testthat/_snaps/response_process.md
@@ -11,15 +11,16 @@
       Error details:
       * reason: RATE_LIMIT_EXCEEDED
       * domain: googleapis.com
+      * metadata.quota_limit_value: 60
+      * metadata.service: sheets.googleapis.com
+      * metadata.consumer: projects/603366585132
+      * metadata.quota_unit: 1/min/{project}/{user}
       * metadata.quota_location: global
       * metadata.quota_metric: sheets.googleapis.com/read_requests
       * metadata.quota_limit: ReadRequestsPerMinutePerUser
-      * metadata.quota_limit_value: 60
-      * metadata.consumer: projects/603366585132
-      * metadata.service: sheets.googleapis.com
       Links
       * Description: Request a higher quota limit.
-        URL: https://cloud.google.com/docs/quota#requesting_higher_quota
+        URL: https://cloud.google.com/docs/quotas/help/request_increase
 
 # Request for non-existent resource (Drive)
 
diff --git a/tests/testthat/fixtures/sheets-spreadsheets-get-quota-exceeded-readgroup_429.rds b/tests/testthat/fixtures/sheets-spreadsheets-get-quota-exceeded-readgroup_429.rds
index 1196cafc..73bd39fa 100644
Binary files a/tests/testthat/fixtures/sheets-spreadsheets-get-quota-exceeded-readgroup_429.rds and b/tests/testthat/fixtures/sheets-spreadsheets-get-quota-exceeded-readgroup_429.rds differ