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Oh, interesting, I feel like a year so ago I read something posted from openrouter team that they write that credits expire, but that they in actuality don’t ex

Oh, interesting, I feel like a year so ago I read something posted from openrouter team that they write that credits expire, but that they in actuality don’t expire them. But maybe I’m misremembering, or perhaps that’s changed for the worse in last few months :S

numlocked 5d ago
We started actually expiring the credits a ~month ago. If you make any kind of API request, it resets the clock. We try to make it a very generous policy, but we can't keep a monotonically increasing liability on the books. We end up owing (a lot) of taxes on it, but can't actually recognize revenue. We would much rather you spend the credits! Hence the reminder emails, and generous "clock reset" policy.
- wren6991 5d ago
  > but can't actually recognize revenue Hmm? You have the revenue already. I know it's awkward from an accounting point of view, but you already took my money. "Letting" me keep the balance in the account is not generous. Edit: on re-reading this came out more combative than I intended, sorry. I think what you're doing is reasonable.
  - SXX 5d ago
    I kind a get their reasoning. They cant recognize balance topup as revenue because then they'll owe taxes on full amount. At the same time majority of money we pay them usually just gonna be an expense paid to actual inference providers. Then they pay taxes on their fee aka actual profits. Its understandable, but it dont make 1 year expiration any good.
- SXX 5d ago
  Is this reset clock policy is actually documented somewhere? Because right now your website it's just say 1 year since credit purchase.
- bellowsgulch 4d ago
  Absolutely no where is that shown to customers, and OpenRouter is going to be in a world of shit when people learn this by HN post and the business asks themselves why its reputation keeps taking hits. What a fucking ridiculous thing for me to learn by social news.

numlocked 5d ago

We started actually expiring the credits a ~month ago. If you make any kind of API request, it resets the clock. We try to make it a very generous policy, but we can't keep a monotonically increasing liability on the books. We end up owing (a lot) of taxes on it, but can't actually recognize revenue. We would much rather you spend the credits! Hence the reminder emails, and generous "clock reset" policy.

wren6991 5d ago
> but can't actually recognize revenue Hmm? You have the revenue already. I know it's awkward from an accounting point of view, but you already took my money. "Letting" me keep the balance in the account is not generous. Edit: on re-reading this came out more combative than I intended, sorry. I think what you're doing is reasonable.
- SXX 5d ago
  I kind a get their reasoning. They cant recognize balance topup as revenue because then they'll owe taxes on full amount. At the same time majority of money we pay them usually just gonna be an expense paid to actual inference providers. Then they pay taxes on their fee aka actual profits. Its understandable, but it dont make 1 year expiration any good.
SXX 5d ago
Is this reset clock policy is actually documented somewhere? Because right now your website it's just say 1 year since credit purchase.
bellowsgulch 4d ago
Absolutely no where is that shown to customers, and OpenRouter is going to be in a world of shit when people learn this by HN post and the business asks themselves why its reputation keeps taking hits. What a fucking ridiculous thing for me to learn by social news.