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I was using my AWS Free Tier account for a college project that utilizes a single instance of AWS S3 and RDS services. I was conscious of the free tier limits and being charged for exceeding the limits so I read everything carefully related to free tier limits on RDS and S3.
For RDS it is:-
750 hours of Amazon RDS Single-AZ db.t2.micro, db.t3.micro, and db.t4g.micro Instances usage running MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL databases each month. If running more than one instance, usage is aggregated across instance classes.
750 hours of Amazon RDS Single-AZ db.t2.micro Instance usage running SQL Server (running SQL Server Express Edition) each month.
20 GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage per month.
Free backup storage up to 100% of the total provisioned storage size of your active DB instances for a region.*
Here is my service usage and the respective cost.
As we can see the usage quantity was only 617 hrs which is very much under the free tier limits and even for the Virtual Private Cloud. I don't understand why was I charged for the VPC?
Am I missing something
From the AWS documentation:
750 hours of Amazon RDS Single-AZ db.t2.micro Instance usage running MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle BYOL or SQL Server (running SQL Server Express Edition) – enough hours to run a DB Instance continuously each month
so if you run two instances, that will be a total of 1500 hours of usage, so you will be charged extra. But you can run one instance for free each month. Note that the RDS instance is part of the 12 months free tier in AWS. That means that this offer only holds for 12 months after creation of your AWS account.
I created an AWS account and use it for several years now. Now, I was experimenting with the RDS instance (free tier) and this started to change me.
So, I believe that the free tier is only free within 12 months of the AWS account creation.
CHECK DAILY THE AWS ACCOUNT, I had another mistake earlier that cost me $300 for that.
The Amazon RDS console has no visibility into any other services you have (or will) consume during the month. It is simply showing an estimate of the costs for running the database.
The benefits of the free usage tier will be calculated separately, based upon actual usage.
So, if that's the only RDS instance you run during the month and it qualifies for the free tier, you will not be charged.
I created a new Postgres database on the AWS RDS free tier. Everything was set up using the free tier: Amazon RDS Single-AZ db.t3.micro (details about my setting here)
And at the end of page, I`ve got this info below:
Estimated Monthly costs DB instance 13.14 USD Storage 2.30 USD Total 15.44 USD
Hope next month I will not be charged. Will reply about it soon...
The free usage tier for RDS does include 750 hours of usage per month, but it's for single-AZ Micro instance hours, not any of the larger instances. The micro instance normally costs $0.025/hour. The included storage is single-AZ without provisioned IOPs.
The AWS web site is pretty clear on what is included in the free tier.
If you haven't tried contacting AWS support, you should, They may be able to help you.
I had exact situation of 700$ and even after suspending my account I was being billed hourly as I had not terminated the RDS instances, but I called up aws customer support at 1 (888) 280-3321 and explained the scenario and it was an honest unintended mistake from my side as I had used extra large multi A Z RDS instance instead single with free tier. Amazon was kind enough to wave off as gesture of good will and provided me video tutorials which would help me understand better.
If you are completely new to AWS RDS and just created a Free Tier account, be VERY CAREFUL when creating a database instance (or EC2 virtual box):
Even though you are on Free account, your option list for creating databases and virtual boxes - also contains COMMERCIAL instances, and if you accidentally select that one, there will be no further warning.
Especially, be aware that Amazon Aurora database IS NOT COVERED by free tier account, you will be charged for every hour of working instance.
There is no safeguard, no warning message, no nothing if you create a commercial instance being in Free Tier account. They just start billing you immediately and at the end of the month you can easily meet $500-800 bill.
Yes, there is a notification in small letters that db is covered by Free Tier when you select free DBs; When you select Aurora (or Oracle), it shows in small letters hourly price, and if you are totally new to AWS console, it is so easy to miss that detail. It was intentionally created that way.
This is obviously an unfair practice designed to lure inexperienced newcomers into hidden charges.The honest business would either exclude commercial options from Free Tier account, or at least show a loud and clear warnings when free account is about to use such options.