# Paid to start using the API and it already has $3.46 used

**URL:** <https://community.openai.com/t/paid-to-start-using-the-api-and-it-already-has-3-46-used/244107>\
**Category:** API\
**Tags:** account-problem\
**Created:** [May 31, 2023, 6:20pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/paid-to-start-using-the-api-and-it-already-has-3-46-used/244107 "2023-05-31T18:20:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 12

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**Author:** ![gabrielnilo1993](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/user_avatar/community.openai.com/gabrielnilo1993/32/123917_2.png) [@gabrielnilo1993](https://community.openai.com/u/gabrielnilo1993)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2023, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.openai.com/t/paid-to-start-using-the-api-and-it-already-has-3-46-used/244107/12 "2023-06-01T12:54:59Z")

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> [@Paid to start using the API and it already has $3.46 used](https://community.openai.com/t/paid-to-start-using-the-api-and-it-already-has-3-46-used/244107/9):
>
> Even if I did use something, I had free credit that would “pay” for it. Something is wrong and people are being charged way more than what they set the limit to be.

I have already heard you, checked my end, and answered you.

> [@Paid to start using the API and it already has $3.46 used](https://community.openai.com/t/paid-to-start-using-the-api-and-it-already-has-3-46-used/244107/10):
>
> You might have utilized tokens that weren’t included in your free credit allocation. However, it requires additional information to provide a comprehensive analysis. Your reluctance to investigate the issue further and tendency to adopt a victim mentality are not conducive to resolving the situation. slight_smile

“comprehensive analysis”? “additional information”? I thought that I was clear by using an image showing that I still had free credit when they charged my usage on my prepaid credit and continued doing it as you can see that my usage was one cent of a dollar higher in each bar (free credit and “pay as you go” credit), you don’t need to do data analysis on my token usage to see that there is a problem and I don’t have to report every detail of my account to you, your comment was rude and unnecessary.

I know that I may have been too aggressive in my criticism of OpenAI and I am sorry if that felt inappropriate for the community but I am criticizing the company and not OpenAI’s people. This is something very dangerous because even though people set a limit, they are being double charged  
and sometimes some charges are way beyond the limit. This is something very serious.

> [@API charged $300+ above spending hard limit](https://community.openai.com/t/api-charged-300-above-spending-hard-limit/104341):
>
> My account broke through the hard limit and spent 10x more than expected. My hard limit was set to $110 when my current usage was at $80, limiting all potential charges to $30, but my current usage shows $489, which is even higher than the allowed monthly quota of $400 for my account. The budget-limiting engine seems to be broken. The support is ignoring me both in the chat and email.

Anyways… here is how you can try to solve the problem folks:

[https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7232899-why-am-i-seeing-duplicate-charges](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/7232899-why-am-i-seeing-duplicate-charges)

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/3X/a/3/a3515b04853213317e9f91597b86e011a519d808.png)

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/openai1/original/3X/2/1/212a00c097a6c6486b49412903e9369b3faa52be.png)

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