Why Your OpenAI Bill is Higher Than You Think

OpenAI billing is per token, but most teams only monitor API quota usage. Token-based pricing introduces hidden amplification when prompts grow or responses are streamed multiple times.

Additionally, retries from unstable network conditions or custom orchestration layers can multiply token consumption.

What to look for

1. Track the token count per request rather than just request volume.
2. Monitor average response tokens vs. prompt tokens to spot runaway completions.
3. Surface retries and backoffs that keep re-sending the same prompt.

Sonar correlates usage spikes with deployments and teams so the exact cause is discoverable in minutes.