Ask HN: Why Do AI Credits Expire

[kuberwastaken]

I was writing a blog when this hit me and couldn't find too many convincing arguments other than incentivizing heavier use, would love to hear takes on this.

Closest parallel I could think of is gift cards, which too do not expire in many places.

[bradly]

Gift cards do not expire because laws were passed to prevent it. No such laws exist for AI credits, so companies will do what is most profitable.

[Littice]

The gift card analogy breaks down a bit: a gift card doesn’t get more expensive for the store to redeem later. Compute can.

[ben_w]

Back when I experimented with getting ChatGPT by paying for API access rather than the official subscription, the credit was denominated in money, not in tokens.

Compute does whatever it does, but $5 sitting in an account to be spent on tokens at some arbitrary time in the future, earns money for OpenAI etc. even when they didn't make it expire.

[benoau]

AI credits expire because they make the least money off you if you actually use your full quota, now or later.

[downbad_]

Accounting purposes, I guess.