I’m trying to integrate my own OpenAI API key with Clay. Clay’s support documents say you need at least a Tier 2 API key because their AI features require high token‑per‑minute (TPM) limits – e.g., ChatGPT columns need about 30 000 TPM and Claygent needs 450 000 TPM . Tier 1 (or the free plan) doesn’t meet these requirements .
I made my first successful payment about 10 days ago and thought the seven‑day waiting period was all that was required. Reading more closely, I now see the usage‑tier rules say you automatically move from Tier 1 to Tier 2 only after both of these conditions are satisfied:
You have paid (or spent) at least US$50 on API credits since account creation .
At least seven days have passed since your first successful payment
Both conditions are satisfied. What might be the issue?
If both the $50 spend and 7-day conditions are truly met, then the delay is most likely on OpenAI’s side rather than something you’ve done wrong.
If both look correct, sometimes the upgrade flag just doesn’t trigger automatically. In that case, you’ll need to contact OpenAI Support via help.openai.com and ask them to manually review and push your account to Tier 2.
Others have reported the same issue recently, and support usually resolves it quickly once they verify your spend and timing.