# Cheap AI credits can hide an expensive token bill

Compare the amount actually charged for a request. Visible answer length is not the complete bill.

[Canonical HTML page](https://nosecrets.app/en/stories/ai-proxy-token-billing-audit)

Published by: [No Secrets Research](https://nosecrets.app/en/about#methodology)
Added: 2026-10-20
Topic: Technology

## Scope and context

Applies to: Token-billed AI APIs · documented OpenRouter fields
Time context: Documentation checked October 20, 2026
Sources checked: 2026-10-20

A billing discrepancy needs investigation. Hidden reasoning or different tokenizers can explain some differences without proving inflated usage.

## Ask for an itemized record

OpenRouter's usage documentation exposes native input/output token counts, cost, and available cache and reasoning details. Our suggested comparison is cash paid per completed workload, with input, output, cache rates and the reseller's credit conversion recorded separately.

[1: OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai/docs/cookbook/administration/usage-accounting)

## Invisible output can still be billed

Reasoning tokens may be charged even when the reasoning text is excluded. OpenRouter notes that reasoning can consume the output budget before a visible answer appears. Counting characters on screen therefore cannot reconstruct the invoice.

[2: OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/best-practices/reasoning-tokens)

## Make the price reproducible

Our checklist: save a small non-sensitive test request, request ID, usage, posted rates and balance change. Check whether reasoning is already included in completion totals before adding it again. Ask the seller to explain unexplained multipliers; a seller-controlled usage field alone is not an independent audit.

[1: OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai/docs/cookbook/administration/usage-accounting) · [2: OpenRouter](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/best-practices/reasoning-tokens)

## Sources

1. [Usage Accounting](https://openrouter.ai/docs/cookbook/administration/usage-accounting) — OpenRouter. . Native token counts, cache details, cost and generation records.

2. [Reasoning Tokens](https://openrouter.ai/docs/guides/best-practices/reasoning-tokens) — OpenRouter. . Explains billed reasoning tokens even when reasoning text is hidden.

## Disclosure

AI-assisted research, writing and translation by No Secrets, using the linked public documents. This is a source summary, not firsthand reporting or an independently audited investigation. No affiliate links are used in this article.

The source-check date is not the event date. Original documents control if a summary differs.