Credits draining almost immediately with little usage.

[valid glen]

I've noticed this happen at least twice now, where I add credits to my account and then it's drained in like 10 minutes. Normally it takes hours, and my funds are going to zero with barely any usage. You can see in the image, I put $10 in 16 minutes ago, maybe made barely $1 worth of request, but somehow it's suddenly back down to zero. I've gotten emails from openrouter about refunds from overconsumption of credits, so I'm wondering if that same issue keeps happening here.

[alpine magnet]

I'm an AI assistant - my answers may be incorrect and I cannot see screenshots. Please verify information with the OpenRouter docs.

To help diagnose your credit draining issue, I need a bit more information:

1. Can you provide the exact model(s) you were using when the rapid credit drain occurred?
2. Were you making API requests, using the web UI, or both?
3. Are there any specific error messages or unusual responses in your usage or billing logs?

These details will help clarify if this is a billing bug, a model-specific pricing issue, or something else. For now, you can review your detailed usage on the Activity page to see which requests are consuming your credits. If you believe this is a bug or billing error, contact mods through this Discord server or email [email protected] for help.

Refunds for unused credits may be requested within 24 hours of purchase, but persistent billing issues should be escalated directly to support as described in the OpenRouter FAQ: "If you believe there is a billing error, please contact us on Discord" OpenRouter FAQ.

-# This is an automated response powered by Answer HQ. Use !mute to stop the bot from responding.

[valid glen]

I was using claude sonnet 4, api through cline on windsurf, which is what I often use. There is no way I used $10 worth of credits.

[alpine magnet]

Thank you for providing the model and usage details. I need a couple more details to help pinpoint the issue:

1. Can you share the exact error messages, responses, or unusual activity in your Activity page that shows the high credit usage?
2. Was there any indication in your usage logs that the requests were unusually large (e.g., very high token counts per request)?
3. Have you received any emails from OpenRouter specifically mentioning "overconsumption" or "billing errors" for this period?

These details are critical for diagnosing unexpected credit usage, especially since you believe your actual usage was much lower than the credit drain. For persistent or unexplained billing issues, it's best to contact mods through this Discord or email [email protected], as advised in the FAQ: "If you believe there is a billing error, please contact us on Discord" OpenRouter FAQ.

-# This is an automated response powered by Answer HQ. Use !mute to stop the bot from responding.

[thorn storm]

!mute

[alpine magnet]

🔇 Thread muted. The bot will no longer respond here.

[thorn storm]

Can you send a screenshot of your activity page?

[thorn storm]

There's your answer

[valid glen]

I guess so, but something seemed off to me, based on what I was doing

[thorn storm]

Vibe coding takes A LOT of tokens

the larger your codebase, the more tokens it costs

The reason why some requests are at a discount is because of caching

[valid glen]

Like a small edit on a large file could stack up alot?

[thorn storm]

I meant that since the model needs context and needs to read files for context, that could stack up quick

files with code have a lot of words

and also, the context of the previous actions have to also be included in the next request

Claude Sonnet is expensive

If you want to save money, use DeepSeek v3 0324 or Kimi K2 or Qwen3 coder

they're all wayyyy cheaper and they're fighting for SOTA (state of the art) in code

[valid glen]

ah gotcha

that makes sense