Thread

1. mstaoru · 1791113391 · focus · HN ↗

   I find Google AI Studio / Dev Platform / whatchamacallit one of the worst in this.

   When video models just came out, I wanted to make a short clip. Gemini didn't have enough control back then, so I started in Studio. I had $10 on my account. Try, try, try, not good, retry, altogether maybe 20-30 retries with 4 choices for a 10 second video.

   Wake up next morning to an email from Google - my Studio account is frozen because of negative balance.

   I check it, it's at -$160. Not financial ruin, but a painful sum for a 10-second video I didn't even use in the end.

   I don't think there was (or is) a setting in there that says "stop everything when I'm in the negative".

   Almost a year later, it's still as bad. Trying to make some music via Lyria, I need to wait 10-12 hours for the API charge to show in my costs. Now I had the bitter lesson, I wait after every major novel experiment to see how much it costed me.

   Coding is solved, my ass.

   1. Guillaume86 · 1791114707 · focus · HN ↗

      Had a similar experience with OpenRouter, put 10$, goes -50$, I just stopped using it. To their credit support agreed to reset my balance (AI refusal at first, then re-contacted me months later to agree). I'm being more careful now but I shouldn't have to be IMHO.
   2. hmokiguess · 1791132282 · focus · HN ↗

      Cloudflare is worse, they have no controls whatsoever.

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.