The shocking trap most beginners fall into (and how Amazon silently profits from your confusion).

When I first signed up for AWS, I had the same dream a lot of developers do:

"Spin up a little cloud server, store some data, maybe host a portfolio—all for free for 12 months."

At least, that’s what the AWS Free Tier promised me.

What I didn’t know back then—and what I desperately wish someone had warned me about—is this:

The AWS Free Tier isn’t free.
It’s a landmine of almost-free options disguised as freebies, and one misstep will absolutely torch your credit card.

This is the story of how my "tiny side project" racked up a $437 bill in 3 weeks, and why I now triple-check everything I deploy on AWS.

Let me explain the trap—before you fall into it too.

❌ The Illusion of Free

The way AWS markets its Free Tier feels slick—almost too slick.

You get:

750 hours of EC2 t2.micro (or t3.micro, depending on region)
5GB of S3 storage
25GB of DynamoDB
1M Lambda requests
And more…

It sounds like enough to build something decent.

And technically? It is.

But here’s the catch…

The second you step one inch outside of the Free Tier boundaries—you're billed at full rate. And there’s no warning. No popup. No “Hey, just so you know…” Just charges.

And they stack fast.

14, Samsung, iPad, etc

💸 How I Got Burned (So You Don’t Have To)

Let’s break down what happened in my case:

I picked an EC2 instance… but not in the right region.
Free Tier instances are only free in certain regions. Guess which region I picked?
Yep—not that one. So instead of free compute, I was racking up hourly charges.
I left an EBS volume attached.
Terminated my instance but forgot to delete the volume.

AWS doesn’t care. The meter keeps running.
I used S3... for images.
Did you know AWS charges for data transfer out of S3?
I didn’t. Until I got slapped with a $42 bandwidth bill.
I enabled CloudWatch logs.
Monitoring is free… up to a point. But logs beyond that limit?
You pay per GB. Silently.

🧨 And Then Came the Bill…

I still remember the email:

“Your AWS billing threshold has been exceeded.”

I opened the billing dashboard like I was diffusing a bomb.
$437.52.

All from a few "free" services I thought I understood.

⚠️ What Amazon Doesn’t Want You to Notice

Let’s be brutally honest:
AWS is not your friend.

The Free Tier terms are buried in footnotes.
The UI doesn’t warn you when you go beyond the Free limits.
The pricing calculator is a cruel joke unless you're already a cloud cost expert.

This isn’t accidental. This is by design.

Amazon is betting that you’ll get excited, deploy fast, and forget to clean up.
The Free Tier is a foot in the door—your first taste. The real money is in your mistakes.

✅ How to Protect Yourself (And Your Wallet)

If you're just starting out with AWS, here’s what I now religiously do:

Set a Billing Alarm
Go to CloudWatch and create an alarm at $10 or $20.
It’ll save you from waking up to a nightmare.
Use the AWS Budget Tool
It takes 3 minutes to set up, and lets you track costs by service.
Stick to Free Tier-eligible services only
Double-check region, instance type, and usage limits.
Tag everything you deploy
So you can find and delete things later. You will forget.
Schedule weekly cleanup time
Unused EBS volumes, Lambda logs, orphaned ELBs—clean them or pay for them.

💬 Final Thoughts: The Free Tier Isn’t Evil, But It’s Not Innocent

I’m not here to bash AWS entirely.
It’s a powerful platform. But it’s also a trap for the overconfident and under-informed.

If you're new to cloud computing, don't treat AWS like a playground.
Treat it like you're entering a casino with no clocks, no exit signs, and a thousand hidden fees.

The Free Tier is just the lobby.

And like every casino, the house always wins—unless you learn how the game works.

Cloud Computing

I Thought AWS Free Tier Was Actually Free—Until My ‘Free’ Project Hit Me With a $437 Bill