"Watched a video saying ChatGPT can build websites. Spent 5 days doing exactly that. Opened Google billing this morning and nearly had a heart attack"
So I just got back from 6 months backpacking Southeast Asia. No job, almost no money left, but my head is full of ideas from the trip.
I watched a YouTube video showing how the new ChatGPT can basically build entire websites for you. I got excited. I had this idea about connecting hotels and content creators, something I kept thinking about during the trip. So I thought, why not try.
I'm not a developer. I'm just a guy in his room with a laptop and too much free time.
My roommates all got sick so I basically locked myself in my room and just started building. I copy-pasted code from ChatGPT, tweaked things, broke things, fixed things. I added maps, interactive pins, hotel pages, city guides. I had no idea what I was doing but it was actually working and I was genuinely enjoying it.
5 days. I spent 5 full days on this thing. Barely slept. My roommates were sick in the next room and I was in there having the time of my life adding features to a website nobody had ever seen.
Today I got curious about Google Maps costs. I'd added a lot of map features and wanted to understand the pricing before I eventually launched it. So I opened my Google billing account.
8,300 DKK. About $1,300 USD. In 4 days. On a site that was running on my laptop. That nobody visited. Ever.
Apparently the code ChatGPT wrote for me was making hundreds of API calls every time I tested something, places data, photos, nearby searches, directions, and I had no idea each refresh was costing money. No warning. No alert. Nothing.
I have maybe 50€ in my bank account right now.
I've submitted a billing dispute to Google and I'm hoping they'll refund it. From what I've read online they sometimes do for first time cases like this. But man.
I just wanted to build something cool.
Has anyone been through this? Any advice on getting Google to actually refund it?
