An OpenClaw bot ignored cost-saving instructions and defaulted to an expensive model, causing a $300

Deploy & Ops📅 2026/03/30
Source@s_chiriac
#API#Developer#Fully Automatic#High Risk#事件触发#成本优化#报告#日志#模型选择#生产中
Terminal logs showing OpenClaw bot bypassing cost filters and executing GPT-5.4-pro requests
Update on my OpenAI API key leak 👇

I dug into the logs and turns out… it was my own OpenClaw bot.

I gave it clear instructions:
→ Avoid expensive models
→ Use alternatives like Codex mini, Gemini Flash, or Claude
And somehow… it ignored everything and defaulted to GPT-5.4-pro 🤦‍♂️
Burned ~$300 in a single day.

OpenClaw is a cool concept, but not reliable enough (yet).

Switching to Claude for now.