AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion • Hacker News Board

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#271

Post by kgwgk » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

minitoar wrote: post #235

handoflixue wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realtime billing seems entirely within the abilities of AWS. "Limits except for Storage" seems even easier - I don't think I've ever heard of a storage-based billing story, although I'm sure one or two exist

What is a storage-based billing story?

Once upon a time in a cloud kingdom far, far away a big, beautiful bill was issued based on storage causing much disconcertion. Etc.

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#272

Post by saghm » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

pqvst wrote: post #9

Probably the closest I've ever been to getting a heart attack. Normally <$1 per month, and now suddenly $284,006,266,443.74. Whatever the bug is on their end, this is unforgivable.

The should pass a law saying they should have to pay you the amount over the correct bill as compensation; I bet they'll stop making mistakes like this pretty quickly after that

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#273

Post by durron » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

$44 trillion over here, at least our bill was so outrageously high that I just laughed

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#274

Post by focusgroup0 » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

michelb wrote: post #267

sajithdilshan wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if you’re Elon Musk

Elon Musk is everyone's problem

[dead]

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#275

Post by ainiriand » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

sscaryterry wrote: post #41

Vibe coding billing systems is a top-notch idea :)

Hey what do you think about vibe coding weapon systems? Do you want to be my cofounder?

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#276

Post by everforward » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

qrios wrote: post #256

As someone who usually works with data analysis, the distribution of the numbers strikes me as odd. Almost all of them have one number that appears four times, and one or two that appear three times. And overall, there are an unusually small number (0–9) of digits that appear at all. Maybe it's not just vibe-coded, maybe the numbers themselves are being hallucinated by an LLM.

Someone said the numbers are all off by 2^30 because they screwed up and are charging the per GB price for each byte.

It’s probably an artifact of them all being currency multiples of 2^30

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#277

Post by root-parent » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #264

lukaslueg wrote: post #17

Apparently what used to be `GB of storage consumed` is confused with `Bytes of storage consumed`, leading to a cool off by 2*30 error. > You're right to question my calculation. The MCP server failed to connect when I tried to look up the field definition. I guessed instead of validating. This is on me. But look at all the revenue!

AI slop. Or just a distracted dev

>> Or just a distracted dev

And a distracted tester? And a distracted pipeline of regression tests?

No, the truth is way worst...

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#278

Post by hansvm » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

leugim wrote: post #260

lukaslueg wrote: post #17

Apparently what used to be `GB of storage consumed` is confused with `Bytes of storage consumed`, leading to a cool off by 2*30 error. > You're right to question my calculation. The MCP server failed to connect when I tried to look up the field definition. I guessed instead of validating. This is on me. But look at all the revenue!

Oh great so 2*30=60 he only owes 28.3$ million... hehe I guess you wanted to say 2^30 which makes 1.5$

My hunch is the HN formatter swallowed the double asterisk typical of python exponents.

While we're being pedantic, 2^30 is 28 in normal programming languages ;)

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#279

Post by danlitt » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

ruddct wrote: post #43

If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $1.7 billion, that's the bank's problem.

This joke only works if you actually impose a cost on AWS of 1.7 billion. If they just serve you a bill for no reason, it's still your problem.

Re: AWS: Inaccurate Estimated Billing Data – $1.7 billion

#280

Post by fatnoah » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 2:56 PM UTC

ruddct wrote: post #43

If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $1.7 billion, that's the bank's problem.

I saw this in action on a smaller scale. In a past job, my wife organized events for a decent sized company. After an event, she'd typically have a $300k+ balance on her corporate Amex. When she went on maternity leave, the person filling in for her job neglected to actually pay the bills, so when she returned there were quite a few emails and voicemails from Amex regarding the over $500k balance.

The messages started as polite and eventually started to get more desperate in tone. At no point were they threatening or adversarial.