Insufficient quota detected I need help!

[Alek_Drake]

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to connect n8n Cloud (trial) with OpenAI using a project API key, but I keep running into errors. I’ll outline exactly what I’ve done:
What I’ve done so far
In OpenAI:
Created a project named Duffy.
Set a project budget of $10 (org budget is $50).
Enabled gpt-4o-mini (and sometimes tried gpt-3.5-turbo-0125).
Created a fresh project API key inside Duffy.
In n8n:
Set up an OpenAI credential with:
API key = my project key
Org ID field left blank
Base URL = https://api.openai.com/v1
Connection test passes
Tried two approaches:
OpenAI Chat Model node → fails with “Insufficient quota detected.”
Authorization: Bearer sk-proj-xxxx
Content-Type: application/json
Body:
{
“model”: “gpt-4o-mini”,
“input”: “Say hi”,
“max_output_tokens”: 10
}
→
Insufficient quota detected (even though my project has $10 budget and org has $50).
What I’ve checked
Billing is active, $10 project budget available.
Org budget $50.
Usage shows no actual spend yet.
Credentials in n8n are linked to the correct project key (not org key).
Models are enabled in project limits.
Questions
Is this an n8n issue (wrong node, wrong config)?
Why would I still see “insufficient quota” if billing + budgets are set?
Should I be using an org-wide key instead of a project key in n8n?
Any help or advice would be massively appreciated I’m happy to share logs or screenshots if needed.
Thanks in advance!

[vishal_markn]

try generating new api key from openai