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AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

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Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#21
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is an issue, use Lightsail or a tier 2 provider (like DigitalOcean)

That doesn't solve for the AWS only resources.

Yeah, no fixing that.

Billing can be 24 hours delayed.

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#22

I really wish you could just designate a group of resources as unimportant, set a billing limit, and let Amazon nuke everything / delete your files / whatever, if you go over the limit. Everytime I try to learn cloud infrastructure stuff I'm terrified of the literally infinite bill that might show up from a typo a month down the line.

I think GCP's official method for doing this is pretty similar to what you describe. You basically create a cloud function that disables billing if your bill goes over a configured limit. It's not perfect, because there's a tiny bit of lag between usage and billing calculation, but you'll only end up with a few dollars over the limit instead of thousands. Truly the nuclear option though.

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#24
post #15

Does this mean I can set up a static website on S3, pre-pay fir the next hundred years of hosting costs and then pretty much forget about it? Because I would genuinely love to be able to do that.

You can do this today with the decentralized cloud: https://docs.storj.io/dcs/how-tos/host-a-static-website/host...

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#25

What's the point, if there isn't a discount for paying upfront? Will some people/businesses prefer this because it's not 'credit'—does AWS scrobble to your Credit Report in any country? I am failing to see the appeal here...

A very cynical take is that Bezos needs an advance for the next Blue Orbit launch, per his appreciation in all we've done to get the first one launched.

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#26
Nope.

Used AWS for 3 years at a decent sized agency. It seems we underestimated how much not to forget checking and scrutinize every line item in the bill because our lighsail instances had another DB attached to it that we had no idea about, but was charging a crazy fee (converting our local currency to dollars = 19x)

There was much finger-pointing.

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#27
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just use the free tier? You’re notified when you’re approaching the free limit. AWS, anecdotally, has removed 5k++ mistakes I’ve made with little question. (One example they forgave due to my carelessness: ECS and Fargate service with logging to CloudWatch but with verbose logging on. The bill was 8k that month for just CloudWatch usage)

I have only asked for one refund, which was clearly the result of a bug on Amazon's part, and they haggled the whole way. They were quick to a 50% refund and slow to a 100% refund.

I've never had a refund denied. One was for 20k on an account that only billed that much monthly. If it's an honest mistake they'll wipe it if you have any history with them.

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read that some people use a pre-paid credit card with a $1 spending limit when setting up their playground accounts. Seems like a reasonable approach.

That doesn't make much sense. You would still be on the hook for the eventual bill. This sounds like a showerthought hashtag lifehack.

It does change the dynamic / comfort though. Would you rather ask AWS to please revert $5k they put on your card, or talk with them about $5k they'd like to charge you but can't?

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#29

Nope. Used AWS for 3 years at a decent sized agency. It seems we underestimated how much not to forget checking and scrutinize every line item in the bill because our lighsail instances had another DB attached to it that we had no idea about, but was charging a crazy fee (converting our local currency to dollars = 19x) There was much finger-pointing.

But unless you plan to block your card and ignore AWS' email(might not be a healthy thing for business), how will prepaying bad?

Re: AWS now allows customers to pay for their usage in advance

#30
post #15

Does this mean I can set up a static website on S3, pre-pay fir the next hundred years of hosting costs and then pretty much forget about it? Because I would genuinely love to be able to do that.

I think you could, yes. It’s a different question as to how fast you’d hit the limit, but definitely possible to do a “this site can only have 100000 visits” type art project.
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