I put in my API key and started going to town with GPT 5, both standard and hit.
Imagine my surprise to see it racked up Cursor charges. And over at OpenAI, it says no activity. Yet my key is correct and was validated.
Thanks for charging me more.
Which version of Cursor are you using? In version 1.5.7, we removed the key verification. You just need to add your API key and enable it, and it should work. Please upgrade.
1.5.7, confirmed.
It’s not using my key.
That’s quite strange, I just checked and everything seems to be working fine. Are you sure your key is enabled in the settings? Try regenerating it and adding it again, and also restart Cursor.
I removed the key. I went to OpenAI and regenerated a new one and disabled the old one. I put the new one in and enabled it.
See the screenshot. I’m using Claude, but it now says that the key is bad. It shouldn’t even be TRYING the key, as I’m using an Anthropic model, which has no key.
This makes bug number three.
Turning off the OpenAI key lets Claude execute with no error.
Since your API key is enabled, the models from the subscription won’t work. Check if the override base URL is enabled. If it is, try disabling it.
It has never been enabled
It seems to me what I want is Claude in the subscription, and GPT as paid, since the API key is less expensive.
Could you try enabling your API key and check if the GPT-4o or GPT-4.1 models are working for you?