Where does the bug appear (feature/product)? Cursor IDE Describe the Bug It’s very basic really, I have added a valid OpenAI API key into the Cursor settings and then I attempt to use GPT 5.5 for a number of tasks and I’m not seeing any API usage at all, but instead seeing usage through Cursor. St…

Hey there. What do you see in your Usage dashboard? If your API key is being used, you should see User API Key under Type.

Ah, ok I am seeing that…but not seeing any usage logged in OpenAI even after a number of days. Could this just be an issue with OpenAI refreshing token usage count?

Thanks Colin, ok I’m guessing it’s just OpenAI lagging in showing usage so either way, thank you for confirming it’s all working as hoped. Appreciate your response!

@Colin are you sure? I also have the same issue. Cursor is not using my API key for OpenAI. It is also not reflected at OpenAI platform, I don’t get any costs. Basically, I tried setting random OpenAI API key and on Cursor web dashboard it shows “User API Key” usage and it basically works. Disabling…

Ack @agajan – something is wrong here, and sorry for doubting you @Ben_Radcliffe ! Thank you both for the reports. Escalating to the team. This is a little sensitive, so I’m unlisting the topic for now.

Yeah. I was just verifying if I have any leaked API keys somewhere on my filesystem. So basically, I just revoked all my keys in OpenAI Platform and literally put “RANDOM_OPENAI_API_KEY” on Cursor settings. It still works.

Hey @Ben_Radcliffe @agajan We fixed this, and it was actually a pretty serious issue! To say thank you for bringing this to our attention, I’ve added some credit to your accounts. You’ll notice requests marked Free in your Usage dashboard, which are using this credit.

Thank you Colin, that’s appreciated and glad we could help expose a bug for fixing.

Why is Cursor not using my OpenAI API key when choosing GPT-5.5 in the model picker?

Support Bug Reports

Colin (Colin) May 24, 2026, 11:00am 8

Our backend confirms a large number of requests routed through your OpenAI key in the last few days! I can’t say for sure, but I think this is a display issue with the reporting on OpenAI’s side

Topic		Replies	Views
Cursor Agent sends Responses API format to /chat/completions endpoint Bug Reports byok , openai , linear-linked	7	915	June 1, 2026
BYOK with Azure OpenAI no longer works since 12 hours Bug Reports byok , openai , linear-linked	8	104	June 3, 2026
Hard Block on BYOK Usage Despite Pro Subscription ($16/mo) – Version 3.0.16 Bug Reports byok , anthropic	4	199	May 14, 2026
I'm being charged requests when "claude-4.6-opus-high-thinking" model errors out with no token usage Bug Reports	12	224	May 6, 2026
Model returned error - ERROR_NETWORK_ERROR Bug Reports chat	3	71	April 1, 2026

Why is Cursor not using my OpenAI API key when choosing GPT-5.5 in the model picker?

Related topics