I have been using the OpenAI API for approximately a year now. At the onset of our subscription, my organization purchased a credit of $1000, and our credit card is registered on the platform as a paiment method. We have been receiving monthly invoices for the payments made. However, we are unclear about how charges are being handled: Is Openai deducting the consumed charges from the initial credit we paid, or are they charging us directly using the credit card registered on the platform (I don’t have access to the credit card payments history) ? If the latter is the case, could you please clarify what has happened to the initial credit of $1000 ?
If they are indeed deducting our usage from the $1000 credit, how can we determine the remaining balance of our credit ?
Hey! I don’t believe we offered the ability to purchase credits 1 year ago. It just rolled out recently. Before that, you would be charged at the end of the month for the tokens you used. You should be able to see the billing details in your history here: https://platform.openai.com/account/billing/history
So the payments are done using the credit card at the end of each month ?
I currently have a pending invoice of 100$, if I purchase a credit of 101$ will the api deduct the 100$ right now ? or it’s going to be pending till the end of the month anyway?
If you had a credit grant, whether by some program designed for startups or research, or by paying money to sales or some other unpublished method, that should be visible below the round “monthly bill” in a section “credit grants”, on the account and organizations usage page.
It likely had some expiration assigned to it; I’ve heard no reports where credits are perpetual (although there also may be no reason for organizations to talk about them). That page now discloses expiration.
From recent anecdote, purchasing credits does not prevent your card from being billed the amount accumulated previously after the end of the month.
Billing history should have only those invoices that were charged, each with a link to the payment processor.
more: around mid-year, OpenAI added a new organization to a great many existing accounts, “personal”. If present, it is possible to select between two organizations with separate billing and keys. It is unlikely but within the realm of possibilities that this got switched (lower left of account screen, popup when you click your name), and then credit card, api keys, etc were utilized on the new organization.
Thanks, so if you have paid $1000 to your account then that credit will be used before charging your card again, you should of set up a topup amount and a trigger level, i.e. topup $10 if your account reaches a balance of $5. So long as your balance remains above $5 you will not be charged on your card.