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AWS rushes to calm worried customers after system glitch generates invoices for up to $1.5 trillion
"My soul left my body": AWS customers shared shock over multi-trillion-dollar invoices caused by a glitch.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) clients were shocked when an unprecedented technical glitch caused their monthly cloud computing bills to skyrocket into the trillions of dollars. For a terrifying few hours, several users logged into their billing dashboards, only to find astronomical invoices. Many took to social media to share screenshots of their impossible bills, sending shockwaves through the tech community. The viral panic was later put to rest when AWS officially addressed the situation, reassuring account holders that the terrifyingly high invoices were simply the result of a temporary system glitch.
What was the glitch?
“I just saw $1.5 trillion on my AWS bill and my soul left my body,” an X user wrote and shared a screenshot that shows their AWS bill at $1,499,659,180,107.” Similarly, another shared, “Alright 55T (estimated 103T) is the highest AWS bill I've seen so far, who can beat it?”
The users also shared screenshots on X, which showed the exuberant bill amounts.
What did AWS say?
Initially, the company posted, “AWS Billing Console. We are investigating issues with Cost Explorer reflecting inaccurate estimated billing data.”
In a latest update, AWS tweeted, “Typo alert: Some customers saw quadrillion-dollar AWS billing estimates today. Slight miscalculation on our end (very slight). We're fixing it now. No action needed on your end. Sorry for the confusion. Real question: what will you do with those trillions instead?
In a statement, the company further explained, “We have identified the root cause as an issue with unit pricing within the estimated billing computation subsystem and we are working on a mitigation. The displayed billing estimates do not reflect actual usage and charges. There are no customer actions required at this time. Once the issue has been mitigated, we expect full resolution to take multiple hours as we work through recomputing the estimated billing data.”
