I created an AWS account during my final year of study to learn cloud computing. After the free tier ended, I apparently left paid resources running and later discovered an unexpected bill of about $25. I contacted AWS Support, stopped the services I knew about, and intended to follow up, but personal circumstances prevented me from doing so. The account is now suspended, and I have received another bill for the previous month even though I believed all instances and services had been terminated. What should I check to find any remaining billable resources, and is there a process for requesting a one-time waiver and closing the account correctly?
3 Answers
AWS is not automatically free once the introductory credits or free tier expire, and stopping EC2 instances may not remove every charge. Check for items such as attached storage volumes, snapshots, elastic IP addresses, load balancers, databases, DNS zones, and resources in other regions. The billing console and Cost Explorer can help identify what generated the latest invoice.
The safest route is to open or update a billing support case and explain that this was an accidental beginner charge. AWS sometimes grants a one-time courtesy adjustment, but it is not guaranteed. Ask them to confirm that no billable resources remain, then settle any balance they do not waive before closing the account.
Account suspension does not necessarily stop billing for resources that were left behind. Review every region and every service, not just running instances. Once support confirms the account has no remaining charges or active resources, follow the official account-closure process rather than simply deleting individual instances.
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