# Billing hard limit has been reached error on Free account

**URL:** <https://community.openai.com/t/billing-hard-limit-has-been-reached-error-on-free-account/654485>\
**Category:** API\
**Created:** [February 26, 2024, 4:02am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/billing-hard-limit-has-been-reached-error-on-free-account/654485 "2024-02-26T04:02:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anup.dsouza](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/anup.dsouza/32/320230_2.png) [@anup.dsouza](https://community.openai.com/u/anup.dsouza)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 4:02am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/billing-hard-limit-has-been-reached-error-on-free-account/654485/1 "2024-02-26T04:02:33Z")

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Hi, I’m trying to familiarise myself with the API and implemented a simple image request as described in the Github OpenAIKit Swift SDK documentation.

However I’m seeing the following error on my very first request:  
{  
“error”: {  
“code”: “billing\_hard\_limit\_reached”,  
“message”: “Billing hard limit has been reached”,  
“param”: null,  
“type”: “invalid\_request\_error”  
}

If I check my account limits, I see that I’m on a Free account.  
However, the limits for using the dall-e-2 api (which the sdk uses) are specified as follows on the limits page of my Personal account.

 ![rate-limit](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/4X/c/4/2/c42915f363862d13eb5cb7f4c7f02bb827a4bbeb.png)

Can someone confirm if these limits are for Free tier or paid tier? Because the wording that precedes the rate limits table is confusing as it says: “Your organization’s rate limits are listed below”. It doesn’t mention if the limits are when on a free or paid tier.

Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Diet](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/diet/32/562749_2.png) [@Diet](https://community.openai.com/u/Diet)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 4:19am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/billing-hard-limit-has-been-reached-error-on-free-account/654485/2 "2024-02-26T04:19:26Z")

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Welcome to the community!

The error means that you ran out of money.

[https://platform.openai.com/usage](https://platform.openai.com/usage) shows your limits  
[https://platform.openai.com/account/billing/overview](https://platform.openai.com/account/billing/overview) allows you to stock up on credits

The page in the documentation you cited is talking about your rate limit.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anup.dsouza](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/anup.dsouza/32/320230_2.png) [@anup.dsouza](https://community.openai.com/u/anup.dsouza)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2024, 4:39am UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/billing-hard-limit-has-been-reached-error-on-free-account/654485/3 "2024-02-26T04:39:23Z")

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Thank you for the welcome!

Edit: So it turns out that although I’m only using the API now, I had created an account quite some time ago and the free $5 credits have since expired. It would’ve helped though if the documentation would state the same on the limits page.