Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers saw erroneous estimated bills ranging from millions to trillions of dollars caused by a billing system bug that began late on July 16, 2026 [1, 2, 3].
The issue originated from a problem with unit pricing within the estimated billing computation subsystem, according to the AWS Service Health Dashboard [2]. AWS acknowledged the bug publicly on July 17 and announced attempts to roll back the billing system to the last known good state to fix the problem [1, 2, 3].
Customers reported shocking estimated bills including one as high as $2.5 billion and another at $1.5 billion. On Reddit, some claims reached an extraordinary $7.1 trillion in service fees [1, 2, 3]. Bill Radjewski, a long-time AWS user, said he had never spent more than two cents per month on his account but saw a $1.5 billion erroneous estimate [2].
An AWS spokesperson said, "the displayed billing estimates do not reflect actual usage and charges," emphasizing that real billing amounts were not affected [1, 3]. AWS paused estimated billing computations during the investigation and advised affected customers that no action was needed while the issue is resolved [2, 3].
The bug appeared first on July 16 at 10:38 p.m. Eastern time when the billing console began showing incorrect data [2]. Amazon quickly worked to fix the error and mitigate customer concerns by rolling back to a stable billing system state [1, 2, 3].
AWS will continue updating customers as it restores normal billing estimates and confirms the problem has been fully resolved.
