API Payment Rejected with Multiple Corporate Cards

API
1

Hello everyone,

I’m a graduate student based in South Korea, using the OpenAI API for academic research. Recently, I’ve been running into persistent payment issues and wanted to ask if anyone in the community has experienced something similar.

I’ve tried using two different corporate credit cards, both of which are enabled for international payments:

  • Card 1:
    This card worked without any issues for several months. I used it to top up API credits multiple times. However, starting at a certain point, all payment attempts began to be declined.

  • Card 2:
    This card has been declined from the very first attempt and has never worked on OpenAI.

I contacted the card issuers for both cards, and they confirmed:

  • The cards are valid and enabled for overseas payments

  • There are no blocks or security issues on their side
    They advised that the issue is likely related to OpenAI’s payment system or internal policies.

So I wanted to ask the community:

  • Has anyone experienced card payments being blocked after frequent API credit top-ups?

  • Are there known limits, risk controls, or regional issues (e.g., Korea / corporate cards) that could cause this?

  • If you resolved a similar issue, did contacting OpenAI Billing Support help, or was there another workaround?

Any shared experiences or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

2

Welcome to our community!

I haven’t experienced payments being blocked after frequently topping up API credits.

Since Korea is a supported country for the service, the fact that the card issuer is based in Korea shouldn’t be a problem:

https://platform.openai.com/docs/supported-countries

That said, it does seem possible for card payments to be declined for various reasons.

Whether it’s a personal card or a corporate card, if any of the following are incorrect—card number, expiration date, CVC, or billing address (including ZIP/postal code)—the payment may be declined.

https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7232916-why-was-my-credit-card-declined

1. Double-check your card details and billing address.
2. Clear your browser’s cache and cookies, then retry the transaction.
3. Confirm your location and card issuance region are supported: Supported Countries.
4. Contact your bank to ensure there are no holds or blocks on your account.
5. If possible, try using a different payment method.

Among these, 1 seems the most relevant in this case.

If the payment is still declined, even though the billing address and card details are correct, I recommend contacting their support team.

Hope this helps :blush: