Batch API charged $212 for gpt-5.4-pro with zero completed results — billing bug?

API Bugs
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1

Hi everyone,

I’m reporting what appears to be a billing bug with the Batch API when using gpt-5.4-pro.

What happened

On April 16-17, 2026, I submitted several batch jobs using gpt-5.4-pro via /v1/responses endpoint. All batches either:

  • Got stuck at 0/10 completed for 7+ hours, then cancelled
  • Were cancelled after making no progress
  • Failed immediately (reasoning_effort=low not supported by Pro)

The billing issue

Despite all batches returning:

  • completed: 0
  • output_file_id: null
  • usage.output_tokens: 0

The Cost export shows:

  • batch api | gpt-5.4-pro, input: $26.41
  • batch api | gpt-5.4-pro, output: $185.99
  • Total: $212.40 charged for zero delivered output

Activity data discrepancy

The Activity export reveals:

  • 98 requests processed internally, but I only submitted 34
  • 2,066,526 output tokens generated but never returned
  • It appears OpenAI internally retried/reprocessed requests ~3x without my knowledge, charged for all of them, and delivered
    nothing

Additional context

  • Standard gpt-5.4 batch was also abnormally slow on the same day (stuck at 0/10 for 50+ minutes), but billing was correct
    for standard — only charged for completed work
  • The billing discrepancy appears to be specific to gpt-5.4-pro batch
  • I’ve seen the “Batch API degraded since March 4” thread — my issue is related but more severe because of the incorrect
    billing
  • I have filed a support ticket and it has been escalated to a specialist

Questions for the community

  1. Has anyone else experienced billing for gpt-5.4-pro batch jobs that returned no results?
  2. Has anyone successfully received a refund for similar batch billing issues?
  3. Is the March batch degradation issue truly resolved?

Any insights appreciated.

2

Hey Nao, We are not able to reproduce this issue. Since this is billing issue and it requires us to gather a lot of personal details in order to review/resolve the issue. We request you to please submit a ticket at support@openai.com and this will be reviewed by our team. Please make sure to provide as much details as possible and drop the case id/ case subject here so we can track it too. Thanks!

3

Thanks! I’ve already submitted a ticket via email.

Case ID: 07830071
Case subject: Batch API charged $212 for gpt-5.4-pro with zero completed results — billing bug?

The case is currently being handled by John Vincent on your team. I provided the full evidence bundle (batch IDs, Invoice JDBXTIPA-0005, Activity CSV showing 98 internal processings vs 34 submitted requests, Cost export, error files) and on April 18 I replied clarifying this is a billing issue (not a retry/glitch) and requested a $216.86 credit (original $212.40 + $4.46 delayed charge).

Waiting on the next response from the email thread. Please cross-reference with Case 07830071 on your end. Thanks!

Nao Shimizu

4

Hey NAO_70, I can see our team has tracked your request and resolved the issue. We have processed the refund and would like to apologies for the inconvenience. Thanks for raising this issue.