Confusion regarding Free-tier usage of EC2

Question

I apologize if my English is not very clear.
I started up my instance on 16th September, last month. I mainly made it to play games using the OpenVPN as the internet in our college blocks online games. I didn't get any pop up about cost or payments for the first month and my VPN was used a lot. When I check my EC2 console it says 2 free tier offers in use and no limit is being exceeded.
But when I go to Billing Management it says 5 offers in use and that one has exceeded its limit and one is forecasted to exceed the limit. It says I have done 100 GB of data transfer, all I did was play online games.
I am confused as to how I have exceeded the limits.
I don't know what specific details I should provide as I am new to AWS and started the instance after watching a video for free vpn.
 Any help would be appreciated.

re:Post Agent · Answer

I understand your confusion regarding the Free Tier usage of EC2, and I'll try to clarify the situation based on the information you've provided.

First, it's important to note that the EC2 console and the Billing Management console may show different information because they track different aspects of your usage.

The EC2 console typically shows usage specific to EC2 instances, such as running hours and EBS storage. When it says "2 free tier offers in use" and no limits exceeded, it's likely referring to the EC2 instance hours and EBS storage, which are within the Free Tier limits.

However, the Billing Management console provides a more comprehensive view of your AWS usage across all services. The "5 offers in use" you see here likely includes other services beyond just EC2, such as data transfer.

The key issue here seems to be the data transfer. You mentioned using 100 GB of data transfer for online gaming through your VPN. This is where you've exceeded the Free Tier limit. The AWS Free Tier typically includes only 15 GB of data transfer out to the internet per month. Your usage of 100 GB is significantly over this limit, which explains why you're seeing an exceeded limit in the Billing Management console.

Online gaming can indeed consume a lot of data, especially if you're playing frequently or downloading game updates. This data transfer is separate from your EC2 instance usage and is charged separately once you exceed the Free Tier limit.

To avoid unexpected charges in the future:

1. Monitor your data transfer usage closely.
2. Set up billing alerts to notify you when you're approaching or exceeding Free Tier limits.
3. Consider using the AWS Free Tier API to programmatically track your usage.
4. Be aware that the Free Tier has different types of offers: some last for 12 months, some are always free, and some are short-term trials.

If you're concerned about costs, you might want to explore other VPN solutions that don't rely on cloud services, or look into AWS's pricing for data transfer to see if it's economical for your use case.

Remember, while AWS offers a generous Free Tier, it's designed for learning and small-scale projects. Using it for high-bandwidth applications like gaming VPNs can quickly exceed the free limits.  
**Sources**  
[Using the Free Tier API - AWS Billing](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/using-free-tier-api.html)  
[Track your Free Tier usage for Amazon EC2 - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/ec2-free-tier-usage.html)  
[Trying services using AWS Free Tier - AWS Billing](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/billing-free-tier.html)  
[Check your AWS Free Tier usage programmatically with a new API | AWS News Blog](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/check-your-aws-free-tier-usage-programmatically-with-a-new-api/)  
[Get started with the AWS Free Tier - How AWS Pricing Works](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/latest/how-aws-pricing-works/get-started-with-the-aws-free-tier.html)

Confusion regarding Free-tier usage of EC2

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