OpenAI API key keeps toggling off on its own

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I am having an issue where the OpenAI API key toggles off on its own. I use API keys for work and my Cursor credits for personal stuff. I toggle on the OpenAI key, and within a day it has automatically toggled back off.

If I don’t manually check it every day, I’ll start eating up my personal credits without realizing it, because there’s nothing else in the UI that indicates if you’re using an API key or not. The Anthropic API key works fine and doesn’t do this.

There are other older forum posts for this bug, but they’re locked so I can’t reply.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Add an OpenAI API key in Cursor settings and toggle it on.
  2. After a day or so, look in that area of Settings again and see that it has become turned off.

Expected Behavior

The API key stays toggled on until the user turns it off manually.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.5.26
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 7d96c2a03bb088ad367615e9da1a3fe20fbbc6a0
Date: 2026-02-26T04:57:56.825Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.4.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

GPT 5.2

Additional Information

I also use an Anthropic API key and it does not have this issue.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

3

Hey, this is a known issue. The OpenAI API key toggle resets itself, while Anthropic stays stable. A few users have run into the same thing:

The team is aware. For now, sadly there isn’t a reliable workaround, other than manually checking the toggle like you’re already doing.

Just in case, try this:

  1. Remove the OpenAI API key completely
  2. Fully quit Cursor CMD+Q
  3. Restart and add the key again

No guarantee it’ll help, but sometimes it clears a bad cache state. Let me know if anything changes.