AWS API Requests Caused My Cost to Spike from $63 to $834 in 1 Hour! Help Needed!

Question

Hey everyone,

I’m having a major issue with my AWS costs, and I need help figuring out what’s going on. Over the past 9 days (from September 1st to 9th), my costs were around $63, but suddenly, in 1 hour, they spiked to $834!

After investigating, it looks like the spike is coming from the Cost Explorer API, but I’m not sure why. I only made around 20 API requests for my application in that timeframe, and I didn’t expect costs to rise so dramatically.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

I’ve checked Cost Explorer, and the spike clearly comes from Cost Explorer API usage.

I reviewed CloudTrail logs but didn’t find any suspicious activities.

I’m considering potential misconfigurations or excessive API usage, but I haven’t figured out the root cause.

Has anyone else seen this type of cost increase due to Cost Explorer API usage? Any tips on how to troubleshoot or prevent this from happening again?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks for your help!

Aneesh · Answer

1)on CE console, Filter the Service Cost Explorer.
2) Drill down the Dimension by API operation and note down the API operations, say GetCostAndUsage (https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/latest/APIReference/API_Operations_AWS_Cost_Explorer_Service.html).
3) Drill down the Dimension by linked account; this will get you details about which account is making the call.
4) Also, check if you have enabled any other application for API calls.
5) When you say no suspicious activity, did you check your CloudTrail logs by filtering the event name? For example, GetCostAndUsage to understand what user/resource is calling the API.

AWS API Requests Caused My Cost to Spike from $63 to $834 in 1 Hour! Help Needed!

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