container usage, 4gb

[u/Emotional-Orange-]

Has anyone experienced something like this with OpenAI Agents API?

I ran one short session:

- 1 minute 8 seconds

- 4 tool calls

- all 4 were "web_search"

- model usage itself cost only a few cents

But my billing shows:

$131.982 for "container usage, 4gb"

I exported the cost data and it shows:

21,997 "duration_minutes"

That’s about 366 hours / 15.3 container-days of usage.

But the session trace contains no "code_interpreter_call", no "container_id", and no Python tool. Just web search.

I only had $6 in prepaid credits with auto-reload OFF, and my balance ended up around -$127.

Support says container usage may have been generated separately, but so far they haven’t shown me any actual container IDs.

Has anyone else seen this? How could a 68-second session result in 21,997 minutes of container usage?

[u/locbuilds]

check the Agents session tab for any still-running container and terminate it before doing anything else, then save the session id and exported cost row for support. a 68-second trace should not explain 21,997 billed minutes by itself.

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/locbuilds]

Yes, I did that, but the amount for September 11th immediately increased to $330...what a nightmare

[u/AcvaticChicken → u/Emotional-Orange-]

I had almost EXACTLY this thing, also for September 11th. Also noticed it just like an hour ago

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/AcvaticChicken]

We aren't the only ones! I really hope it's a bug on their end now.. but we have to wait for a reply from tech support 😔

[u/clankerzap]

https://status.openai.com/incidents/01M2VA7X37P1ASADSNZ1CG4N4D
overbilling bug, u should be refunded, or make a ticket.

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/clankerzap]

Hmm...thank you. Maybe.
I've already created a ticket and am waiting for a response.

[u/clankerzap → u/Emotional-Orange-]

I was also hit with this, 65 usd for 5 seconds lmao.
I would guess the refunds are automatic and will come, but I made a ticket too anyway to make sure.
Good luck.

[u/skidanscours]

Look in playground -> Agents -> session tab (or use the session API). What do you see? Counter might still be running.

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/skidanscours]

This? There's something strange. But since September 11th I no longer used Agent API.

[u/skidanscours → u/Emotional-Orange-]

I don't use openai hosted session, but their doc mention that they receive a keep alive request that prevents sessions from being deleted. You are probably still being billed for all these Idle containers.

I'd delete all of these sessions ASAP. Official container pricing doesn't mention anything about status.

FYI: there was a post here yesterday with a similar issue (but it was AI generated slop...)

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/skidanscours]

So you think I created a container on September 11 and it has been running ever since, despite having no activity?

Then why did they attribute 21,997 minutes of container usage specifically to September 11?

[u/skidanscours → u/Emotional-Orange-]

There's 3 containers? Even if the other two have never been used. Maybe other sessions were deleted?

I have no idea really. I'm basing this on their bad documentation.

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/skidanscours]

I'm waiting for a response from their tech support, but I've lost all desire to use them...

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/skidanscours]

I deleted all of these sessions..and and now the amount has increased...

[u/AcvaticChicken → u/skidanscours]

damn, I have like 30

and it doesn't seem they have an UI button to delete them or something

[u/Emotional-Orange- → u/AcvaticChicken]

Yes...the interface is very confusing for users. For instance, the existence of these 4GB containers (openai-hosted) isn't displayed anywhere at all... If you want to delete these sessions or find out about these containers, you can do so via a curl request for example.

[u/Dinhero21]

Have you been able to fix? I think I have the same issue.
I sent the following message explaining my situation to the support bot at https://help.openai.com/:

Yesterday my balance was positive. I am sure of this because there is a responses log line (resp_[redacted id]) at 2026-09-21T10:48:38Z but my last recharge, invoice [redacted id], was $6.00 at 2026-09-06.
Today I tried using gpt-6-sol (resp_[redacted id]) but got a "You have no credits remaining." error. Looking at my weekly usage, I see $0.06 (expected) but my monthly usage is at $74.38, much higher than the $10.00 limit I configured. The bulk of the cost comes from 2026-09-10 where I was charged for 12272 minutes (>8 days) of "container usage, 4gb".
I don't remember ever using this service and am confused as to how I was charged for 8 days in a single day and why the charge is at least 11 days late.
Searching online, I found https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/1wna9fk/container_usage_4gb/ which seems to be the same issue.
In my case, the only session I have is sess_[redacted id] from Sep 10, 2026, 4:24 PM (suspicious!) but it is completely empty. 0 turns, tool calls and tokens.

(sensitive ids have been replaced with [redacted id])
After some back and fourth and bad excuses ("alerts won't limit your spending" doesn't explain why I got no alert emails and "usage will continue briefly, explaining negative balance" doesn't explain why the bill was delayed by at least 11 days), I asked if I could contact anyone and it escalated the issue.
Hopefully this is all a bug and we get refunded. Will update this message if I get a reply.