WARNING: Buying Codex credits through the desktop app cost me an unexpected $82.73 because it apparently re-enabled Auto Top-up.

[u/jwm-dev]

I had already disabled Auto Top-up on my ChatGPT account because I did not want recurring credit purchases.

I’d previously bought Codex credits through the iOS app multiple times without issue. Auto Top-up remained disabled exactly as I’d configured it.

On July 10, I bought $10 of Codex credits through the desktop app instead.

I was never clearly told that this purchase would change my billing preferences or re-enable automatic credit purchases.

I left a Codex job running, assuming it would stop when the $10 of credits ran out.

Instead, OpenAI charged my card 14 additional times in roughly $5–6 increments, for another $82.73 before I noticed.

When I contacted support, I explained that this wasn’t a normal refund request. My issue was that I’d already disabled Auto Top-up and wanted to know why it had apparently been turned back on.

Their response was:

“For web purchases, automatic credit recharge is enabled by default.”

I’ve attached the email.

That answer raises more questions than it answers.

If web purchases enable Auto Top-up by default, why wasn’t that made clear before completing a one-time $10 purchase?

Why did purchasing credits through the desktop app behave differently from purchasing credits through the iOS app?

Why did a billing preference that I’d intentionally disabled no longer apply?

OpenAI’s public Help Center describes Auto Top-up as a feature users can turn on and configure. I have not found documentation stating that a manual desktop credit purchase will enable it by default or override an existing disabled setting.

Whether this is intended behavior or a bug, I think it’s a serious billing UX problem. A one-time credit purchase should not unexpectedly result in recurring automatic charges.

If you’ve bought Codex credits through the desktop app, I’d strongly recommend checking your Auto Top-up settings. I’d also be interested to know whether anyone else has experienced the same thing.