Ask HN: Surprise $700 Google Cloud Identity Platform Charge

#1

Post by gaut » Wed, Aug 02, 2023, 11:44 AM UTC

I got a surprise $700 charge on my Google Cloud billing account yesterday for Identity Platform. I don't have it enabled on my account, and I have never been charged for this before. I contacted support, but that will supposedly take 48 hours. Has anyone else run into this before? Is there anything else I can or should do on my end to remedy this as soon as possible?

Re: Ask HN: Surprise $700 Google Cloud Identity Platform Charge

#2

Post by orbz » Wed, Aug 02, 2023, 12:10 PM UTC

Identity platform is also firebase auth if you’re using that.

General steps here are go into billing reports, find the project where that was billed and make sure it’s under your control. Might as well do an audit of all your service accounts and keys if there are charges you are sure you didn’t do.

If you are using a third party cloud administrator service they might have mis-billed you.

Re: Ask HN: Surprise $700 Google Cloud Identity Platform Charge

#3

Post by gaut » Wed, Aug 02, 2023, 12:57 PM UTC

orbz wrote: post #2

Identity platform is also firebase auth if you’re using that. General steps here are go into billing reports, find the project where that was billed and make sure it’s under your control. Might as well do an audit of all your service accounts and keys if there are charges you are sure you didn’t do. If you are using a third party cloud administrator service they might have mis-billed you.

Thanks. I do use Firebase Auth and I see a lot of SMS authentication requests from Pakistan, Ecuador, and Romania, but I don't think those are legitimate users authenticating based on previous usage.

Re: Ask HN: Surprise $700 Google Cloud Identity Platform Charge

#4

Post by orbz » Fri, Aug 04, 2023, 5:27 PM UTC

gaut wrote: post #3

orbz wrote: post #2

Identity platform is also firebase auth if you’re using that. General steps here are go into billing reports, find the project where that was billed and make sure it’s under your control. Might as well do an audit of all your service accounts and keys if there are charges you are sure you didn’t do. If you are using a third party cloud administrator service they might have mis-billed you.

Thanks. I do use Firebase Auth and I see a lot of SMS authentication requests from Pakistan, Ecuador, and Romania, but I don't think those are legitimate users authenticating based on previous usage.

Might not be legitimate but if they’re sending SMS messages in those regions you’re getting billed a ton.

https://cloud.google.com/identity-platform/docs/admin/sms-re...