‘My Soul Left My Body’: Amazon Accidentally Bills Users Billions of Times What They Owe
Most of us sense we’re in an affordability crisis these days. If you’re like me, you’re helpless and complacent at the checkstand even when it feels like you’re being mugged. But being billed for billions—or even trillions—more than you owe on web hosting would snap anyone out of their affordability daze.
Amazon Web Services users around the world have noticed one such glitch:
I just saw $1.5 trillion on my AWS bill and my soul left my body https://t.co/EgfQKJTHVl pic.twitter.com/L0gXYbDio7
— Bharath (@Bharath_uwu) July 17, 2026
Bharath, an X user based in India, showed off what looks like a $1,499,659,180,107 cost statement and writes, “my soul left my body.” That statement says Bharath’s total is up by 744,728,201,771% this month, which means, by my math, the previous month’s bill was about $200.
According to the Guardian, a marketer named Dan Harvey, working for an educational nonprofit in the U.K. said he “almost had a heart attack” after seeing a bill climb from 43 cents last month to $7.8 billion this month—and the month wasn’t even over. Harvey added to the Guardian that he had to get on the phone with tech support and “have a real dig around,” to get to the bottom of things. Amazon did not apparently return the Guardian’s request for comment.
This has been resolved, according to Amazon, which writes that on July 16 and 17, “customers received erroneous budget and cost anomaly detection alerts, and saw inflated estimated cost and usage data in the Billing and Cost Management Console and the Cost and Usage Reports.” The amounts are “inaccurate” and “did not affect customer invoices,” Amazon writes, but everything has apparently been restored to normal.
An update Saturday on the AWS service health dashboard lays out what happened. Apparently on July 16, a faulty “configuration change” in the AWS billing system was implemented. “This system relies on unit conversion data to calculate line item charges,” AWS writes, but the change “caused updates to the unit conversion data to fail, resulting in inflated line item costs, which propagated to the Billing and Cost Management console and triggered the budget and cost anomaly alerts.”
Logs on the health dashboard show AWS trying to roll out a solution for about two days before marking the issue as fully resolved.
#Soul #Left #Body #Amazon #Accidentally #Bills #Users #Billions #Times #Oweaffordability crisis,AWS,billing
Most of us sense we’re in an affordability crisis these days. If you’re like me, you’re helpless and complacent at the checkstand even when it feels like you’re being mugged. But being billed for billions—or even trillions—more than you owe on web hosting would snap anyone out of their affordability daze.
Amazon Web Services users around the world have noticed one such glitch:
I just saw $1.5 trillion on my AWS bill and my soul left my body https://t.co/EgfQKJTHVl pic.twitter.com/L0gXYbDio7
— Bharath (@Bharath_uwu) July 17, 2026
Bharath, an X user based in India, showed off what looks like a $1,499,659,180,107 cost statement and writes, “my soul left my body.” That statement says Bharath’s total is up by 744,728,201,771% this month, which means, by my math, the previous month’s bill was about $200.
According to the Guardian, a marketer named Dan Harvey, working for an educational nonprofit in the U.K. said he “almost had a heart attack” after seeing a bill climb from 43 cents last month to $7.8 billion this month—and the month wasn’t even over. Harvey added to the Guardian that he had to get on the phone with tech support and “have a real dig around,” to get to the bottom of things. Amazon did not apparently return the Guardian’s request for comment.
This has been resolved, according to Amazon, which writes that on July 16 and 17, “customers received erroneous budget and cost anomaly detection alerts, and saw inflated estimated cost and usage data in the Billing and Cost Management Console and the Cost and Usage Reports.” The amounts are “inaccurate” and “did not affect customer invoices,” Amazon writes, but everything has apparently been restored to normal.
An update Saturday on the AWS service health dashboard lays out what happened. Apparently on July 16, a faulty “configuration change” in the AWS billing system was implemented. “This system relies on unit conversion data to calculate line item charges,” AWS writes, but the change “caused updates to the unit conversion data to fail, resulting in inflated line item costs, which propagated to the Billing and Cost Management console and triggered the budget and cost anomaly alerts.”
Logs on the health dashboard show AWS trying to roll out a solution for about two days before marking the issue as fully resolved.
![The Animation Industry Still Hopes for Hollywood’s Full Respect
Years after Guillermo del Toro declared “animation is cinema” at the Oscars, the industry remains a redheaded stepchild of Hollywood. A recent Variety report with several professionals in the industry discuss how animation’s perceived in the west. At the same time it’s viewed as a “babysitter” medium mainly meant for entertaining kids, it’s been a reliable moneymaker for decades. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently 2026’s only movie to make over billion, while Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2 have been big hits for Disney. But as one animator told the outlet, the success has also been “frustrating” to see: a studio will brag about an animated film’s financial and awards success, then “turn to people who’ve worked here forever and say, ‘We don’t need you anymore.’” While Pixar president Jim Morris rightfully noted animation’s “propping up a lot of studios right now,” chief creative officer Pete Docter had a different view. He said animation can’t not be considered “films for kids” when most of said films are “funny, goofy, [and] a little bit like babysitter material. We could step our game up [as an industry].” However, Docter doesn’t expound on what “stepping up” would entail, and it’s worth acknowledging Pixar’s backtracking on more specific themes and perspectives in recent years—and his views on such walk backs. Alternatively, Laika’s solution is making people see their movies as simply movies. Chief marketing officer David Burke told Variety the Wildwood studio doesn’t actively sell their films as animated, instead trusting “[our] audience to find our movies, irrespective of the medium. They defy categorization.” Granted, this may also be due to the studio having a number of live-action projects in development, but Burke’s general point stands: to avoid stigma, animated movies can (and should) be promoted like they’re just regular movies.
For those interested in animation, a true sign of the medium’s respect would be if an animated movie won “Best Feature” at the Oscars. That’s a tall order, and an idea professionals are split on. Morris wants animation employees to be eligible come Oscar voting time, while Jorge Gutiérrez believes live-action movies have a natural edge and “too many Academy members” automatically treat animated fare as something to endure.
You can read the full story here for more insight on what Hollywood’s animation arm is thinking. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Animation #Industry #Hopes #Hollywoods #Full #RespectAnimation,disney,Pixar,The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,Zootopia 2](https://i1.wp.com/gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/05/Super-Mario-Galaxy-flying-1280x853.jpg?ssl=1 "The Animation Industry Still Hopes for Hollywood’s Full Respect
Years after Guillermo del Toro declared “animation is cinema” at the Oscars, the industry remains a redheaded stepchild of Hollywood. A recent Variety report with several professionals in the industry discuss how animation’s perceived in the west. At the same time it’s viewed as a “babysitter” medium mainly meant for entertaining kids, it’s been a reliable moneymaker for decades. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently 2026’s only movie to make over billion, while Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2 have been big hits for Disney. But as one animator told the outlet, the success has also been “frustrating” to see: a studio will brag about an animated film’s financial and awards success, then “turn to people who’ve worked here forever and say, ‘We don’t need you anymore.’” While Pixar president Jim Morris rightfully noted animation’s “propping up a lot of studios right now,” chief creative officer Pete Docter had a different view. He said animation can’t not be considered “films for kids” when most of said films are “funny, goofy, [and] a little bit like babysitter material. We could step our game up [as an industry].” However, Docter doesn’t expound on what “stepping up” would entail, and it’s worth acknowledging Pixar’s backtracking on more specific themes and perspectives in recent years—and his views on such walk backs. Alternatively, Laika’s solution is making people see their movies as simply movies. Chief marketing officer David Burke told Variety the Wildwood studio doesn’t actively sell their films as animated, instead trusting “[our] audience to find our movies, irrespective of the medium. They defy categorization.” Granted, this may also be due to the studio having a number of live-action projects in development, but Burke’s general point stands: to avoid stigma, animated movies can (and should) be promoted like they’re just regular movies.
For those interested in animation, a true sign of the medium’s respect would be if an animated movie won “Best Feature” at the Oscars. That’s a tall order, and an idea professionals are split on. Morris wants animation employees to be eligible come Oscar voting time, while Jorge Gutiérrez believes live-action movies have a natural edge and “too many Academy members” automatically treat animated fare as something to endure.
You can read the full story here for more insight on what Hollywood’s animation arm is thinking. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Animation #Industry #Hopes #Hollywoods #Full #RespectAnimation,disney,Pixar,The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,Zootopia 2")
![The Animation Industry Still Hopes for Hollywood’s Full Respect
Years after Guillermo del Toro declared “animation is cinema” at the Oscars, the industry remains a redheaded stepchild of Hollywood. A recent Variety report with several professionals in the industry discuss how animation’s perceived in the west. At the same time it’s viewed as a “babysitter” medium mainly meant for entertaining kids, it’s been a reliable moneymaker for decades. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently 2026’s only movie to make over $1 billion, while Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2 have been big hits for Disney. But as one animator told the outlet, the success has also been “frustrating” to see: a studio will brag about an animated film’s financial and awards success, then “turn to people who’ve worked here forever and say, ‘We don’t need you anymore.’” While Pixar president Jim Morris rightfully noted animation’s “propping up a lot of studios right now,” chief creative officer Pete Docter had a different view. He said animation can’t not be considered “films for kids” when most of said films are “funny, goofy, [and] a little bit like babysitter material. We could step our game up [as an industry].” However, Docter doesn’t expound on what “stepping up” would entail, and it’s worth acknowledging Pixar’s backtracking on more specific themes and perspectives in recent years—and his views on such walk backs. Alternatively, Laika’s solution is making people see their movies as simply movies. Chief marketing officer David Burke told Variety the Wildwood studio doesn’t actively sell their films as animated, instead trusting “[our] audience to find our movies, irrespective of the medium. They defy categorization.” Granted, this may also be due to the studio having a number of live-action projects in development, but Burke’s general point stands: to avoid stigma, animated movies can (and should) be promoted like they’re just regular movies.
For those interested in animation, a true sign of the medium’s respect would be if an animated movie won “Best Feature” at the Oscars. That’s a tall order, and an idea professionals are split on. Morris wants animation employees to be eligible come Oscar voting time, while Jorge Gutiérrez believes live-action movies have a natural edge and “too many Academy members” automatically treat animated fare as something to endure.
You can read the full story here for more insight on what Hollywood’s animation arm is thinking. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Animation #Industry #Hopes #Hollywoods #Full #RespectAnimation,disney,Pixar,The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,Zootopia 2](https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2026/05/Super-Mario-Galaxy-flying-1280x853.jpg "The Animation Industry Still Hopes for Hollywood’s Full Respect
Years after Guillermo del Toro declared “animation is cinema” at the Oscars, the industry remains a redheaded stepchild of Hollywood. A recent Variety report with several professionals in the industry discuss how animation’s perceived in the west. At the same time it’s viewed as a “babysitter” medium mainly meant for entertaining kids, it’s been a reliable moneymaker for decades. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently 2026’s only movie to make over $1 billion, while Inside Out 2 and Zootopia 2 have been big hits for Disney. But as one animator told the outlet, the success has also been “frustrating” to see: a studio will brag about an animated film’s financial and awards success, then “turn to people who’ve worked here forever and say, ‘We don’t need you anymore.’” While Pixar president Jim Morris rightfully noted animation’s “propping up a lot of studios right now,” chief creative officer Pete Docter had a different view. He said animation can’t not be considered “films for kids” when most of said films are “funny, goofy, [and] a little bit like babysitter material. We could step our game up [as an industry].” However, Docter doesn’t expound on what “stepping up” would entail, and it’s worth acknowledging Pixar’s backtracking on more specific themes and perspectives in recent years—and his views on such walk backs. Alternatively, Laika’s solution is making people see their movies as simply movies. Chief marketing officer David Burke told Variety the Wildwood studio doesn’t actively sell their films as animated, instead trusting “[our] audience to find our movies, irrespective of the medium. They defy categorization.” Granted, this may also be due to the studio having a number of live-action projects in development, but Burke’s general point stands: to avoid stigma, animated movies can (and should) be promoted like they’re just regular movies.
For those interested in animation, a true sign of the medium’s respect would be if an animated movie won “Best Feature” at the Oscars. That’s a tall order, and an idea professionals are split on. Morris wants animation employees to be eligible come Oscar voting time, while Jorge Gutiérrez believes live-action movies have a natural edge and “too many Academy members” automatically treat animated fare as something to endure.
You can read the full story here for more insight on what Hollywood’s animation arm is thinking. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who. #Animation #Industry #Hopes #Hollywoods #Full #RespectAnimation,disney,Pixar,The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,Zootopia 2")
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