Account Deactivation - “Distillation” Reason

API
1

On September 27, my OpenAI account was deactivated with the reason listed as “Distillation.” I’m confident this is a misunderstanding. I run an iOS app for chatting with AI models (App Store link: ‎AI Chat bot Assistant - Xenova on the App Store ). The app communicates only with my backend, which then calls the OpenAI API. All requests to the server are HMAC-signed so only my app can access it, and I enforce strict server-side rate limits to prevent abuse. With this architecture, model distillation via the iOS client shouldn’t be possible in principle.

I submitted an appeal through the help form on help.openai.com, but it’s been four days without any response. What’s especially frustrating is that my personal ChatGPT account - where I have an active Plus subscription and hundreds of important chats - was also blocked. It isn’t clear why an API-related enforcement would cascade to ChatGPT access as well.

I’m asking the OpenAI team to review this case and explain what specifically triggered the “Distillation” violation. If there were particular requests or patterns that raised flags, sharing actionable details (even approximate timestamps or representative examples) would help me trace and block any abusive users on my side.

2

Hi @dima7711!

Reaching out to the contact address provided in the message you received from OpenAI is the only way forward. Wishing you good luck!

For anyone else reading this:
When deploying apps it is essential to take into account the production best practices and the safety best practices to protect the account and provide additional leverage when making a case to the support team should there be an issue with the way users utilize the app. This is especially true when publishing to users who are basically unknown, like in the case of an app store.

3

@vb Thank you for your response. I saw that in the email it is written, “If you have questions or think there has been an error, you can reply to this email to initiate an appeal,” but when I try to respond to that email, I receive an automatic response:
We couldn't find your account. Please try again using the email address you signed up for OpenAI.

This response was generated with AI support, which can make mistakes.

It seems like a bug that I can’t even send a message for an appeal.