Tell HN: OpenAI will require pre-purchased API credits from March 25th

10 points by notmytempo ↗ HN

8 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 24.6 ms ] thread
wallet codes are coming...
My immediate instinct here is they need cash. Or are dealing with a lot of fraud which is a pain to limit.
Love the lingo:

“Prepaid billing allows API users to pre-purchase usage.”

I just hope the guys who write their documentation are not the same who RLHF the upcoming AGI.

This new credit pricing change is customer-hostile, and the rollout is terrible. Not only do we have a paltry week to figure it out, half the UI and marketing still assumes paygo, and there's no way to set up auto-refills, at least for me. I've seen other reports of people being able to set up auto-refills, but they probably have it hidden behind a feature flag. This is really bad form. How am I supposed to rely on OpenAI for my company's model usage when I have to manually top it off because they didn't roll out auto-refills to me?
I just got started with the API recently and was surprised that this was the payment model.

Currently I’m just experimenting with the API but there’s no way I’d rely on a manual top up system for a production app.

It’s like using a coin-fed student electricity meter to run your company.