Hey folks, I stumbled upon a strange issue with my EC2 No-Upfront Reserved Instance and I'm hoping some of you might have experienced the same thing. In 2023, I got a No-Upfront RI for a t3a.nano instance (Linux, eu-west-1) and everything seemed fine for over two years. The EC2 console showed all the right details: correct instance type, region, quantity, start and end dates (set to expire in 2026), and no alerts whatsoever.
However, while I was scrolling through the RI table recently, I found a small "payment-failed" label in a column that's not visible on most laptop screens without scrolling. Strangely, I received no notifications or emails about this, nor did I see anything in my billing history or Cost Explorer indicating a problem.
Here's where it gets confusing: since this is a No-Upfront RI, there shouldn't be any upfront payment to fail! It feels like there's a bug in the RI purchasing or activation process. Because the RI didn't apply, I ended up paying On-Demand rates for about 23 instances over 31 months, totaling around $1500 in extra costs. AWS has denied my request for compensation on this.
From a FinOps standpoint, this silent RI failure is concerning, particularly for No-Upfront purchases where payment failures shouldn't happen. Has anyone else faced something like this?
4 Answers
Pro tip: Always make sure to review the nightly CUR processing! Friends don’t let friends ignore their billing reports, right? They can provide crucial insights into your costs.
It's surprising you didn’t check your billing statements for 31 months. That’s quite a long time to go without a review! I’m just saying, keeping an eye on your costs is crucial, especially with cloud services.
Honestly, expecting compensation for something like this feels a bit unrealistic. AWS usually expects users to manage their own resources efficiently. It’s frustrating, but it’s a part of using these services.
Honestly, it’s important to follow up after purchasing an RI. AWS might not compensate you for this since they likely see it as your responsibility to monitor your usage and billing. It sucks, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
Exactly, it's a lesson learned. Checking reports regularly helps avoid surprises like this.
Yeah, it’s easy to overlook, but those bills add up quickly! Always good to do a monthly check.