Unexpected Charges on AWS Free Tier: What’s Going On?

It's annoying when these unexpected charges pop up! From what I understand, cross-region traffic can possibly incur charges even if you're not aware of it. If your EC2 instance is running background services or has automatic updates, like Ubuntu security patches, those could be generating traffic that you're not directly controlling. You might want to run a tcpdump to see which endpoints your instance is communicating with.

Also, check the AWS documentation to understand how they determine what counts as inter-region traffic. It could help clarify whether those background processes are relevant to your charges.

One thing to consider is that even though you're on the Free Tier, some services or data transfers can be charged separately. AWS does provide a limited amount of free data transfer, but charges may apply for region-to-region traffic. If you're using Docker or Ubuntu repositories, that could potentially explain the data usage, especially if they’re hosted in a different region. Double-check your services and consider running some network monitoring to identify the traffic.

Hey there! Sorry to hear about the surprise billing. I recommend reaching out to AWS Support for specific insights on your account as they can provide tailored assistance. In general, while AWS Free Tier includes data transfers, inter-region data transfers like from Stockholm to Ireland are not typically covered. You might want to check if anything in your stack is trying to reach out to resources in that region or if you have any services set to auto-update.