Elastic IP Address billing without any instance running [closed]

Question

I am currently on my free tier. I followed the guide to hosting a wordpress website while remaining in the free tier. I started a Linux t2.micro instance and used one Elastic IP. Surprisingly I got this bill:

It didn't even reach 730 Hrs for EC2 which is the monthly limit. I stopped the instance, and then terminated it so that any other charges don't occur. It asked me to release the Elastic IP address before terminating, which I did. Now there's no Elastic IP address or any machine instance.

But today I opened up the billing dashboard and saw that I was charged $0.5 for $0.005 per Elastic IP address not attached to a running instance per hour (prorated). And after a while it's this now.

How do I stop it? Plus why was I charged while I was still in my free tier.

edit 1:

edit 2: Increasing again

Gastropod

free tier also has a monthly usage limit. and free tier only applies to one ec2 instance. if you have 2, you'll get charged for that – Dabble

I noticed the Mumbai Region instance today, and terminated it as well. It didn't have any Elastic IP associated with it. But as you can see I am not charged for that region. Where is this surprise billing coming from? – Gastropod

it's best to raise a ticket. the billing dept. did an amazing job when i contacted them to ask about my bill – Dabble

Already did that. No response yet. – Gastropod

I’m voting to close this question because it is a question for AWS support, not a question about programming as defined by the help center. At best, it may be on-topic at Server Fault. – Martellato

Answer 1

This is because of various reasons. Elastic IP charge is calculated on hourly basis. Only one elastic IP is free of cost. If you have created an elastic IP but it is not attached to any EC2 instance still it will cost you on an hourly basis.

So reason you got charged because of one of these reasons,

1. You may create multiple elastic IPs (only first one is free that too if is allocated)
2. You may create one elastic IP but didn't allocate it to an EC2 instance for few hours
3. You may not disassociate elastic IP once the instance terminated (I could see you did it properly so ignore this)

Different pricing of elastic IP,

• $0.00 for one Elastic IP address associated with a running instance
• $0.005 per additional Elastic IP address associated with a running instance per hour on a pro rata basis
• $0.005 per Elastic IP address not associated with a running instance per hour on a pro rata basis
• $0.00 per Elastic IP address remap for the first 100 remaps per month
• $0.10 per Elastic IP address remap for additional remaps over 100 per month

Crankshaft

I will wait and see if the bill changes, I've deleted every machine and Elastic IP, security groups etc. The forecast is still $3.49 for November. I wonder why. – Gastropod

Please check your billing dashboard daily to avoid a monthly surprise :). Now please check your billing dashboard to check still is it costing for elastic IP – Crankshaft

Please check the edit, I've uploaded an image of the billing dashboard. – Gastropod

That is a forecast so wait to see is it increasing further. If you have cleaned up everything properly then it wouldn't increase further for elastic IP – Crankshaft

It's fixed I think. Shouldn't it go back to zero or something? Because I am not running any machine etc. – Gastropod

The cost shown is the forecast of whole November. May the charge already counted. It may come down later – Crankshaft

I'll check back later. Thanks for the help. – Gastropod

I checked again, and seems like the hours increased from 17 to 20 and bill changed from 0.09$ to 0.10$ now. The forecast month-end usage/Free Tier Limit has dropped to 120.52%. The support hasn't assigned anyone to my ticket and I wonder where is this hidden EC2 - Linux instance that I can't see. – Gastropod

Answer 2

Keep your location as same northern virginia and search for elastic ips and release the ip running in that location .. It worked for me. :)

Meryl

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. – Fertilize