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Revoke or delete a suspected leaked API key immediately in the provider’s control plane, then issue a replacement, move every legitimate workload to it, and review usage and billing records for activity you did not authorize. Removing a secret from a repository or website does not invalidate the credential. The exact dashboard, log fields, retention period, and support process depend on the provider; this guide uses documented OpenAI and Google Cloud practices and identifies where no provider-neutral answer exists.
What should you do first when an API key is exposed?
Contain the credential before investigating. Anyone who obtained a valid key may be able to send requests until the provider invalidates it, so searching Git history or deleting a public post is not a substitute for revocation.
- Identify the credential. Record the key label, project or account, where it appeared, and the earliest time it could have been copied. Do not paste the secret into tickets, chat, or logs.
- Revoke or delete it in the provider’s control plane. Use the provider’s key-management dashboard or API. If you cannot tell which key leaked, treat every key present in the exposed file or system as affected.
- Secure account access if necessary. A leaked API key is different from a stolen administrator login. If the incident also involves a console session, password, session token, or recovery email, secure those account controls immediately.
- Preserve evidence. Save timestamps, request identifiers, project names, usage screenshots or exports, and the location of the exposure without retaining the secret itself.
OpenAI’s Help Center says to delete a suspected compromised key through the API key dashboard, review API usage, keep relevant details, and contact support. Its documented wording is: “If you think an API key has been compromised: Delete the affected key through the API key dashboard.”
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How do you rotate a leaked key without breaking production?
Emergency response and routine rotation use the same safe order: create a replacement first when the provider allows overlap, deploy it, verify real requests, and only then invalidate the old credential. For an already exposed key, revoke it immediately if delay creates unacceptable risk; restore service with a newly created key afterward.
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Use a replacement-first sequence for planned OpenAI rotation
- In the OpenAI API key dashboard, create a new key with the appropriate project or account scope.
- Store it in your secret-management system or an environment variable rather than source code. A typical application reads a variable such as
OPENAI_API_KEY; the value should never be committed to a repository. - Update every service, worker, scheduled job, container, and deployment that used the old key. Search configuration stores and deployment manifests, not only the main application repository.
- Send a controlled request through each affected workload and confirm the expected response, authentication, quotas, and error handling.
- Delete or revoke the old key in the dashboard. Remove its value from active configuration and invalidate cached deployment settings where your platform keeps them.
OpenAI recommends separate keys for team members, products, features, or projects so that usage can be attributed more precisely. Its security guidance also recommends an expiration and rotation process rather than leaving one credential in service indefinitely.
Recover after an OpenAI key has already leaked
Delete the affected key through the dashboard before beginning a detailed investigation. Then create a replacement, update the applications that legitimately need access, and verify requests. Review the OpenAI API usage view for unexpected activity, retain the relevant dates and records, and open a new chat through the OpenAI Help Center when activity or charges were not authorized.
Rotate Google Cloud keys and consider a different identity method
Google Cloud’s guidance describes rotation as creating a replacement key, updating applications, and deleting the old key. Apply restrictions to the replacement that match its workload, then test each calling service before invalidating the exposed credential. For most Google Cloud APIs, the documentation recommends moving production authorization away from long-lived API keys toward IAM and short-lived service-account credentials, with an exception it states for Gemini API authorization keys.
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How can you search billing and usage records for unauthorized use?
There is no universal billing-log query or field set across API providers. Start with the provider’s usage and billing views, define the time window from the exposure, compare requests with your deployment schedule, and preserve records that show what was outside your expected workload.
Define the investigation window and baseline
- Use the earliest possible exposure time as the beginning of the review and continue through the moment the key was revoked.
- Record normal request volume, models or APIs called, projects, regions, and scheduled jobs for the affected workload.
- Mark deployments, tests, incidents, and planned batch jobs that can explain spikes.
Pivot on the narrowest identity available
Separate keys by project, feature, team, or product make attribution easier. Where the provider exposes a key, project, principal, or workload identifier, filter on that value first; otherwise use the smallest available project or account scope and correlate timestamps with application logs.
Look for anomalies rather than a single “hacker” signature
- Requests outside your operating hours or deployment schedule.
- A sudden change in volume, model, API method, region, or response size.
- Usage from a project, service, or environment that does not own the application.
- Charges that continue after your legitimate workload stopped, or a new usage pattern immediately after the suspected exposure.
- Authentication errors followed by successful calls, which can indicate probing before use.
Do not assume that an empty dashboard proves no use occurred. The available provider guidance does not establish a common retention period, complete-record guarantee, or identical timestamp granularity for every account. Export or screenshot the relevant views while they are available, and preserve the provider’s time zone and currency context.
What evidence should you retain?
- The key label or identifier, not the secret value.
- Exposure location and discovery time, including a repository path, build artifact, client bundle, or log destination.
- Usage and billing records covering the review window.
- Request IDs, project IDs, deployment names, source IP or region fields when the provider supplies them, and your matching application logs.
- A timeline showing discovery, revocation, replacement deployment, verification, and support contact.
Keep an immutable copy for the period your organization requires, but do not invent a retention interval: provider-specific retention is not established by the guidance summarized here.
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When should you contact provider support?
Escalate when usage or charges do not match your records, when you cannot determine the affected credential, or when account-level access may have been involved. Give support a concise timeline and identifiers so it can investigate without receiving the secret itself.
For OpenAI, the documented route is a new chat through the Help Center. Include the organization or project context, the key identifier or label, the suspected exposure interval, timestamps and request records, the time you deleted the key, and the specific activity you consider unauthorized. Redact API keys, passwords, session cookies, and personal data before sending attachments.
Google Cloud’s published guidance emphasizes monitoring and key controls; the exact escalation channel and evidence requirements depend on your Google Cloud account and support plan. Use the support path available in your console and provide the same non-secret timeline.
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Both providers recommend prompt invalidation, replacement, restricted credentials, and usage monitoring. Their documented emphasis differs in identity options and automation, so do not transfer one provider’s control names or log assumptions to another.
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| Concern | OpenAI guidance | Google Cloud guidance |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate containment | Delete the affected key through the API key dashboard, then review API usage and retain details. | Create a replacement, update applications, and delete the old key; apply key restrictions. |
| Safe routine rotation | Create a replacement, update applications, verify operation, then revoke the old key. | Replace existing keys, update applications, and invalidate the replaced keys. |
| Attribution | Use separate keys for team members, features, products, or projects to improve tracking. | Isolate keys and workloads; exact billing fields and retention are not stated. |
| Credential hardening | Use unique keys, expiration and rotation processes, environment variables or secret storage, and no client-side or repository deployment. | Restrict keys, avoid exposing them in URL query parameters, keep them out of client code and repositories, and prefer IAM or short-lived service-account credentials for most production APIs. |
| Automatic response | Monitor usage and configure spend thresholds; enforcement is not instantaneous. | An organization policy can automatically disable detected exposed keys, but Google Cloud does not guarantee that every leaked key will be detected. |
| Support | Use a new Help Center chat with concrete unauthorized-activity details. | Use the support route available for your account; the cited guidance does not specify a universal channel. |
What restrictions and storage practices prevent another leak?
Reduce the blast radius so one exposed credential cannot reach every environment or incur unlimited usage.
Keep secrets out of client software and repositories
- Never embed a provider secret in browser JavaScript, a mobile application, or another client distributed to users. Put the API call behind a server you control.
- Do not commit keys to Git repositories, issue trackers, build logs, or documentation. Remove an exposed value from current files and history, but still revoke the credential because deletion alone does not invalidate it.
- Load secrets through environment variables or an appropriate secret-management system, and limit which processes can read them.
- Run automated repository and artifact scanning. A scanner can find a copied secret, but it cannot replace provider-side revocation.
Limit where and what a credential can do
- Create distinct credentials for development, staging, production, teams, features, and scheduled jobs.
- Apply provider-supported application, network, API, project, or referrer restrictions. Avoid putting keys in URL query parameters when the provider warns that URLs can leak through history, proxies, or referrer data.
- Prefer short-lived identity mechanisms where supported. Google Cloud specifically recommends IAM and short-lived service-account credentials for most production APIs instead of authorization keys.
- Set usage alerts and spend thresholds, then monitor them. A threshold is a detection or control aid, not an instant kill switch.
Plan rotation as an operational change
Maintain an inventory of key owners, consumers, scopes, creation dates, expiration dates, and rollback contacts. Test replacement credentials in a non-production path, document the deployment sequence, and schedule rotations before an emergency forces an unplanned change.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Do spend limits stop charges immediately after a leak?
No. OpenAI warns that hard-limit enforcement is not instantaneous, so recorded spend can exceed the configured amount slightly. Deleting a key also does not promise reversal of requests already accepted or charges already incurred; investigate the records and ask the provider about activity you can demonstrate was unauthorized.
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What common response mistakes make a compromise worse?
- Only deleting the repository line. Copies can remain in forks, caches, build artifacts, logs, or another person’s clone.
- Revoking before preparing a replacement during a routine change. This can cause avoidable downtime; use replacement-first rotation when the key is not actively being abused.
- Leaving the old key in one forgotten worker. Inventory scheduled jobs, background queues, CI pipelines, and secondary regions before declaring the migration complete.
- Assuming a spend alert is a hard stop. Alerts and limits can lag the requests that trigger them.
- Sending the secret to support. Provide identifiers and evidence, not the credential value.
- Using one key for every workload. Shared credentials prevent reliable attribution and make a single leak a broad outage or cost event.
What is a practical leaked-key runbook?
Use this checklist during an incident and record the owner and time beside each item.
- Declare the incident and restrict the people who can view evidence.
- Identify the exposed key, account or project, exposure location, and earliest possible exposure time.
- Delete or revoke the key in the provider control plane.
- Secure console sign-in and other account credentials if they may also be exposed.
- Create a replacement with the minimum required permissions and restrictions.
- Update all applications, deployments, workers, and scheduled jobs; remove the old value from active configuration.
- Verify legitimate requests and confirm that the revoked key fails authentication.
- Review usage and billing records through the end of the exposure window; correlate with application logs.
- Export or preserve relevant records, timestamps, identifiers, and the incident timeline.
- Contact provider support about activity or charges you cannot explain.
- Scan repositories and build artifacts, separate shared credentials, and schedule the next rotation.
What should you do after the immediate incident?
Perform a short post-incident review focused on control changes rather than blame. Determine how the secret entered the exposed location, why scanning or review did not stop it, which workloads lacked ownership, and whether a narrower identity method could replace the key. Update deployment templates, access policies, monitoring, and rotation documentation, then verify those changes with a test credential before closing the incident.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can deleting a leaked API key remove usage records or erase the bill?
No. Deletion prevents future authentication with that credential but does not erase provider records or guarantee reversal of requests already accepted. Preserve the timeline and ask the provider to review demonstrably unauthorized activity.
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Rotate every credential that was present in the exposed file, artifact, client bundle, or system, even if you cannot prove it was copied. For unrelated keys, use their scope, storage location, and access history to decide whether a broader rotation is warranted.
Can an API key be safely placed in a browser or mobile app if the code is obfuscated?
Treat any credential shipped to a user-controlled client as recoverable. Put privileged API calls behind a server and issue only narrowly scoped, short-lived client credentials when the provider explicitly supports that pattern.
What information should I give support without exposing another secret?
Send the key label or identifier, project or organization, suspected exposure and revocation times, request IDs, usage or billing exports, and matching application-log entries. Redact key values, passwords, session tokens, and unrelated personal data.
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