I have seen tuitorials and other discussions talking about some initial free credits on generating the secret key but I have not recieved anything and keep on getting the error:
Free API credits are actually issued when you first create your OpenAI account. That is whether you dive right into using the API, or instead have only been chatting with ChatGPT. They expire after three months + the end of the month.
On the usage page, you can see your credit grants with a little bar, and the amount used and expired. The rest or all pink, and its gone.
There is only one grant per phone number; another account allowed per phone number will not get the free trial credit.
Therefore, on the main billing page, you must “add payment method” and then “purchase credits”, currently a minimum $5.