I set up an API key on May 31st, added credits of $10, spent around $9 and stopped using the APIs for 5 days straight.
Cut to yesterday(6th June), I login to OpenAI to check why my APIs are not working, it shows $-459.56 credit balance. I have not set auto recharge yet, so on the credits being consumed till $0, the API should have stopped working immediately or at least after some minor delay, but it kept on going and I don’t know for which requests. OpenAI shows 458 requests, I had used only around 60-70 requests.
@OpenAI_Support , I’ve seen similar issue reported since mid of 2025 and this issue haven’t been resolved yet. This kind of neglegence isn’t expected from a company like OpenAI.
I recently started using the API key for learning but this is what happened with 1 day of API usage and 5 day of inactivity. If my Auto recharge was turned on, god know what would have happened to my next credit card bill.
Never using OpenAI API keys again untill this issue is resolved.
Welcome to the community @Shiraj02011!
OpenAI’s prepaid billing article does mention delayed billing and negative credit balance:
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/8264644-how-can-i-set-up-prepaid-billing
It says that after credits are consumed, API requests should start returning a billing quota error, but due to billing/processing delays, access may not always be cut off immediately. Excess usage may then appear as a negative credit balance and be deducted from the next credit purchase.
That said, the amount you’re showing is large, so before assuming the cause, I’d first check whether the usage shown is actually usage you recognize.
If the usage is confirmed as yours, then it may be a delayed prepaid cutoff/negative-balance issue. If it is not yours, then it may be an exposed or compromised API key issue.
Either way, I think this probably needs a support case with screenshots of the balance, usage page, logs, date range, project/API key involved, whether auto-recharge was off and whether the usage is recognizable or not. You can email them support@openai.com and open a support ticket.
Thanks for flagging this @Shiraj02011.
Given the size of the negative balance you're seeing, could you please open a support ticket if you haven't already done so? Once you've created the ticket, feel free to share the ticket number here, and I'll take a closer look and investigate further.
In the meantime, if you haven't already, it's worth reviewing your usage logs by project, model, and API key, and rotating any keys that you suspect may have been exposed.
~ Smith
Hi Smith,
Thank you for getting back to me.
I have opened a support ticket and received the following case number:
Case Number: 09763198
I have also reviewed the usage logs and revoked the API key as a precaution.
I would greatly appreciate it if you could take a closer look into the case. This situation has been quite concerning for me, as the unexpected usage resulted in a very large negative balance on my account despite my limited intended usage and configured spending controls.
I am looking forward to any insights or assistance that OpenAI may be able to provide regarding the investigation and possible resolution.
Thank you for your time and support.
~ Shiraj
Thanks for sharing the case ID and for taking the precautionary steps of reviewing the usage logs and revoking the API key.
I'll take a look at the account and investigate further. I'll follow up with any updates through the support ticket.
To avoid duplicate communication and keep all investigation details in one place, I'll be closing out this community thread.
Thank you for your patience.
~Smith
