I tried something or other on aws. I only needed the 'definitely free, no cost whatsoever we will suspend the account before you hit whatever limits we set - that I didn't even hit a fraction of' tier free trial month to do whatever it was I was doing.

At the end of the 'totally free' month they charged me something like £1.80. Obviously £1.80 is inconsequential, it is the fact there was any charge at all given everything I had been told - I can't remember what I did, probably learned to set up a vpn or something simple - I didn't even use it beyond setting it up and testing it.

I made sure I burned the account in a big firey pit and I will never go back to them for anything I am paying for (news that I doubt is keeping Jeff Bezos up at night, but it isn't inconceivable I might have bigger projects in the future). I doubt they could figure out what the charge was for. Presumably chatgpt hallucinates their billing now which might be an improvement.