AWS estimates jump into the trillions — unit-pricing defect, not actual charges
TL;DR
AWS paused estimates after a unit-pricing defect; reported billion- and trillion-dollar totals were not bills.
AWS Cost Explorer showed rare estimates ranging from billions to trillions of dollars on July 17. Screenshots from multiple users spread through Hacker News. Amazon Web Services then confirmed a unit-pricing defect in the estimated-billing computation subsystem and paused new estimates.
The figures were not actual charges and did not mean AWS had charged customers' cards. The affected layer was estimation in Billing and Cost Management. AWS did not report a surge in cloud-server usage, account compromise or a security vulnerability. Customers should check final invoices, Cost and Usage Reports and payment records for actual amounts.
AWS said it identified the root cause and paused estimates to prevent more inaccurate figures from appearing. Its status update did not disclose the number of affected accounts, error multiplier, start time, completion time or whether historical estimates required recalculation.
The billion- and trillion-dollar totals came from user reports, not Amazon-recognized revenue or receivables. AWS confirmed the pricing-estimate defect and the pause.
via UnderCode News / AWS Health Dashboard / Hacker News
The figures were not actual charges and did not mean AWS had charged customers' cards. The affected layer was estimation in Billing and Cost Management. AWS did not report a surge in cloud-server usage, account compromise or a security vulnerability. Customers should check final invoices, Cost and Usage Reports and payment records for actual amounts.
AWS said it identified the root cause and paused estimates to prevent more inaccurate figures from appearing. Its status update did not disclose the number of affected accounts, error multiplier, start time, completion time or whether historical estimates required recalculation.
The billion- and trillion-dollar totals came from user reports, not Amazon-recognized revenue or receivables. AWS confirmed the pricing-estimate defect and the pause.
via UnderCode News / AWS Health Dashboard / Hacker News
