# Pay-as-you-go overage, fallback billing and spend caps (`billing.overage_charges`)

Feedback Bench, coding agents, built 2026-10-01, window 2026-08-31 to 2026-09-27. Web page: https://feedbackbench.com/#/criterion/billing.overage_charges

Area: [Paying and limits](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/paying.md)

**Definition.** Usage spills from the plan into metered, on-demand or API billing, and whether spend caps and alerts work. Covers overage turning on silently and credit top-ups.

**Boundary.** Not this: see [Wrong charges, failed payments and plan provisioning](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/account.billing_errors.md) for wrong charges on the subscription itself. Not this: see [Automatic model routing and fallback](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/models.routing_auto.md) when the cause is auto-selection of a pricier model.

Rated author-weeks, all agents: 512. Complaint share: 92%.

## The brief

Written by Claude Opus 5.5 from 46 labelled posts and the numbers on this page. Interpretation, not measurement: every quote is verbatim and links to its post.

**Top-ups vanish fast, and almost nobody gets a real spend cap.**

TL;DR:

- Complaints swamp praise everywhere; extra credits drain in hours and users rarely see it coming.
- Cursor fares worst. Users report on-demand billing switched on or required without clear consent.
- Hard spend caps are the top request. Warnings after the fact do not stop a running meter.

In plain terms: Hit your plan limit and the next stop is a card charge or a credit top-up. Users say that money disappears fast, toggles misbehave, and few tools offer a ceiling that actually stops spending.

### How it breaks

- **Top-ups drain in hours** ([Pay-as-you-go overage, fallback billing and spend caps](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/billing.overage_charges.md)). Users who buy credits after hitting a limit report the balance gone far faster than the plan usage it replaces.
  The pattern repeats across agents. Users hit the plan limit, add credits, and watch them evaporate in a single session. Some pivot to a rival tool mid-week. Others conclude that small top-ups cannot carry a heavy coding day and that credits are priced well above subscription usage. The complaint is less about the charge than the rate, which users say they cannot predict before paying.
  Evidence:
  - Complaint, Claude Code, r/ClaudeCode, 2026-09-13: “i'm on 20x plan, i hit my usage limit today, and my next reset is on 17th september... i'm aware they said they are gonna reduce the usage limits, but this is crazy, i thought it is only gonna take 17% of the usage benefits from what we were currently getting. but this is crazy. i added usage credits for about $100 but that got washed away like in 30 mins!!!” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wf8q8s/somethings_weird/p9k2l6y/)
  - Complaint, Cursor, r/cursor, 2026-09-19: “<strict_link> i ran out of credits on my $20.00 early this month, which never happen to me before. i thought because i used fable 5.1 just once to check my codebase and was mostly using grok 4.6 high. i added $10.00 and ran out of it in a few hours and added $10.00 and happened again. so i switched back to my claude code using opus 5 low. i'm not sure if it's the same issue as you describe though, i'm honestly a newbie in agentic coding.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wkr3d8/im_starting_to_think_they_pushed_some_update/paszp65/)
  - Complaint, OpenAI Codex, r/codex, 2026-09-14: “if you have reached the limit in a single day of coding, those $20 of extra tokens will do nothing for you. it is simply not worth it” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1vke1jz/how_much_codex_usage_do_the_extra_20_500_credits/p9obxu6/)
  - Complaint, OpenAI Codex, r/codex, 2026-09-14: “it's good that you defend your rights, however i would advise not to buy credits. they're insanely overpriced vs usage you get from a subscription or even from api.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wfpj7d/this_was_probably_my_last_purchase_from_openai/p9p7num/)

- **No hard ceiling on spend** ([Pay-as-you-go overage, fallback billing and spend caps](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/billing.overage_charges.md)). Users want a cap that refuses the next request, not a bill that explains it afterwards.
  Posts describe meters that keep running on API keys, retries that still bill, and sessions that cost many times the estimate. Users say they only caught overspend by checking provider logs every hour. Hard user-configurable spend caps are the most requested change on this page, along with a simple switch to stop credit use once the plan is exhausted.
  Evidence:
  - Complaint, OpenAI Codex, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app, 2026-09-10: “@thsottiaux my brother in christ, add a knob to the codex app to not consume credits when exhausted” [source](https://twitter.com/2023960926127616001/status/2098130170158755972)
  - Complaint, Claude Code, r/ClaudeCode, 2026-09-08: “the boundary moving from permission-before-action to audit-after-the-fact is the interesting part. the failure mode that got me on unattended runs wasn't permissions though, it was spend. a stuck retry loop at 3am costs real money and no permission rule catches it. what worked for me was per-session cost logging plus a hard daily cap that refuses the next request instead of warning after the fact. curious how you handle that side - autocontinueatusagelimit covers the subscription limit, but on api keys the meter keeps running.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1war5an/what_i_learned_running_an_unattended_claude_code/p8krqp6/)
  - Complaint, Amp, @AmpCode, 2026-09-02: “@ampcode token subsidies without a spend gate are the intern with the aws key. last silent 200 i had still billed the retry. when a user blows the economy cap, do you kill the next tool call, or only show the bill?” [source](https://twitter.com/23482267/status/2094990600991121438)
  - Complaint, Cline, r/CLine, 2026-09-18: “just tried to reuse cline today to use with openrouter and the new deepseek flash v4.1 flash and i had the same issue. was going to spend like maybe 50cts on the session, ended up wasting 5$. if i didnt check my openrouter logs every hour i would have missed it. i'm sorry but this makes clien unreliable and unusable for me. i'm on the latest version 4.1.19 and my both my plan mode and actmode are set to openrouter deepseek flash latest. how can that happen ?” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/CLine/comments/1lo30tj/why_does_cline_keep_switching_api_provider_back/paku3e9/)

- **Overage on without clear consent** ([Pay-as-you-go overage, fallback billing and spend caps](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/billing.overage_charges.md)). Users report on-demand billing that is required for included features or hard to see until the invoice lands.
  Cursor users describe being pushed to enable on-demand usage to reach a feature they believed the team plan covered, then finding billing transparency thin. Others say they are afraid to use paid plans at all for fear of extra charges. One user does say on-demand is off by default, so the friction centres on features that need it switched on. Explicit consent before extra charges is a recurring request.
  Evidence:
  - Complaint, Cursor, @cursor_ai, 2026-09-04: “i have @cursor_ai + @bot ultra plans, but i’m honestly scared to use them 😂 i can’t afford to pay extra. <strict_link>” [source](https://twitter.com/1562862287223803904/status/2095975714818232692)
  - Complaint, Cursor, @cursor_ai, 2026-09-02: “i’m really liking @cursor_ai for all my fe work. i’m on the team plan, but man, their billing transparency for on-demand usage sucks, and they force you into turning it on to use bug-bot, which, as far as i know, was one of the biggest reasons i opted for a team plan because it said it was included in your cursor plan usage, which seems to only be true of a few mil tokens. then they charge on based on-demand. also, auto is really not auto. it’s sneaking in an on-demand model and still ensuring you’re up-charged.” [source](https://twitter.com/1127957190210392064/status/2094979744559206646)
  - Praise, Cursor, r/cursor, 2026-09-07: “no hidden cost. on-demand charge is off by default. grok bot is amazing. agentic ai is amazing.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1w9udb4/is_cursor_worth_it/p8edem4/)

- **Charging for blocked requests** ([Pay-as-you-go overage, fallback billing and spend caps](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/billing.overage_charges.md)). A Claude Code change to bill refused requests splits users between abuse-control logic and paying for nothing.
  Replies to the announcement divide sharply. Supporters argue blocked requests still burn compute and that free blocks invite attack probes. Critics call it being charged for a service that was not delivered, however rare. No charges for blocked or refused requests is a request raised only against Claude Code, alongside refunds for failed requests and outages.
  Evidence:
  - Complaint, Claude Code, @ClaudeDevs, 2026-09-24: “@claudedevs it doesn’t matter if it’s rare “we decided not to give you a service but charge you anyway” is shitty” [source](https://twitter.com/1120005172145590272/status/2103182485538349247)
  - Complaint, Claude Code, @ClaudeDevs, 2026-09-25: “@claudedevs exactly. blocked requests still burn gpu cycles, so free blocks just mean unlimited free attack probes. the real tell: 99.7% of users never hit one. if your billable blocks are nonzero you already know why” [source](https://twitter.com/2039934634515951616/status/2103274943421308951)
  - Praise, Claude Code, @ClaudeDevs, 2026-09-24: “@appletimemac @claudedevs it's basically in the tweet: they've had multiple attacks in recent time, so charging these bad actors is probably the right thing to do if it does not affect most of their daily users” [source](https://twitter.com/127832664/status/2103178338181255295)

- **Overage toggles that will not stick** ([Pay-as-you-go overage, fallback billing and spend caps](https://feedbackbench.com/criteria/billing.overage_charges.md)). Some users want to pay past the limit and cannot, because the overage switch resets or is missing.
  Google Antigravity users report re-enabling overages on every restart, or finding no way to spend existing credits at all. The opposite surprise shows up on GitHub Copilot, where users say requests went over quota and processed in full. Paid overage instead of a hard cutoff is a steady request, so the ask is control in both directions.
  Evidence:
  - Complaint, Google Antigravity, @antigravity, 2026-09-09: “@antigravity having to turn on enable overages every single time i restart antigravity is as annoying.” [source](https://twitter.com/1981091420082442240/status/2097834921670648163)
  - Complaint, Google Antigravity, r/google_antigravity, 2026-09-23: “yup, same here. there's no way to enable overages either if you have credits to use.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1wjiv3g/did_google_just_restrict_access_to_settings_in/pbj4ykw/)
  - Praise, GitHub Copilot, r/GithubCopilot, 2026-08-31: “i'm going to see if it accepts opus or openai5.5 <strict_link> edit: it accepted and went over-quota. processed the entire request.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1w3lw6p/last_request_before_reset_tomorrow/)
  - Complaint, GitHub Copilot, r/GithubCopilot, 2026-09-01: “it actually went over-quota and accepted and processed the entire request” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1w3lw6p/last_request_before_reset_tomorrow/p74r0go/)

### Who stands out

- **Cursor (weaker)**. Worse than peers here, with almost no praise and repeated reports of large unexpected on-demand bills.
  Cursor posts are the most one-sided on this page. Users describe overage charges that only made sense after the bill, top-ups that ran out within hours, and on-demand usage required for features they thought were included. Several also blame Auto for pulling in pricier models, which overlaps routing complaints. Consent before charges and hard caps are its most common requests.
  Evidence:
  - Complaint, Cursor, @cursor_ai, 2026-09-13: “@desibaker_ @cursor_ai i should have known... i thought it seemed quite .....generous. $600 in over charges made it al lmake sense 😅” [source](https://twitter.com/877256563345543168/status/2099140178979737904)
  - Complaint, Cursor, @cursor_ai, 2026-09-02: “i’m really liking @cursor_ai for all my fe work. i’m on the team plan, but man, their billing transparency for on-demand usage sucks, and they force you into turning it on to use bug-bot, which, as far as i know, was one of the biggest reasons i opted for a team plan because it said it was included in your cursor plan usage, which seems to only be true of a few mil tokens. then they charge on based on-demand. also, auto is really not auto. it’s sneaking in an on-demand model and still ensuring you’re up-charged.” [source](https://twitter.com/1127957190210392064/status/2094979744559206646)
  - Complaint, Cursor, @cursor_ai, 2026-09-14: “@cursor_ai is really starting to piss users off. it started using the most expensive models for everything my team is doing. where before the "auto" plan was super cheap, it became incredibly expensive overnight. spending $800 on something my $20 codex plan can do... terrible” [source](https://twitter.com/231364406/status/2099472294850498621)
  - Complaint, Cursor, r/cursor, 2026-09-19: “<strict_link> i ran out of credits on my $20.00 early this month, which never happen to me before. i thought because i used fable 5.1 just once to check my codebase and was mostly using grok 4.6 high. i added $10.00 and ran out of it in a few hours and added $10.00 and happened again. so i switched back to my claude code using opus 5 low. i'm not sure if it's the same issue as you describe though, i'm honestly a newbie in agentic coding.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wkr3d8/im_starting_to_think_they_pushed_some_update/paszp65/)

- **OpenAI Codex (mixed)**. Credits work as a flexible top-up for some users and an overpriced trap for others.
  A visible group prefers buying Codex credits over upgrading, using them to finish a task before reset. Others call credits poor value against subscription or API rates. The sharpest ask is a toggle to stop the app consuming credits once the plan is exhausted, and spend caps tie for the top request here.
  Evidence:
  - Praise, OpenAI Codex, r/codex, 2026-09-12: “for extra usage i prefer to buy credits instead of upgrade. so far that has worked well for me” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wecnn3/astra_6_currently_on_200_plan/p9dj1hb/)
  - Praise, OpenAI Codex, r/codex, 2026-09-06: “buy credits. they're pretty good for finishing off a task, and buying the odd refill if i have a lot to do in one session and need work done before the reset. still costs a lot less than pro at the end of the month” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1w7ylpn/why_is_everyone_so_angry_with_plus_users/p83dwyj/)
  - Complaint, OpenAI Codex, r/codex, 2026-09-14: “it's good that you defend your rights, however i would advise not to buy credits. they're insanely overpriced vs usage you get from a subscription or even from api.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wfpj7d/this_was_probably_my_last_purchase_from_openai/p9p7num/)
  - Complaint, OpenAI Codex, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app, 2026-09-10: “@thsottiaux my brother in christ, add a knob to the codex app to not consume credits when exhausted” [source](https://twitter.com/2023960926127616001/status/2098130170158755972)

- **Claude Code (mixed)**. Most of the praise on this page comes from one policy thread, while overage complaints run high.
  Claude Code collects the largest volume of posts. Praise clusters around charging for blocked requests as an anti-abuse measure. Complaints focus on purchased usage credits draining fast, unattended runs on API keys with no stop, and the same blocked-request policy seen as unfair. Refund and no-charge-for-refusal requests are concentrated here.
  Evidence:
  - Praise, Claude Code, @ClaudeDevs, 2026-09-24: “@claudedevs fair, blocked requests still burn compute and abuse budget free retries were always a subsidy for the edge cases” [source](https://twitter.com/2030700102877433856/status/2103171112343642252)
  - Praise, Claude Code, @ClaudeDevs, 2026-09-24: “@claudedevs smart move. charging for the "almost-there" biology or distillation checks filters out noise without biting users hard on false positives. it’s a nice way to monetize guardrails before they even speak up, efficient and barely noticeable unless you’re pushing limits” [source](https://twitter.com/417508671/status/2103181966845579775)
  - Complaint, Claude Code, r/ClaudeCode, 2026-09-13: “i'm on 20x plan, i hit my usage limit today, and my next reset is on 17th september... i'm aware they said they are gonna reduce the usage limits, but this is crazy, i thought it is only gonna take 17% of the usage benefits from what we were currently getting. but this is crazy. i added usage credits for about $100 but that got washed away like in 30 mins!!!” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wf8q8s/somethings_weird/p9k2l6y/)
  - Complaint, Claude Code, r/ClaudeCode, 2026-09-08: “the boundary moving from permission-before-action to audit-after-the-fact is the interesting part. the failure mode that got me on unattended runs wasn't permissions though, it was spend. a stuck retry loop at 3am costs real money and no permission rule catches it. what worked for me was per-session cost logging plus a hard daily cap that refuses the next request instead of warning after the fact. curious how you handle that side - autocontinueatusagelimit covers the subscription limit, but on api keys the meter keeps running.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1war5an/what_i_learned_running_an_unattended_claude_code/p8krqp6/)

- **OpenCode (stronger)**. Users describe pay-as-needed tokens on OpenCode Go as a low-risk way to extend usage, though the sample is small.
  OpenCode posts lean more positive than peers. Users like buying tokens only when needed and a cheap first month to test viability. Complaints are scattered, covering access problems after paying and a UX quirk that re-charges for removed conversations. Too few posts to call it a clear lead.
  Evidence:
  - Praise, OpenCode, r/PiCodingAgent, 2026-09-11: “you can always put credits on opencode go if you go over your usage, and the first month is like 5 dollars so you can see how much it is viable for your use case no harm no foul :d” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PiCodingAgent/comments/1wcas0i/anyone_using_ds_v41_flash_in_pi/p96qpkn/)
  - Praise, OpenCode, @opencode, 2026-09-09: “@biofluxroot @opencode 🤣 yeah people out here still living in the stone age writing code by hand.. i have opencode go and i just buy tokens as i need them. hoping to switch to local models for building once the other project i am working on is ready and the local models get a little better.” [source](https://twitter.com/1697870259418738688/status/2097711081288564800)
  - Complaint, OpenCode, r/opencodeCLI, 2026-09-21: “i guess it's good enough, i like that it works with ads (gives you more information on how they hold the platform) however i hate that it's made fully with ai, atleast that's what i thought when i saw the design of the app and the cli, i'm not saying using ai is wrong but it's kind of hard to use because it's not good ux, it also has weird stuff like you being able to remove conversations and then you have to pay the hour again.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencodeCLI/comments/1vbdp1g/anyone_using_freebuff/pb7i0wk/)

### Fine print

- Most agents have too few posts on this criterion to separate from the category.
- The blocked-request praise for Claude Code comes from replies to a single announcement over a few days.
- Some Cursor complaints blame Auto model selection, which overlaps the routing criterion rather than overage billing itself.

## Top requests

What users ask to add or change, most asked first. 85 author-weeks ask for something. Requests do not change the Feedback Score. Rule: A separate pass by Claude Sonnet 5 reads every counted post and extracts what the author asks the agent or its vendor to add or change, with the criteria it maps to and a short normalised wording; it does not touch the labels or the Feedback Score. Claude Opus 5.5 groups the wordings within each criterion (the first criterion the request maps to) into themes; code counts them. A theme counts distinct author-weeks that ask for it, per agent; across agents, one author-week per agent. Themes asked in fewer than 2 author-weeks, and requests that share no theme, are not shown. Examples: up to 3 posts per theme from different authors, without slurs, preferring posts of 60 to 450 characters, most recent first.

| Rank | Request | Author-weeks | Posts | Agents (author-weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hard user-configurable spend caps | 17 | 18 | OpenAI Codex 5, Cursor 5, Claude Code 3, Amp 1, Google Antigravity 1, Devin 1, OpenCode 1 |
| 2 | Refunds for failed requests and outages | 11 | 11 | Claude Code 7, Cursor 2, OpenAI Codex 1, Warp 1 |
| 3 | No charges for blocked or refused requests | 10 | 11 | Claude Code 10 |
| 4 | Explicit consent and disclosure before extra charges | 10 | 10 | OpenAI Codex 5, Cursor 4, OpenCode 1 |
| 5 | Paid overage instead of hard usage cutoff | 8 | 9 | Google Antigravity 3, OpenAI Codex 2, OpenCode 2, Claude Code 1 |
| 6 | Option to stop credit use at plan limit | 5 | 5 | OpenAI Codex 3, Claude Code 1, Cursor 1 |
| 7 | Simpler top-up and purchase flow | 3 | 3 | OpenCode 2, Cline 1 |
| 8 | Additional payment methods | 2 | 2 | Cline 1, Cursor 1 |
| 9 | Team-wide auto-reload toggle | 2 | 2 | OpenAI Codex 1, Cursor 1 |
| 10 | Use subscription credits before card charges | 2 | 2 | Cursor 2 |

### 1. Hard user-configurable spend caps

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-25, r/codex (Reddit): “why in gods green earth did you not put a monthly cap if you were going to turn on auto renewal. that would have prevented all of this” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1woo0wc/codex_auto_renew_took_me_for_4000/pc2hjsr/)
- OpenCode, 2026-09-25, r/opencode (Reddit): “i wish there was some toggle for "disable the models that have no $60 budget" coz its easy to not know and waste money” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wp4fkq/whats_the_sweet_spot_for_cost_to_performance_in/pbz6pb8/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-23, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs i’d want a “stop at $10 even if you’re convinced you’re almost done” setting before going to bed” [source](https://twitter.com/23609248/status/2102874226575188212)

### 2. Refunds for failed requests and outages

- Claude Code, 2026-09-27, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs ok but when do we get refunds for when it loops in reasoning forever and then: claude: fuck it i couldn’t figure it out. i burned $1000 in credit thinking money solves problems but turns out, you’re broke. try again tomorrow during non-peak hours and i might care again. 😎🛠️” [source](https://twitter.com/4805375293/status/2104085736706478550)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs hmm, that's not good. failures should never be charged. if i go to a restaurant and the waiter says it's full i don't pay for a meal.” [source](https://twitter.com/3706356261/status/2103352501139313112)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs then run refunds for the tasks where it failed and wasted tokens for nothing :)” [source](https://twitter.com/1804856506770182144/status/2103321395027423443)

### 3. No charges for blocked or refused requests

- Claude Code, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs charging on refusal is defensible only when it’s an admission-control decision, not a model failure. emit a policy reason + request class, cap retries, and meter compute separately; otherwise clients can’t distinguish probing from false positives and billing becomes a dos loop.” [source](https://twitter.com/2943818723/status/2103353946282815563)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “the @oigfedcfpb should actually look into this. because it should be illegal to bill me for a thing that you don't provide to me. just because you put it in your terms of service doesn't mean that it's not anti consumer behavior. it's fine for you to block a prompt. it's not fine for you to bill for it.” [source](https://twitter.com/298847287/status/2103351791387836552)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs could this really not be solved better by blocking ips?” [source](https://twitter.com/1455686932764119040/status/2103337400386888102)

### 4. Explicit consent and disclosure before extra charges

- OpenCode, 2026-09-22, @opencode (X): “i have zero problem paying for tools. what i do have a problem with is sneaky ux 🙃 @opencode silently swapping from a free model to paid zen behind my back is a massive trust breaker. just ask before billing! might migrate over this principle alone. thoughts? #opencode” [source](https://twitter.com/1992502868201623552/status/2102347689656824086)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-17, r/codex (Reddit): “i don't care if it is or isn't. i just don't need a second bill after i already payed before hand.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wim3q5/i_run_a_small_hotel_not_a_software_company_ai/pae80cz/)
- Cursor, 2026-09-14, @cursor_ai (X): “@ariellecpx @cursor_ai a £20 cursor plan with on-demand overage is how you wake up to £450. the seat looks cheap. the wrapper doesn't cap itself. if the bill isn't on the same page as the editor, it will surprise you.” [source](https://twitter.com/2063100850193735680/status/2099380482236657771)

### 5. Paid overage instead of hard usage cutoff

- Google Antigravity, 2026-09-23, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “yup, same here. there's no way to enable overages either if you have credits to use.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1wjiv3g/did_google_just_restrict_access_to_settings_in/pbj4ykw/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-22, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “good point. or they could just do what oai does and it works exactly as one would expect. at least in theory, i don't know if anyone has tested it out. it would cost anthropic more, but for the customer goodwill and potential conversion to api / enterprise it might be worth it.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wn0xn9/max20x_is_now_just_15_times_better_than_max5x/pbc1w7m/)
- Google Antigravity, 2026-09-20, @antigravity (X): “@jonsouyang @antigravity at the end of the api server, is simple solution to such an issue. since i presume the math is done there as it knows when to hard cut off you off.” [source](https://twitter.com/56128315/status/2101532247274803336)

### 6. Option to stop credit use at plan limit

- Claude Code, 2026-09-24, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs can you set it to stop when the promo credit runs out?” [source](https://twitter.com/1884131461130825728/status/2103027061388435638)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-23, r/codex (Reddit): “yes, but this also made sol so cheap that i'd actually consider just throwing some money on openrouter to use sol medium if i needed a relatively small thing done and had used up all my limits (openrouter rather than openai api directly because you can't turn off usage credit consumption when you hit a limit ☹️ )” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wnm9xi/gpt_just_got_mogged_by_claude_today/pbgy0iw/)
- Cursor, 2026-09-14, @cursor_ai (X): “@cursor_ai does this look like i dont know what im talking about? your software took money from a bankaccount autonomously because it hit its tiny quota i pay 75$ a month for plus the @spacexai plus the other software, i pay for through 65$ for x premium, plus grok bot, plus grok build. @cursor_ai fix it” [source](https://twitter.com/1951471845959667712/status/2099612348235300899)

### 7. Simpler top-up and purchase flow

- Cline, 2026-09-19, @cline (X): “i think @bai_agi should let people top-up with smaller minimum amount like deepseek or @cline allow. i almost topped up bai but as they don't allow upi payment through stripe like deepseek i hesitated. don't know why deepseek allow upi payments while bai and cline asks for card.” [source](https://twitter.com/781169866543927296/status/2101359816623182185)
- OpenCode, 2026-09-11, @opencode (X): “@opencode are you planning to have nice flow for upgrading or having ui to easily buy more usage? i struggled when my go usage is done.” [source](https://twitter.com/3305632775/status/2098441471984590965)
- OpenCode, 2026-09-10, r/opencode (Reddit): “just checked, ye you can get another sub then, pity its not more intuitive. would rather just have a button for "top up" or whatever instead of farting around workspaces.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wcbzvn/how_to_double_opencode_go/p8wrqgp/)

### 8. Additional payment methods

- Cline, 2026-09-19, @cline (X): “i think @bai_agi should let people top-up with smaller minimum amount like deepseek or @cline allow. i almost topped up bai but as they don't allow upi payment through stripe like deepseek i hesitated. don't know why deepseek allow upi payments while bai and cline asks for card.” [source](https://twitter.com/781169866543927296/status/2101359816623182185)
- Cursor, 2026-09-05, @cursor_ai (X): “@cursor_ai cloud agents on our own boxes is the missing piece — scale pools without giving up the loop. also wiring usdt pay-per-run for agent jobs — zero cut wallet checkout is handy there.” [source](https://twitter.com/2056707010020917248/status/2096288576090578947)

### 9. Team-wide auto-reload toggle

- Cursor, 2026-09-20, r/codex (Reddit): “what you expected to happen when you clicked the auto reload? i agree that they could add an additional "turn on auto reload for all team members" and maybe an additinal link under it to check our credit pricing but as an enterprise user, nothing suprsising happened. by default, teams everywhere is api based, openai, claude, cursor and any other ai tool.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wleg93/i_just_experienced_openais_team_plan_money/paxw690/)

### 10. Use subscription credits before card charges

- Cursor, 2026-09-07, @cursor_ai (X): “had $80+ @cursor_ai credits in my sub (also using @bot). hit grokbot weekly limit, so tried $20 on-demand to finish my task. expected it from the pool, but it charged my card directly instead? shouldn't this use the subscription's credits or am i alone here? <strict_link>” [source](https://twitter.com/1977453632325885953/status/2097000938955296876)
- Cursor, 2026-09-02, @cursor_ai (X): “@teslaconomics @spacexai @cursor_ai i'm loving cursor. i'm building model training infrastructure and some cool coding agent tools along with eval setups. pretty cool stuff. i'd love to get the $20 toward on-demand.” [source](https://twitter.com/1499060810131251208/status/2095207541709897974)

## Every agent

| Agent | Overall rank | Reading | Customer love | 95% interval | n | Praise | Complaint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [OpenAI Codex](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/codex.md) | 2 | Typical | 0.512 | 0.464–0.549 | 148 | 14 | 134 |
| [Claude Code](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/claude-code.md) | 1 | Typical | 0.500 | 0.446–0.537 | 211 | 17 | 194 |
| [Cursor](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/cursor.md) | 4 | Worse than peers | 0.430 | 0.393–0.479 | 105 | 3 | 102 |
| [OpenCode](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/opencode.md) | 3 | Too few posts | – | – | 26 | 6 | 20 |
| [GitHub Copilot](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/copilot.md) | =8 | Too few posts | – | – | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| [Devin](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/devin.md) | =5 | Too few posts | – | – | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| [Google Antigravity](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/antigravity.md) | =5 | Too few posts | – | – | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| [Amp](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/amp.md) | =11 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| [Kiro](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/kiro.md) | 13 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| [Cline](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/cline.md) | =8 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Zed](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/zed.md) | =8 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Factory](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/factory.md) | =11 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Pi](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/pi.md) | 7 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Conductor](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/conductor.md) | 14 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Warp](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/warp.md) | 15 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Grok Build](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/grok-build.md) | 16 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| [Augment Code](https://feedbackbench.com/agents/augment.md) | 17 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Posts

Receipts rule: The 5 most recent praise and complaint posts per area (first 700 characters) and 3 per criterion (first 450 characters).

### OpenAI Codex

- Praise, 2026-09-26, r/codex (Reddit): “it's an expensive lesson and snide remarks aside, i'm sorry that happened to you. in an ongoing session i would (and do) expect the agent to be smart enough to keep the budget in mind or at the very least to keep receipts. what i was expecting was new sessions bein started with the base information and just getting the same instruction of 10 bucks over and over again. as mentioned, budget shouldn't be managed as part of a conversation or even tru” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wqyau5/i_gave_sol6_medium_a_10_dollar_budget_it_blew_200/pc82v5t/)
- Praise, 2026-09-23, r/codex (Reddit): “i look forward in hearing your constructive objections towards: \- no 5h limits on 5x/20x plans from codex. \- 1-3 random free weekly resets on max subs from codex like every week. \- fast-infering included on 5x/20x on codex while isn’t without separate credits on claude. \- no image gen on claude even though it’s underrated in coding purposes but fills a gap for my apps. \- fable 5/5.1 not being timesx better than sol 5.6/sol6 to feel time” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wnx6ww/codex_is_in_a_really_bad_spot_right_now_opus_55/pbiqrst/)
- Praise, 2026-09-17, r/codex (Reddit): “i quit my $250k a year gig to go full time on several side projects that actually make me money. i rely on every ounce of llm token i can get and i don’t want to ever pay api fees (i.e “overages”). understanding and timing resets well has been a tremendous boost for my output/productivity and pays the bills.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wifjfp/my_theory_on_the_next_codex_reset_thursday_or/pab7nkm/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@donburenew i understand because i'm using codex cli, it goes ahead and sets up the environment when permissions are granted, right? i didn't notice that codex silently dropped to openai api billing when it hit the limit, and i fixed the router. how are you handling the cleanup after swe-2?” [source](https://twitter.com/894906555954364417/status/2104061365300404253)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@technewsradiojp the problem of codex stopping is tough, isn't it? we fell into the trap where codex cli silently switches to openai api billing when it reaches the limit, so we fixed it to explicitly stop on the router side. did this reset actually work?” [source](https://twitter.com/894906555954364417/status/2104077142682443961)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@you10001you the recovery before development was the most unexpected, i understand. we are using codex cli in conjunction, and codex silently fell back to openai api billing when it reached its limit, and later we fixed the router. do you have the reproduction conditions for the acl anomaly?” [source](https://twitter.com/894906555954364417/status/2104349065601564887)

### Claude Code

- Praise, 2026-09-26, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “as others said, api is for business use. i built an internal application at work that needed an api key and oh boy does it chew money fast. but boss doesn’t care because the amount of work it’s doing for $4-$5 a run is way cheaper than a human doing it.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wr0wic/is_everyone_here_millionaires/pc8uvu1/)
- Praise, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs charging for blocked requests makes sense if it stops abuse without hurting real users.” [source](https://twitter.com/2058874736470327296/status/2103393794762711213)
- Praise, 2026-09-25, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs "billable blocks" is a brilliant economic deterrent for coordinated api attacks. if bad actors are going to spam your system trying to bypass safeguards, taxing them for the wasted compute is the ultimate uno reverse card.” [source](https://twitter.com/1980209095815917568/status/2103452540989735205)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “amen, i did one prompt with fast on, opus low and it took 149.89 or something like that. i also did a different prompt on opus low to test the api xd 80 usd. never again.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wr0wic/is_everyone_here_millionaires/pc9v95n/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i don't use claude regularly enough to require a subscription, but i blew through $6 yesterday in 3 hours of work. could be worth it if you have a big task.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wrf0ld/is_claude_pro_actually_worth_20_just_for_one/pcciefx/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i am on pro / $20 month....was just charged $28 for just today on fable 5 usage. wow, that's never happened before.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1vzucc8/did_claude_usage_suddenly_get_way_more_expensive/pcf9a8g/)

### Cursor

- Praise, 2026-09-24, r/cursor (Reddit): “i agree as a former auto user it is bad. however, someone suggested a new workflow when i asked for advice. they said to use composer and grok 4.6 together. one to plan and composer to implement and it's been as good as always and i solved the overage issues that auto had all of a sudden. so a minor workflow tweak and its been working great. also cursor projects & automations i just rolled these out and they are amazing for my workflows.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wp0ext/cursor_is_good_as_a_second_hand/pbs2ltb/)
- Praise, 2026-09-07, r/cursor (Reddit): “no hidden cost. on-demand charge is off by default. grok bot is amazing. agentic ai is amazing.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1w9udb4/is_cursor_worth_it/p8edem4/)
- Praise, 2026-08-31, r/cursor (Reddit): “even involving customer service for a 3 dollar thing is ridicoulous. it's completly normal that api prices are expensive, get a higher plan and see how far you get with that.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1w2wfjm/absolutely_unhappy_with_cursor_right_now_be/p6xdpyn/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, r/cursor (Reddit): “the rolling allowance is honestly the bigger deal here. if you're regularly maxing out your usage, going direct to claude means you hit the rate limit and stop, whereas cursor's flat billing just keeps charging. sounds like you're already at the point where you'd benefit from switching.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wrbmrn/is_it_a_waste_of_money_to_run_opus_55_inside_of/pcbhtbw/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, r/cursor (Reddit): “lol we have 20 usd limit at work. but we have some overusage which is capped at 12k usd team of 60 people. i already used more than 800usd from all team budget...shit ai is expensive” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wrkzi5/am_i_cooked/pceiyc5/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-27, @cursor_ai (X): “@cursor_ai am trying to upgrade plan but its failing to redirect to checkout page only yearly pro plan is working everything else failing please help me to fix this asap” [source](https://twitter.com/3222158227/status/2104128231570030931)

### OpenCode

- Praise, 2026-09-18, @opencode (X): “@aperehaml @yume_arasaki single dgx spark is more expensive than api by a long shot. @opencode and @openrouter are better options with deepseek flash. dgx sparks are great for experimentation but too slow to realistically use for agents.” [source](https://twitter.com/2045711433015455744/status/2100801835955089525)
- Praise, 2026-09-13, @opencode (X): “@t64_bv @selzer25 @notch @opencode the frontier kimi &amp; glm models are quite expensive, but deepseek and the flash variants are extremely cheap. i use the v4 pro with opencode go on a daily basis and rarely have to do extra credit top ups.” [source](https://twitter.com/2055572979019292672/status/2099150177198117126)
- Praise, 2026-09-11, r/PiCodingAgent (Reddit): “you can always put credits on opencode go if you go over your usage, and the first month is like 5 dollars so you can see how much it is viable for your use case no harm no foul :d” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PiCodingAgent/comments/1wcas0i/anyone_using_ds_v41_flash_in_pi/p96qpkn/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-26, r/opencode (Reddit): “i have $30 in opencode, which i deposited after reaching my monthly limits. i can't use them to pay for new opencode go subscriptions, nor can i withdraw them. in fact, they're stuck on the site. the only way i can use them is to exceed the limits again and burn them off. i've been trying for days to find a way to contact opencode's customer support, but they seem... unavailable? how is it possible that there isn't even an email address? i'” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wr1sj5/why_isnt_there_any_customer_support_for_opencode/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-24, r/opencode (Reddit): “inside opencode v2’s source code: how it sabotages custom prompts, nerfs subagents, and charges $0.01 for search that’s already free in the codebase (custom tui + unchained fork) we decided to rebuild **opencode v2.0.16** from source specifically for our own workflow — bug bounty hunting, reverse engineering, heavy low-level coding, and a clean dark tui that doesn't look like generic default slop. while digging through `packages/core` and `packag” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wpe80m/inside_opencode_v2s_source_code_how_it_sabotages/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-22, r/opencodeCLI (Reddit): “if you have the zdr flag enabled where you configured the model in opencode, they'll charge you an outrageous amount.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencodeCLI/comments/1wmt1my/is_command_code_really_a_scam/pb9xgkn/)

### GitHub Copilot

- Praise, 2026-08-31, r/GithubCopilot (Reddit): “i'm going to see if it accepts opus or openai5.5 <strict_link> edit: it accepted and went over-quota. processed the entire request.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1w3lw6p/last_request_before_reset_tomorrow/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-24, r/PiCodingAgent (Reddit): “i want to keep using pi agent as my main coding interface, but i also want claude opus 5.5 to be the main agent/orchestrator, not just a sub-agent or reviewer. i use pi agent both at work and privately. privately, my setup is simple: pi agent + codex pro. at work, i had been using pi agent + github copilot, but copilot credit usage became too expensive, so we are moving toward subscription-based access instead. i now have a claude team premium se” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PiCodingAgent/comments/1woy2wb/can_i_keep_pi_agent_while_using_claude_opus_as_my/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-23, r/GithubCopilot (Reddit): “in enterprise you cant use subs when your org is more than 200, so pay api costs. so you get these 50% reductions immediately as youre just paying the provider. enterprise capture is what theyre after - openai on a move against anthropic.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1wnn5l2/openai_reduces_api_price_by_50/pbifhe2/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-19, r/GithubCopilot (Reddit): “i’m also paying for chatgpt and use codex in my ide. i just wanted to try copilot out as i was using so many tokens. for $40 (pro+) i receive $70 in credits which might get me the best dollar per usage over the $100 plan from chat gpt. regardless, i’m just wondering if they are actually going to bill me this when i set addtional usage to $0.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1wkdn9s/copilot_is_allowing_27_in_overage_despite_my/paptnky/)

### Devin

- Complaint, 2026-09-23, @DevinAI (X): “@hraness @devinai @zeddotdev providers should force this kind of thing through their api so people larping aren’t so heavily subsidized.” [source](https://twitter.com/11607272/status/2102792532564578640)
- Complaint, 2026-09-18, r/windsurf (Reddit): “i’m on a paid devin subscription, and something about the way usage is calculated doesn’t seem to add up. even when i intentionally use the **free model**, my weekly quota still seems to get consumed pretty aggressively. i remember seeing similar behavior with windsurf even before the transition to devin, so i’m wondering if i’m misunderstanding how they calculate usage. another thing i noticed: the **daily quota seems to be around 80% of the ent” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/windsurf/comments/1wjgykw/devin_weekly_quota_gets_exhausted_even_when_using/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-18, @cognition (X): “hi @cognition i saw 0netime free promotions”/scan” service on devin, but when i had try the promotion , my credit cost has spike soon. refund or add my credit fee if you can.” [source](https://twitter.com/1609312198647762946/status/2100859961958179258)

### Google Antigravity

- Complaint, 2026-09-24, @antigravity (X): “@antigravity api the billing should be paused for now~” [source](https://twitter.com/1708765341659332608/status/2103018308853538871)
- Complaint, 2026-09-23, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “yup, same here. there's no way to enable overages either if you have credits to use.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1wjiv3g/did_google_just_restrict_access_to_settings_in/pbj4ykw/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-16, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “i would say though that the main thing i'd use gemini for would be imaging - if you're building a ui then claude sucks at taking screenshots and fixing bugs in the ui - it's sometimes easier to ask gemini to look and comment what the problems are and asking claude to use gemini as it's eyes. i've done this using paid api calls but it's too expensive to be worth it most of the time.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1whvudv/people_who_are_complaining_about_gemini/pa652ei/)

### Amp

- Complaint, 2026-09-15, @AmpCode (X): “@csinco @ampcode getting this error: web search failed with status 400: {"ok":false,"error":{"code":"insufficient-credits","message":"out of credits"}}” [source](https://twitter.com/1879194803700670464/status/2099858918445076854)
- Complaint, 2026-09-02, @AmpCode (X): “@ampcode token subsidies without a spend gate are the intern with the aws key. last silent 200 i had still billed the retry. when a user blows the economy cap, do you kill the next tool call, or only show the bill?” [source](https://twitter.com/23482267/status/2094990600991121438)

### Kiro

- Complaint, 2026-09-10, r/kiroIDE (Reddit): “i tried bedrock fable5.1 via api. 1 prompt costed me 1500$ 💀” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/kiroIDE/comments/1wchsii/frontier_models_on_other_providers_vs_the_same/p8y498q/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-03, r/kiroIDE (Reddit): “oh that's already a reality with opus. i will just rack up my overages. company $$ anyways” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/kiroIDE/comments/1w5wmz0/after_waiting_almost_4_months_for_fable_5_and_the/p7kj3ac/)

### Cline

- Complaint, 2026-09-18, r/CLine (Reddit): “just tried to reuse cline today to use with openrouter and the new deepseek flash v4.1 flash and i had the same issue. was going to spend like maybe 50cts on the session, ended up wasting 5$. if i didnt check my openrouter logs every hour i would have missed it. i'm sorry but this makes clien unreliable and unusable for me. i'm on the latest version 4.1.19 and my both my plan mode and actmode are set to openrouter deepseek flash latest. how can t” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/CLine/comments/1lo30tj/why_does_cline_keep_switching_api_provider_back/paku3e9/)

### Zed

- Complaint, 2026-09-15, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i'm using zed ide; i find that helps. can be expensive because it uses api rates if you don't use a specific claude agent. my process is more converting tickets into markdowns. i save that folder in the repo (don't commit it). i go grab the associated documentation and put it in there converting urls to links to files. if its an uncommon thing i'll get the llm to read the docs especially if they have an llm.txt in my [claude.md](<strict_link>) i” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wgm4si/engineers_who_write_all_their_code_with_claude/p9xsdqj/)

### Factory

- Complaint, 2026-09-21, @droid (X): “@droid is payment for india still getting rejected? that stops me from going for the $200 plan, your payment gateway fails, i have most subs, they never have a problem while paying for their max plans.” [source](https://twitter.com/1763785482096594944/status/2102126053749891407)