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AWS Billing Glitch Bills Customers Billions!
18 Jul
Summary
- AWS billing system mistakenly charged customers billions.
- Some users received invoices for amounts up to $110 billion.
- The company identified a unit pricing error as the cause.
A malfunction in Amazon Web Services' billing system caused widespread confusion, with some customers receiving alarming notifications of exorbitant charges. Customers reported seeing estimated bills in the billions, with one individual, Bill Radjewski of CollegeFootballData.com, initially believing his August bill would exceed $3 billion, a dramatic increase from his usual minimal charges.
Responses on social media revealed that this was not an isolated incident, as other users reported erroneous charges ranging from $22 billion to $110 billion. AWS acknowledged the global issue via its Service Health Dashboard, stating that incorrect estimated billing data began appearing on Thursday, July 16, at 10:38 PM ET.
The company investigated and determined the root cause was an error in unit pricing within the estimated billing computation subsystem. AWS has since initiated steps to resolve the problem by rolling back recent changes and reverting to a stable state of its billing computations, pausing them temporarily. They anticipate the issue will be fully resolved by the upcoming weekend, assuring customers that no immediate action is required from their end.
