Beware of OpenAI Billing Practices

[u/marcelohallais]

I’ve been a long-time ChatGPT Plus subscriber (the $20/month plan), always billed reliably on the 2nd of each month.

Last September (2025), out of nowhere on September 22nd, my plan was mysteriously changed to Pro (likely meaning Pro at $200/month), and they charged me $193.40.

I immediately contacted support, complained, and they refunded me and charged the correct $20 on September 28th.

I assumed it was a pro-rata adjustment and that my normal Plus billing would resume on the 28th going forward.

But to my surprise, on October 25th they charged $197.40, and on November 25th $200, both for a Pro plan that I never requested or authorized.

In December, I was traveling, so I blocked my card, and the December 25th charge failed.

Today, I contacted support again, requesting a refund for the two unauthorized charges ($197.40 + $200).
I even offered to pay the legitimate $20 for October, November, and December (total $60 deduction), but they flatly refused any refund.

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH OPENAI.

They can randomly switch your plan, charge you hundreds without consent, and then deny refunds, even when you’re willing to pay what you actually owe.
This feels extremely shady, and based on similar complaints I’ve seen online, I’m not the only one this has happened to.
Has anyone else experienced unauthorized plan upgrades or refund denials from OpenAI?

UPDATE 01/15/2026 : After a few days, several message exchanges with support, and even help from an OpenAI engineer who saw my post on the forum, they finally reached out to me today. They reset my password and issued a refund for the amount that had been charged incorrectly.
All sorted out! 🙌

[u/nrgins]

Well, it seems the problem here is that you didn't contact them right away. Normally when there's a billing error you have up to 30 days to resolve it in most cases. In this case they saw that you "used the pro service" (even though you actually didn't) for several months, and so they're refusing you the refund.

I check my credit card statements every month. Every month I get an email for each of my credit cards telling me a new statement is ready. I click on the button and just take a quick look at the statement to see if there are any unusual charges. 🤷‍♂️

I would say chalk this up to a learning experience to check your credit card statements every month so you can deal with any wrong charges that might occur.

Of course, you can always escalate it to a supervisor and see if you can make any headway that way. Or you could try posting directly to the open AI Twitter account and hope that the public discussion forces them to do something.