So far, the responses from support have been pretty disappointing—just canned replies like “we did the best we can.” That’s hardly a solution. It feels like they’ve done nothing at all.
I also reached out to their Digital Services Act email, DSA-users@openai.com, because letting paid credits expire like this must surely be illegal in the EU. A month later, all I got was an email saying my message was forwarded to support, but that’s been a dead end. The last I heard, they basically told me they won’t do anything unless I take legal action. So that’s what I’m planning next: I’ll file a complaint with the Austrian small claims court. That should get some kind of reaction, at least. Honestly, I’m just really disappointed. I’ve lost all trust in this company.
I also had some of my credits expired last month. There is no easy way to figure out what the balance was either (I know ~$50 USD out $120 was still unused). I have never seen this type of your own $$ disappearing on a reputed platform. Strange policy from OpenAI. My chat with the “help” team ended with “we will email you with an update”. Waiting…
I had loaded some funds just to check few things… Used few cents and left it for future usage.
I had a impression that it does not expire as it was not shown anywhere.
Today I was looking to test something else and puffff $0 credits left.
Why would such a large business do such thing?
What I loaded was insignificant as compared to others but it feels very wrong.
As long as there are other options, I don’t think I will be loading any funds here.
I have the same problem. I have already canceled my GPT subscription too because of the API expiring tokens (still thinking about renewing for 1 month because I am working on something and then change to DeepSeek or Gemini. Not sure yet – probably DeepSeek because of OpenAI SDK).
For a few reasons, I want to drop them forever:
Those “silent updates” (make GPT dumb overnight, like a parrot.)
Too much “sad” marketing (no more details because I became salty)
OpenAI Deep Research - I use them all at the end of the month after I renew my subscription, and next month (in a few days) I should get the charges back, but now I see this:
EDIT: I think there is a bug. I should be able to use Deep Research again if my subscription renews (because I used my charges from March).
Another nice thing is my chats are disappearing, the run is starting. I see his reasoning, then my chat disappears (not one time, last 2 weeks, I have to refresh the page. When I consider the run was completed to see the text in GPT chat). Too many errors → input streams and again chat disappears, or refuses to run, etc.
The only credits you show expired were the 3 month free trial credits.
Everything else you paid for you consumed, except for $29 remaining with a looming date that got you 13 months after purchase.
Working as designed
There would have to have been a decision made when this credit pre-purchase idea was set up (to put a positive cash balance in OpenAI’s bank account against a Microsoft investment of credits into OpenAI) – that any negative publicity would not outweigh the profit from funds taken with services unrendered.
Then, that disregard of state and other nation’s laws about value accounts (claimed not to be - except in every actual aspect) could be met with anti-class-action provisions to make only AG action viable for relief. That OpenAI’s brand of eccentric “Oh I like berries, can’t wait to taste the AGI” would dominate.
No more advisory
There used to be a “credits expire” warning recently put up on this payment screen I could cite as “well, at least they warn you now”, but it seems removed – and how could it be removed without someone with motivation choosing to do so? Thus further enhancing the “you should have read the fine print” attitude (fine print behind a dozen links to choose for more terms and policies).
Then, we’re about to see another round of new account holders get hit with expiry, because it was a year ago everybody that was on trust-based arrears billing terms (a credit line) got their monthly billing revoked.
I hope they will fix it and check your API activity:
They will extend the period by 6 months if you are active.
If you are inactive for 6 months, then credits can expire.
At this moment, I extended my GPT subscription to match my API expiration date. If API credits expire… well, I have my infrastructure ready for DeepSeek, thanks to the OpenAI SDK. I wish to continue with OpenAI.
Same here, never pay more then a small amount. I didn’t lose much but I did lose close to 10$ at the point I finally knew what to use my credits for. Lucky I found this out with so little money.
Same happened to me 2 days ago. Sure enough as many others, I missed the small letters saying they would expired in a year. I totally forgot about it too. So is it my fault? Technically yes. And yeah its not “tons” of money (about 100 bucks), but it just feels so wrong and frustrating. Specially because I was a big supporter of OpenAI sine the beginning.
I dont expect them doing this “on purpose”, but still its shitty that they don’t seem to give a damn about the small developers.
I did contacted them and their reply was
purchased credits are valid for one year from the date of purchase and are non-refundable. This policy is in place to maintain consistency and transparency in how credits are managed. That said, we understand this may not have been clearly communicated at the time of your purchase
So they at least admit it was a bit shady… Anyway, now I need to add more credits but Im hesitating because Im sort of frustrated with this (and my systems are not critical, they are all hobby projects).
It’s so weird to read that such practices are still permitted. In the European Union, or at least quite a few of the countries there, it’s NOT permitted to let anything expire, which is as it should be. Because you PAID for something! It is YOURS. Same as with how games are not mine, because I supposedly purchased ‘a license’? NO. I paid for it, it’s mine to do with as I please. Same goes for credits, vouchers or whatever else.
This is unacceptable and should be banned by law. For the record: I don’t use API with pre-paid credits, but I know about the system.
so I ended up biting the bullet and adding the lowest possible amount of credits to keep my systems running - The customer support person / bot brushed me off so nothing to do. So frustrating.
Brazil, this is the most stupid change OpenAI has ever implemented, it is totally illegal here, not consumed services should be lifetime or covered by a refund request at anytime of the remaining credit without any disccount.
I just wanted to chime in because I’m dealing with a similar issue and I’m honestly pretty shaken by it. I had $98 in credits on my account, and they just disappeared without any warning or notice. I was actually planning to come back to their API for a bigger project we’ve got in the works, but now I’m really hesitant to put any more money into credits. It’s super unsettling to see funds vanish like that with no heads-up, and it makes me question whether I can trust the platform with my money.
I’m glad to hear you got your money back, though! It gives me hope that they might restore my $98 in credits as well. I really don’t want to be disappointed by OpenAI, a company I truly value and hold in high regard. I’m counting on them to sort this out for me too.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
