Google’s decision to distribute these erroneous credits is unknown as some consumers unintentionally received payments of up to Rs 88,000 via Google Pay. It’s also unclear whether this problem only affects owners of Google Pixel devices or if it also impacts owners of other Android gadgets.

Many Reddit users have reported getting surprise credits to their Google Pay accounts, with some accounts getting as much as $1,072 in credits. (roughly Rs 88,000). The money was given to users of the /r/GooglePixel subreddit in exchange for “dogfooding the Google Pay remittance experience.”

When a company’s employees test a new feature or service before making it accessible to the general public, this practice is known as “dogfooding.” This shows that rather than paying its staff who actually evaluated the functionality, Google unintentionally paid random consumers to “test” Google Pay. This problem appears to have been caused by a bug. Some individuals asserted that they received an email from Google following the crediting of the money.   

Unknown how many people have apparently benefited from these unintentional credits, but some are supposedly receiving only a small sum while others have had their balance rise by more than $1,000. Google notified the affected users of the problem and promised to try to have the payment reversed. The money appears to be theirs to keep, though, if they are unable to do so.

Why Google accidentally gave out these credits is still a mystery. It’s also unclear whether this problem only affects owners of Google Pixel devices or if it also impacts owners of other Android gadgets.

It’s not clear if you get to keep the money if you’re one of the fortunate Pixel users who received a free credit. However, it appears that you might be entitled to keep the money if the business is unable to reverse the payment based on Google’s response to the problem.