As a Student, I Accidentally Activated OCI Network Firewall — Got Charged ~HK$8,920 for Zero Actual Usage, Oracle Refused Any Waiver
I want to share my experience with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) billing in hopes it helps others avoid the same situation. I'll try to be as objective as possible and present the facts.
Background
I'm a student using OCI on a Pay-As-You-Go account, mainly running free-tier resources (A1 Compute, Block Storage, etc.). In mid-April 2026, I accidentally activated the Network Firewall service. I mistakenly believed it was similar to the standard Security Group / Security List feature that other cloud providers offer for free. There was no confirmation dialog or cost estimate shown during the creation process that made the pricing clear to me.
What Happened
- April 17, 2026: Network Firewall instance was created.
- The firewall ran passively in the background. I did not configure it for any production workload, and no actual traffic was processed through it — the billing records confirm that Network Firewall Data Processing remained at 0 GB for the entire period.
- The instance was billed at approximately HK$511.49 per day (~US$65/day) just for existing, regardless of whether it processed any data.
- I only realized the charges after they had accumulated significantly.
- I deleted the resource immediately once I understood the situation.
The Charges
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| April billing (Network Firewall Instance, ~314 hours) | HK$6,702.10 |
| Total accumulated cost (Apr 17 – May 5) | HK$8,920.49 |
| Network Firewall Data Processing | HK$0.00 |
| Invoice received (Apr 22–30 portion) | HK$4,402.25 |
For context, the Network Firewall Instance is priced at ~HK$21.31 per hour on a PAYG basis. That's over HK$500/day, which is a significant amount — especially for a student with no stable income.
My Dispute with Oracle
I opened a billing support request (Case #15470517, "Request for Waiver of Accidental Network Firewall Charges") and communicated the following points:
- The firewall was never used for any production purpose.
- Data processing was 0 throughout the entire period — verifiable from Oracle's own billing records.
- The activation was an honest misunderstanding of the product type.
- I am a student with no stable income, and this amount has exhausted my savings and caused financial hardship to me.
- I was not asking Oracle to change their billing policy — I was asking for a goodwill review given the exceptional circumstances.
Oracle's response? The same one-liner, 21 times over a week. More on that below.
What Bothers Me About This
The billing itself is technically correct — the system recorded instance-hours and charged accordingly. I get that. What I can't accept is everything around it.
No cost guardrails whatsoever. When I created the Network Firewall, there was no pricing confirmation, no estimated cost preview, nothing. A student on a PAYG account can spin up a >$60/day enterprise resource with a single click and zero friction. AWS shows you an estimated monthly cost before you confirm. GCP warns you. OCI just lets it happen silently.
Zero spending alerts as HK$500/day burned through. The charges accumulated daily for over two weeks. No email. No notification. No "hey, your bill just jumped 10x." Nothing until I discovered it myself.
21 messages, one answer. I wrote 21 messages over a week — detailed, polite, with evidence that Data Processing was literally zero the entire time. Oracle's response, every single time, was the same copy-paste: "We have confirmed all customer usage has been computed and reported in the system. Therefore, we are unable to provide approval for a waiver." I asked for escalation to a manager. Ignored. I asked for a goodwill review. Ignored. The entire "dispute process" is just one analyst repeating one sentence until you give up.
Other clouds handle this differently. AWS, GCP, and Azure all have documented processes for one-time goodwill credits when usage data clearly shows accidental activation. I'm not asking for a policy change — just basic acknowledgment that charging someone ~US$1,140 for a firewall that processed exactly 0 bytes of traffic might deserve a second look from a human being.
Lessons Learned
- Always check the pricing page before creating ANY OCI resource. Network Firewall is an enterprise-grade product priced accordingly — it is not a free security feature.
- Set up budget alerts immediately when using any cloud platform on a PAYG basis.
- Monitor your cost dashboard daily, especially after creating new resources.
- OCI's free tier is generous, but the gap between free-tier resources and paid enterprise services can be enormous with no guardrails in between.
TL;DR
Accidentally created an OCI Network Firewall as a student. It ran for ~18 days with zero data processed. Got billed ~HK$8,920 (~US$1,140). Oracle refused any waiver or reduction after 21 exchanges over a week. Sharing this so others can be aware of the pricing and lack of cost safeguards on OCI.
Evidence :
- Image 1 & 2: Support case conversation showing Oracle's repeated template responses and my detailed explanations
- Image 3: Official Usage Statement for April 2026 — Row 16: Network Firewall Instance billed 314.47 hours; Row 17: Network Firewall Data Processing = 0.00 GB. Every other service on the account is $0.00 .
*Personal details in screenshots have been redacted. *
**UPDATE:** Someone from Oracle reached out to me via Reddit and is looking into my case internally. They have escalated it to a senior collections director for the APAC region. No promises yet, but this is the first time my case has received any human attention beyond the scripted responses.