diff --git a/.changes/region-pinning-403-failover b/.changes/region-pinning-403-failover
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e388cef23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/region-pinning-403-failover
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+patch type="fixed" "Fail over to other Cloud regions when the initial connection is rejected with 403"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/src/core/room.dart b/lib/src/core/room.dart
index 5c3b2a077..4ef28bbf0 100644
--- a/lib/src/core/room.dart
+++ b/lib/src/core/room.dart
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ import '../support/disposable.dart';
 import '../support/http_client.dart';
 import '../support/platform.dart';
 import '../support/region_url_provider.dart';
-import '../support/websocket.dart' show WebSocketException;
 import '../track/audio_management.dart';
 import '../track/local/audio.dart';
 import '../track/local/video.dart';
@@ -367,8 +366,7 @@ class Room extends DisposableChangeNotifier with EventsEmittable<RoomEvent> {
       didConnect = true;
     } catch (e) {
       logger.warning('could not connect to $url $e');
-      if (_regionUrlProvider != null &&
-          (e is WebSocketException || (e is ConnectException && e.reason != ConnectionErrorReason.NotAllowed))) {
+      if (_regionUrlProvider != null && canFailOverToAnotherRegion(e)) {
         String? nextUrl;
         try {
           nextUrl = await _regionUrlProvider!.getNextBestRegionUrl();
diff --git a/lib/src/support/region_url_provider.dart b/lib/src/support/region_url_provider.dart
index 5bc0732da..5e44d6c33 100644
--- a/lib/src/support/region_url_provider.dart
+++ b/lib/src/support/region_url_provider.dart
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import '../logger.dart';
 import '../options.dart';
 import '../proto/livekit_rtc.pb.dart' as lk_models;
 import 'http_client.dart';
+import 'websocket.dart' show WebSocketException;
 
 class RegionUrlProvider {
   Uri serverUrl;
@@ -128,6 +129,33 @@ bool isCloudUrl(Uri uri) {
   return uri.host.contains('.livekit.cloud') || uri.host.contains('.livekit.run');
 }
 
+/// Whether a failed connection attempt may be retried against a different LiveKit Cloud region.
+///
+/// LiveKit Cloud signals project-level region pinning by returning 403 on the RTC paths when the
+/// project is not allowed in the region the client geo-routed to. `/settings/regions` is
+/// deliberately left reachable so the client can discover its allowed regions and connect there,
+/// so a 403 must not be treated as terminal.
+///
+/// A 401 stays terminal: no other region will accept a token this one rejected.
+///
+/// We key on the status rather than the server's error message because that message is an
+/// unversioned human-readable string; matching it would let a copy edit break already-shipped
+/// clients. If a 403 really was a permissions failure rather than region pinning, every region
+/// attempt fails the same way and the original error still surfaces — at the cost of one extra
+/// region lookup.
+bool canFailOverToAnotherRegion(Object error) {
+  if (error is WebSocketException) {
+    return true;
+  }
+  if (error is ConnectException) {
+    if (error.reason == ConnectionErrorReason.NotAllowed) {
+      return error.statusCode == 403;
+    }
+    return true;
+  }
+  return false;
+}
+
 String toHttpUrl(String url) {
   if (url.startsWith('ws')) {
     return url.replaceFirst('ws', 'http');
diff --git a/test/support/region_failover_test.dart b/test/support/region_failover_test.dart
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..04f8aac60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/support/region_failover_test.dart
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+// Copyright 2026 LiveKit, Inc.
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+import 'package:flutter_test/flutter_test.dart';
+
+import 'package:livekit_client/src/exceptions.dart';
+import 'package:livekit_client/src/support/region_url_provider.dart';
+import 'package:livekit_client/src/support/websocket.dart' show WebSocketException;
+
+void main() {
+  group('canFailOverToAnotherRegion', () {
+    test('allows failover on 403, which LiveKit Cloud uses to signal region pinning', () {
+      // The RTC paths 403 when the project is not allowed in the region the client
+      // geo-routed to. /settings/regions stays reachable so the client can discover
+      // where it is allowed to connect.
+      expect(
+        canFailOverToAnotherRegion(
+          ConnectException(
+            'project not allowed in this region.',
+            reason: ConnectionErrorReason.NotAllowed,
+            statusCode: 403,
+          ),
+        ),
+        isTrue,
+      );
+    });
+
+    test('does not allow failover on 401 — no other region will accept the same token', () {
+      expect(
+        canFailOverToAnotherRegion(
+          ConnectException(
+            'unauthorized',
+            reason: ConnectionErrorReason.NotAllowed,
+            statusCode: 401,
+          ),
+        ),
+        isFalse,
+      );
+    });
+
+    test('allows failover on a websocket error', () {
+      expect(canFailOverToAnotherRegion(const WebSocketException('failed')), isTrue);
+    });
+
+    test('allows failover on non-NotAllowed connect errors', () {
+      for (final reason in [ConnectionErrorReason.InternalError, ConnectionErrorReason.Timeout]) {
+        expect(
+          canFailOverToAnotherRegion(ConnectException('failed', reason: reason)),
+          isTrue,
+          reason: 'expected failover for $reason',
+        );
+      }
+    });
+
+    test('does not allow failover on unrelated errors', () {
+      expect(canFailOverToAnotherRegion(StateError('boom')), isFalse);
+    });
+  });
+}