Why have I been charged?
I'm using the free tier with a current usage of 55GB out of the allocated 750GB, and I still have 10 months left to use the service. I don't understand why I have been charged; I didn't even use much of the AWS service last month. It would be helpful if someone could clarify this to me. Thank you.
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Hi.
Looking at the screenshots I would suspect that you are running two (2) t2.micro instances. The free tier allows for 750 hours per month which is what one instance consume if it runs 24/7. When it come to EBS storage I guess you have allocated 20GB per instance which would come to 44GB (this month) the free tier allows for 30GB.
You really should consider doing research before making assumptions. Free Tier eligible products are only limited to a subset of AWS services. Similar to any other action in life, do your research before taking action. Also, check your AWS bill and Cost Explorer to see what you are being charged on. Again, do you research to think about how you will be monitoring before you start any software engineering project.
I agree with you to some extent. I researched and used only free AWS services. I utilized AWS solely for connecting Linux with VS code via SSH. This is my third account, and the previous ones with higher usage weren't charged. So, my concern is why I got charged when the current usage is well below the limit.
You can track your AWS Free Tier usage in the following ways:
- Turn on Free Tier usage alerts in Billing preferences. By default, AWS Free Tier usage alerts automatically notifies you over email when you exceed 85 percent of the Free Tier limit for each service. You can also configure AWS Budgets to track your usage to 100 percent of the Free Tier limit by setting a zero spend budget using the template.
- view the Free Tier page in the Billing console
- view the Top AWS Free Tier Services by Usage table on the dashboard of the AWS Billing console. The dashboard shows your account's top five AWS Free Tier service measurements.
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/tracking-free-tier-usage.html
Cloud Compute Technology is Complicated my advice: Go Slow to Go Fast
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Hi, Thank you for the reply. Yes, I currently have two (2) running t2.micro instances, but I haven't been using the AWS service 24/7. My current usage for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is 3GB out of 30GB, and for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances, it's 55 hours out of 750 hours. I'm confused as to why the forecast shows above 100% and why I've been charged when I still have plenty of free usage remaining. I had previously used another account for 650 hours and then moved the instance to the current account. Does it mean that I have already run out of free usage?
Hi If the accounts is under the same AWS Organisation then yes you have already consumed the free tier. Since you posted this on August 2nd the current use if for 2 days, so 55h hours and 3GB-Month. The forecast is then based on that usage. The forecast is not always correct. The screenshot for billing show that you used around 1500 hours of EC2 instances. The screenshots indicate that you are running the instances 24/7, have you stopped them or do you mean that they are idle when you say you have not used them? You must stop the instance otherwise you will be charged for it. If you think you have been invoiced incorrectly you need to raise a support ticket in the console for Billing.