API Key Bug? Insufficient Quota Error on Paid Account with Available Balance

[s286yang]

I see that this topic has been raised multiple times. I tried all possible solutions but none worked for me. Details below.

I paid $10 to my new and first OpenAI account. I tried to make the first API request by following the Quick Start documentation:

curl "https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENAI_API_KEY" \
    -d '{
        "model": "gpt-4o-mini",
        "messages": [
            {
                "role": "system",
                "content": "You are a helpful assistant."
            },
            {
                "role": "user",
                "content": "Write a haiku that explains the concept of recursion."
            }
        ]
    }'

I got “insufficient_quota” error. I tried creating new API keys, multiple times. I tried changing the usage limit. Still got the same error.

Could someone please offer some help?

Additional info: I got the same error in Chat from Playground. It returned error: 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.com.

[_j]

Here’s what I would do:

Navigate to user API keys, and create one there.

https://platform.openai.com/settings/profile/api-keys

See if that doesn’t require a mobile phone verification to continue account setup. There is billing personal information also to fill in. Employ that key.

Use the playground site, and see if you can interact with a full list of models there, like gpt-4o: https://platform.openai.com/playground/chat?models=gpt-4o

Pay a token amount more in purchasing credits, like $1-$5, and see if that doesn’t force re-provisioning your account.

Contact “help” through the platform site sidebar menu, and send a message about your account-specific problem.

[s286yang]

The link to create a user API key automatically re-directs to https://platform.openai.com/settings/organization/api-keys. I’ve already verified through mobile phone. Creating new API keys doesn’t seem to help.

On the playground site, I don’t have access to any model. I always got “You’ve reached your usage limit”.

I have contacted Help. I’ll update here if I find out a solution.

[s286yang]

This is related to API Key Bug? Insufficient Quota Error on Paid Account with Available Balance. I paid $10 to my account more than 12 hours ago. This is my first and only account, and I am the only user with this account. However I still don’t have access to any model even in the playground cite. I always get a message “You’ve reached your usage limit”, e.g., when running “hi this is a test” in Chat.

Has anyone encountered this before, is it a bug with my account? So far I have zero access to any model. I’m really not sure what is going on. Would appreciate any help.

I tried contacting Help to get help from OpenAI Support Team, but every time I only got a generic reply which did not really help at all. The experience has been very frustrating to be honest.

[_j]

Clicking on your user icon upper right, then “your profile”, brings me to this menu:

Generating a new key then is below.

It is possible that OpenAI completely removed this API key type for new account users. However, the phone verification requirement is still expected when generating your first API key at some level as part of the API platform unlock procedure, as there is no definitive document that says mobile phone is no longer required - in fact, it states this is mandatory.

Did this occur for you?

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6613520-phone-verification-faq

[s286yang]

Thank for the additional info. It looks like OpenAI removed the tab “User API keys” for new accounts, as I don’t see this tab on my account. I have verified through mobile when I set up the account.

[_j]

@s286yang

I have verified through mobile when I set up the account.

Great, that eliminates one possible concern.

You also read the thread about others who were affected by a glitch of not unlocking and provisioning usage when making an initial payment? Doing nothing will likely result in no changes or fix.

You can either try to feed the beast more money as one input to the system you can provide, or you can send a message and await a solution from the account team.

Ensure at upper left when you do experiment with playground, you have selected both organization and the project (default project?) where you have enabled usage.

[s286yang]

Thank you for the additional tip. I tried feeding it additional $5. However nothing changed. And yes I did select organization and project in playground (I only have one choice for both). I’ll keeping trying contacting the Support Team for help…

[_j]

The error message “usage limit” below is different than one would expect from an unfunded account, which is 429: check your plan and billing details.

If there is no hard limit budget set on the account or projects, and all the models and keys are set to full access, then that indeed looks like an account bug that for another could only be resolved by escalation, one that the “help” support team sending back a bot response doesn’t help, so be sure to communicate the account issue and the diagnosis pinning this only on account bug.

[s286yang]

For reference, it works for me now. I didn’t do anything and I have no idea how it suddenly worked. For anyone who might encounter a similar problem: This is after 18 hours I made the first $10 payment, and slightly more than an hour after I made the second $5 payment. During this time I contacted Help 5 times, in the last time they made sure to have some real person contact me via email in 3 days. Then around an hour later, everything starts to work just fine.

[_j]

Many minutes, up to a few hours, is the typical time after an initial payment (when things are operating normally) for an account to be fully unlocked for spending funds. I suspect your newest payment, and encouragement to do so, is what solved the issue for you.

[s286yang]

Thank you for the comment. Right, I think that makes sense. It might be just due to my second payment which somehow activated the system. I would have not thought about the idea. So for anyone who has a similar problem, try making another small payment, wait a couple of hours, and see if that makes any difference.