Ask HN: Why Do AI Credits Expire

5 pointsposted 6 hours ago
by kuberwastaken

Item id: 48619635

5 Comments

bradly

5 hours ago

Gift cards do not expire because laws were passed to prevent it. No such laws exist for AI credits, so companies will do what is most profitable.

Littice

5 hours ago

The gift card analogy breaks down a bit: a gift card doesn’t get more expensive for the store to redeem later. Compute can.

ben_w

5 hours ago

Back when I experimented with getting ChatGPT by paying for API access rather than the official subscription, the credit was denominated in money, not in tokens.

Compute does whatever it does, but $5 sitting in an account to be spent on tokens at some arbitrary time in the future, earns money for OpenAI etc. even when they didn't make it expire.

benoau

5 hours ago

AI credits expire because they make the least money off you if you actually use your full quota, now or later.

downbad_

5 hours ago

Accounting purposes, I guess.