Why does the OpenAI key expire so fast?

[AICODEApps]

One of our users registered for an OpenAI API key just now for use in a project, but the key expires in May 1 this year. Why?

Previously, you would’ve received 12 months to spend the $18 grant, but why is it now less than two weeks? Thanks.

[PaulBellow]

How can I get Free Trial Credits?

Yes, it is not only $5. It used to be $18, our internal data showed that people were able to make ~750 API calls with the $5 which was enough to get a feel for how to use the API (which is the whole goal of free trial credits). Also note, you only get free credits for the first account associated with your phone number. Subsequent accounts are not granted free credits.

[AICODEApps]

Thanks. However, some users still receive $18 when they first sign up now, and this does not explain why we have so less time for the free trial.

[uzair004]

But why does free credits gets expired after few days, I haven’t utilized credits & credits got expire.

[_j]

The trial period starts from account creation, not from your first API experimentation. Expiration date then seems to align with the start of a month.

[grasslandgoat]

I understand, but I think it may not be reasonable, it should start from my first api call, because most of new users want to try chatgpt’s chat function in a browser, then they will start to thinking how their business can use chatgpt, then read the api document, but when they want to make a api call, they found the trial credit already expire, unfortunately.