A South Korean developer known by the pseudonym remy_notes encountered a glaring glitch in Anthropic's billing system. Despite not using the API, not linking a payment card, and remaining on the free plan, his account balance skyrocketed to an astronomical $16.6 million. This story, published on Threads, quickly spread across social media and exposed systemic issues in the payment solutions of AI giants.
How a "Phantom" Bill Grew Tenfold
The first bill for $1,669,875 arrived on July 7. Less than a day later, the system issued a new one—already for $16,627,739. Surprisingly, the user had taken no actions during this entire time. A check of remy_notes' scripts and AI agents revealed no reasons for the charges. The emails came from Anthropic's official domain via Stripe, ruling out phishing.
The user's bank rejected two debit attempts on July 8, as the amounts exceeded the card limit. However, after several retries, the primary card was eventually blocked. Resolving the issue took four days and about 18 emails to support—instead of a clear response, remy_notes received only automated replies.
Anthropic's Official Position and the Scale of the Problem
Anthropic acknowledged the error, explaining it as a glitch in the auto-recharge credit settings. The feature has been disabled for security reasons. However, the company did not explain why the auto-recharge amount reached such absurd values.
This case is just the tip of the iceberg. Startup Vaudit reviewed $34 million in AI service bills for 60 major clients and found overcharges of approximately $1.7 million (about 5% of the total amount). Among the affected companies are Panasonic, HP, and Honda. The largest errors are specifically in AI solution billing.
My expert conclusion: The Anthropic incident is a warning sign for the entire industry. Automating payments without proper oversight can lead to catastrophic consequences for users. Regularly check your payment panels, monitor bank notifications, and respond to suspicious charges. In the world of AI, where glitches are becoming the norm, vigilance is your only defense.