429 You exceeded your current quota any help appreciated

API
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1

Hi, Ive set up librechat via docker on an lxc and added chatgpt as a model. Any time I try to post to the API I am getting this back: Something went wrong. Here’s the specific error message we encountered: An error occurred while processing the request: 429 You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. For more information on this error, read the docs: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/error-codes/api-errors. Troubleshooting URL:

I’ve went over my account, checked the balance, checked the setting etc, everything seems fine, no big red banners suggesting account on hold etc, absoluetly nothing.

Tried authenticating via curl and got the same message in the terminal.

But, I have only sent like 10 “hi” or “test” messages to the API in the last 24hrs, or all time.

I checked the lxc traffic in case something was hammering the API but there is nothing. It’s a fresh lxc, no other traffic or services, so this should work.

I feel probably support will need to help as iv’e checked everything, so logged a request. 2-3 days? really?

Searched google, reddit, even used gtp5, 4 and 4.0 and deep to try come up with an answer but no joy.

Anyone know how to fix this?

2

Often this can be running an old API key that is forgotten about without funds, or a project that has its own limit cutoff set by the owner.

Available balance to fund calls:
https://platform.openai.com/settings/organization/billing/overview

“Credit Grants” there will show you individual line items, where a past payment of $0.00/$10.00 means the funds are gone.

Then try playground that doesn’t need the right API key; chat with the AI to see you are up and running:

https://platform.openai.com/chat/edit?models=gpt-4.1-mini

3

I’ve only loaded a small amount for testing purposed but this looks okay to me, no credit used at at all.

Credit Grants

USD

$0.00 / $10.00

Received State Balance Expires
Sep 01, 2025 Available $10.00 / $10.00 Oct 01, 2026

/just tried the playground, 4.1 mini is not available for my org but 5 is and I got the same error so I guess that complete rules out my end: You’ve reached your usage limit. See your usage dashboard and billing settings for more details. If you have further questions, please contact us through our help center at help openai.

Usage

Total Spend

$0.00

1d

I have tried creating new API keys to rulle out anything old and stale but I just get that same message.

4

It sounds like your payment hasn’t been processed through the API organization system. A delay for minutes to hours before the account is unlocked as “funded” is typical API behavior. Even when everything looks like you have paid.

If it has been more than that amount of time, you would need to contact “help” via the platform site, send a message, and request a human unlock your account to normal function - because the payment wasn’t credited properly to provision the new account.

You can also feed the machine another $5, and hope that any intermittent problem has passed. There have been times of service outage before where that wouldn’t work until things were fixed, and account provisioning and tier escalation had to be retroactively fixed for all organizations (just a week or two ago, in fact).

(it is unfortunate that “credit grants” doesn’t show the actual date/time of your payment, but instead obfuscates)

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5

No worries thank you for taking the time to respond, appreciated. Everything you said make sence.

Yesterday I was logged in to the platform open ai section, while logged in I went to the help sections, started a new chat with their automated support, then we decided to escilate to their support team.
All the information about the issue I was having was contained in that chat. The chat bot said I would receive a responce from the support team via email, and I could respond to that email for further support.

Today I have received a responce and Im just confused by this answer, what does that even mean??

To me it suggests starting a whole new chat and support request.

"Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to OpenAI Support.

I understand you’re receiving “insufficient_quota” errors on all models, even with a valid API key, and want confirmation on whether your access is pending or misconfigured. Rest assured, I’m here to help clarify your model access situation.

It looks like you’re not signed into the account you’re inquiring about. For security and verification purposes, we can only process account updates, changes, refunds, and billing-related requests from verified accounts.

Please log into your ChatGPT or API account using the email linked to the account in question. Once signed in, visit our Help Center and start a new chat with us—the chat option is in the bottom right corner.

If you’re having trouble logging in, this help article might help.

Sorry for the trouble and thanks for your patience. We’re here to help!"

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6

Ahh, the only conlusion I can come to by that responce is they exect me to still have that browser window open and that chat window open the following day? really?

7

I just discovered you can see all your previous chat sessions from the timer icon on the top right of any chat session in the help.openai.com As you say the chat is bottom right, then you’ll see the timer icon. I was able to reply to yesterday’s escalation without having to worry about email addresses. They don’t seem to use case numbers.
BTW, I am 40 hours into the same issue. Paid my $5 and got credits, but everything returns “insufficient_quota”.

8

40 hours :grimacing: well im posting this in the interests of transparency, because I know I can’t be the only one running into this problem.

My situation

  • My card was charged successfully ($12 with tax).

  • My account shows $10 credit available.

  • I generated a project key (sk-proj-…) and am including the correct OpenAI-Organization and OpenAI-Project headers.

  • /v1/models confirms I can see GPT-3.5, GPT-4, GPT-5 etc. — so the key and headers are correct.

  • Every completion call (even a trivial one with GPT-3.5 and max_tokens: 50) fails with:

“type”: “insufficient_quota”,
“message”: “You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details.”

What I asked Support

I asked them to clarify why I’m still blocked despite billing being live, credits available, and the key/org/project setup being correct. Specifically:

  1. Is my account/project stuck in “trial credit” mode despite being billed?

  2. Can someone manually unlock my project for pay-as-you-go quota?

  3. What’s the ETA for being able to use the API after payment?

What Support replied

1st reply:

“Project proj_XXXXX does not have access to model gpt-3.5-turbo usually means your project is not yet linked to a usage plan that includes model access. Adding billing alone doesn’t automatically grant access to models. Please upgrade your project’s usage tier via the API platform.”

2nd reply:,

*“Hello ######, < - - - they used my second name here.

We’ve reviewed your account and can confirm that you are already in Tier X. You can verify this in the Limits page. As your usage increases, you’ll automatically move to the next tier. Thank you for building with us!”*

Neither of these actually addressed the core issue: my account is billed, credits exist, models are visible, but completions are blocked with insufficient_quota.

Why I’m posting

I find it disappointing that the replies don’t match the question I asked. This isn’t a configuration problem on my side — it’s clearly an account activation / quota flag issue. I think others deserve to see the support experience as it stands, because it affects whether new users can realistically get started after paying.

Hopefully this helps anyone else stuck in the same loop.

9

Your use-case is a little complicated. I may have missed it, but are you getting the same response from the playground? I do. https://platform.openai.com/chat This uses no api key, just whatever org and project is at the top of the page.
```You exceeded your current quota, please check your plan and billing details. ...
```

If only the support LLM had an MCP to reset someone’s account. It very clearly gave me every possible thing that could go wrong and finally said that it was something on their end, but the human in the loop told me to try again: “Please try again after refreshing your browser tab“ and asked screen shots. I’m thinking they have a bug. 48 hours now.

10

You are getting a bot response that is programmed to placate and do nothing because it can’t. You will have to engineer the conversation not with questions, but with demands:

“Escalate to human support! ISSUE: API purchase of credits did not unlock new account organization for use: staff support needed to fix organization and properly provision services API..”

prompt engineering to get prompt action…

11

My account is working now! Fix: I bought more credits after a refund. Not sure the refund is part of the fix.

Details:
I didn’t find hard to get the escalation. At the point where the support LLM decided the issue was on the companies side, it sent our conversation to a human. The first human was immediate but not very useful. The second, two days later, after sending screen shot evidence, gave me a refund, and said try again to buy credits. So I added another $5, making my total credits $10. I tried the chat>prompt/playground and it gave me a response and no error!

So now the $5 question is: What happens when credit balance gets back to $5? I guess I’ll find out!

12

Just a wild guess: the second payment you made unlocked the account regardless of any OpenAI action.

“Status 429 … check you plan and billing details.” when you exhaust all credit grant line items.

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