Your API key can burn $82,314 in 48 hours.
That’s not hypothetical. In February 2026, a three-person startup in Mexico with $180/month in normal spend was billed $82,314 in 48 hours after an API key leaked. Google declined to waive it.
Find out what a leak would cost you. No signup, ten seconds.
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What we’re building
A hard spending cap for AI APIs. When your usage goes abnormal, it cuts off — automatically, no human in the loop, no waiting on a support ticket while the meter runs.
Provider-side limits are soft and slow. We think they should be a circuit breaker.
Recent writing
- The $82,314 API key leak: what actually happened
- What to do when your API key leaks (first 60 minutes)
- How to prevent API key leaks: five patterns that cause most of them
Questions
How is this number calculated?
We multiply your monthly spend by a provider-specific leak multiplier, then by an exposure factor based on where your key lives. The Gemini multiplier (457×) is calibrated to reproduce the February 2026 incident exactly: $180 × 457 = $82,260, against an actual bill of $82,314.
Is this a prediction?
No. It’s a risk estimate based on one documented incident and general provider behavior. Real losses depend on your provider’s fraud controls, your account configuration, and what the attacker does. Treat it as a magnitude, not a forecast.
Why doesn’t the provider just block this?
They have the data — an 8,000% overnight jump is not subtle. In the documented case, the provider did not intervene and declined to waive the charges. Cloud providers generally treat key compromise as the customer’s responsibility.
Isn’t this what key management services are for?
Secrets managers reduce exposure at rest, and the exposure factor above reflects that. But they don’t stop an already-leaked key from being used, because a leaked key is a valid key. Only a usage-level cutoff does that.
Do you collect my data?
The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere until you submit the form, and then it’s just your email address. See our privacy policy.