Aws free tier - Unexpected Charges for EKS Usage - Request for Assistance

I understand your concern about unexpected charges related to your Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) usage. Let me provide some guidance on how to address this situation.

First, it's important to note that Amazon EKS is not included in the AWS Free Tier offerings. While some AWS services have free tier benefits, EKS is not one of them. This means that any usage of EKS, even for a short period, can result in charges.

To identify any remaining active resources that might be causing charges, you can follow these steps:

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Billing console.
2. In the navigation pane, select "Bills".
3. On the "Charges by service" tab, choose "Expand all".
4. Review the list to find services with active resources, sorted by AWS Region, and check the charges for each resource.

This will help you identify any resources that might still be active and generating charges.

It's possible that even though you deleted the EKS cluster, there might be some associated resources that weren't automatically deleted. These could include Elastic Load Balancers, Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes, or Elastic IP addresses.

To ensure all resources are properly terminated:

1. Check the EC2 console for any running instances or unused EBS volumes.
2. Look in the VPC console for any active Elastic IP addresses.
3. Review the ELB console for any lingering load balancers.

If you find any resources still active, make sure to terminate them properly.

Regarding the possibility of a refund, AWS does consider refund requests on a case-by-case basis. You can contact AWS Support to explain your situation and request a review of the charges. While there's no guarantee, they may be able to assist you, especially if this is your first time encountering such an issue.

For future use, to avoid unexpected charges:

1. Familiarize yourself with which services are included in the Free Tier and their limits.
2. Set up AWS Budgets to alert you when your usage approaches or exceeds specified thresholds.
3. Regularly review your AWS account for any active resources you're not using.

Remember, it's crucial to monitor your usage closely, especially when working with services not covered by the Free Tier, to prevent unexpected charges.
Sources
Understanding unexpected charges - AWS Billing
Avoiding unexpected charges after Free Tier - AWS Billing
Tracking your AWS Free Tier usage - AWS Billing