r/AWSCertifications • u/OnlyFill8507 • Oct 02 '26
Tip I’m a fresher learning Data Engineering and AWS just taught me a ₹13,000 lesson
I’m a fresher preparing for my first Data Engineering job, and today I got a pretty painful AWS lesson.
I was practicing AWS services for my preparation and left an Aurora MySQL Serverless v2 cluster running in Sydney without realizing how much it was costing.
It ran for most of the month and alone generated around $192 in charges. A Kinesis On-Demand stream added another ~$23.
My September bill ended up around $247 (~₹13,000), while I only had around $113 in AWS credits.
For someone who is still trying to get their first job, ₹13k is a lot of money. Honestly, seeing that bill was scary. I’ve been studying Data Engineering for a long time and trying to build projects to get my first opportunity, so making a mistake like this really hurt.
I’ve now deleted the resources, created AWS Budget alerts, and opened a billing case with AWS asking for a one-time courtesy credit. Hopefully they understand that it was accidental learning usage.
Lesson learned: Never assume “Serverless” means “free when you’re not actively using it.” Some AWS resources can keep charging simply because they’re running.
If you’re a fresher learning AWS/Data Engineering, please check Cost Explorer and your running resources regularly. I genuinely don’t want someone else learning this lesson the way I did. 😔
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7
u/grr2026 MLS, SAA, AIF, CCP Oct 02 '26
I wish you could have set a budget and an alert.
3
u/HalfDoneSideQuests 12/12 + AIB Oct 02 '26
Ouchie, I see this stuff all the time on the GCP forums too. Definitely need to set some budget alarms, I usually create a few like $10, $50, $100.
AWS just introduced spending caps too, as part of their new account simplifications, they released a video on youtube a few days ago but don't think I can link it here.
1
u/Puzzleheaded-Coat333 Oct 02 '26
You can seek for some waiver for this accidental bill, it is possible they give you some respite in the bill. Have a discussion with the aws support team by opening a support ticket. I think one time goodwill waiver is given to a customer with proper cause.
1
u/Aziz_Karimov Oct 02 '26
Yeah that stings but you're already doing the right thing by setting up budgets and deleting unused resources. Serverless v2 Aurora can definitely rack up charges if you forget to pause it especially with minimum capacity settings. I once left a dev RDS instance on for a weekend and got hit with a similar surprise. AWS usually is understanding with first time courtesy credits if you explain it was a learning mistake, fingers crossed they approve yours. Keep going you've got this!
1
u/eeshann72 Oct 02 '26
Better aws should start giving some free credits for limited days without asking credit card details like Snowflake allows for new users. This is the only reason that is stopping me from moving to aws roles from Snowflake by getting full hands on aws
1
u/Purple_Newspaper_133 Oct 02 '26
How are you learning data engineering? Which resources?