I used AWS during its early beta period and recently came back to try it again. I mistakenly subscribed to a Marketplace machine image and deleted the instance almost immediately, assuming that would end everything. I later discovered that the subscription was still active and now I have about $50 in charges for an image I never actually used. My only remaining instance is covered by the free tier, and I haven't been able to get a response from billing support after a week. The subscription page also doesn't seem to offer any obvious way to cancel it. What should I check, and how can I stop any further charges?
3 Answers
This sounds like an AWS Marketplace AMI subscription rather than a normal EC2 charge. Deleting the instance stops the compute resource, but it does not necessarily cancel the Marketplace software subscription. Check AWS Marketplace under your managed subscriptions and cancel it there. Then review Cost Explorer and your billing details to see exactly what generated the $50 charge. You can also open a billing support case and ask whether a one-time courtesy credit is possible, although the charge may be considered valid.
Also check for leftover EBS volumes, snapshots, elastic IPs, or other resources. Those can continue billing after an instance is deleted. The billing console should show the service and resource responsible, so use that rather than relying only on the EC2 instance list.
AWS has become much more complicated than it was years ago, so it is worth reviewing the pricing and cancellation terms before launching an image. Still, contact billing support rather than disputing the payment immediately. Explain that the subscription was accidental, that the image was deleted right away, and ask whether they can help cancel it and possibly waive the initial charge.
That makes sense. I was only looking at the instance itself and hadn't checked the attached storage or Marketplace subscription separately.