Ask HN: Has AWS ever surprised you with a bill?

4•noway_bro•10h ago

I’m validating a small tool that could’ve caught a $42k DynamoDB spike before it snowballed — within 10 minutes, via Slack alert.

Trying to talk to 10 devs or engineers who’ve been hit by unexpected AWS charges (Lambda loops, S3 egress, log retention, etc).

Not selling anything. Just want to understand:

- What caused it? - How you found out? - What you tried after? - Would a $15/mo tool with IaC cost-diff + Slack alerts have helped?

If that’s you (or your team), I’d love to hear from you.

Comments

muzani•8h ago

Yeah, it's a meme at this point that if you're learning AWS, expect to be homeless because you left the EC2 on. Maybe not that bad, but I feel like most people have the logging to detect spikes etc, except those who don't know how to do logging.

scarface_74•6h ago

Funny enough, AWS has added recursive lambda call prevention within the last two years.

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/invocation-recu...

Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

Ask HN: How is the tech scene in LA?

Ask HN: How commonly is PIP deployed for non performance reasons in FANGs

Ask HN: Has AWS ever surprised you with a bill?

Ask HN: Advice for Starting a Hacker Space?

Ask HN: How do I buy a typewriter?

mTLS vs. HTTP Message Signatures: Tradeoffs in Securing HTTP Requests

Ask HN: Worth leaving position over push to adopt vibe coding?

Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)

Ask HN: How to generate product docs E2E?

Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (July 2025)

ARZY-G: A token born from AI-validated usefulness (not mined, not bought)

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2025)

Ask HN: What old or outdated software have you never found a replacement for?

Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2025)

Ask HN: How many communities HN it devs in C language?

CellularLab – A Modern Android iPerf3 App with TCP/UDP Testing and AI Analysis

Proposal: GUI-first, text-based mechanical CAD inspired by software engineering

Ask HN: What's the 2025 stack for a self-hosted photo library with local AI?

Why did not numpy copy the J rank concept?

Tell HN: A fake, highly obfuscated Solidity VSCode plugin found on marketplace

Looking for Early Testers for a AI Assistant Inside Zotero

Ask HN: Is there a business for extracting US tech talent?

Super Simple "Hallucination Traps" to detect interview cheaters

1KB JavaScript Demoscene Challenge Just Launched

Ask HN: What clever tools/scripts do you use to manage development environments?

Ask HN: How do you sell to B2B in current state of AI?

If Emacs is not a text editor, then what is it really?

Go-msquic: v0.11 is out

Ask HN: Are there any good WASM-based sites for learning Bash, Linux and CLI?

Ask HN: Has AWS ever surprised you with a bill?

Comments

Ask HN: How did Soham Parekh get so many jobs?

Ask HN: How is the tech scene in LA?

Ask HN: How commonly is PIP deployed for non performance reasons in FANGs

Ask HN: Has AWS ever surprised you with a bill?

Ask HN: Advice for Starting a Hacker Space?

Ask HN: How do I buy a typewriter?

mTLS vs. HTTP Message Signatures: Tradeoffs in Securing HTTP Requests

Ask HN: Worth leaving position over push to adopt vibe coding?

Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (June 2025)

Ask HN: How to generate product docs E2E?

Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (July 2025)

ARZY-G: A token born from AI-validated usefulness (not mined, not bought)

Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2025)

Ask HN: What old or outdated software have you never found a replacement for?

Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2025)

Ask HN: How many communities HN it devs in C language?

CellularLab – A Modern Android iPerf3 App with TCP/UDP Testing and AI Analysis

Proposal: GUI-first, text-based mechanical CAD inspired by software engineering

Ask HN: What's the 2025 stack for a self-hosted photo library with local AI?

Why did not numpy copy the J rank concept?

Tell HN: A fake, highly obfuscated Solidity VSCode plugin found on marketplace

Looking for Early Testers for a AI Assistant Inside Zotero

Ask HN: Is there a business for extracting US tech talent?

Super Simple "Hallucination Traps" to detect interview cheaters

1KB JavaScript Demoscene Challenge Just Launched

Ask HN: What clever tools/scripts do you use to manage development environments?

Ask HN: How do you sell to B2B in current state of AI?

If Emacs is not a text editor, then what is it really?

Go-msquic: v0.11 is out

Ask HN: Are there any good WASM-based sites for learning Bash, Linux and CLI?