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HTTP 429 When Calling the Gemini API on AWS

Running into HTTP 429 calling the Gemini API on AWS — and how our team fixed it. 429 is Google’s polite way of saying “slow down.” While building our capstone project (a RAG chatbot running on EC2 that calls the Gemini API), we hit an error that anyone who’s integrated a third-party API has probably run into at least once: HTTP 429 – Too Many Requests. At first we were pretty confused, because everything ran fine locally — no signs of trouble at all. But the moment we deployed to EC2 and tested with multiple concurrent users, requests piled up and Gemini politely declined with a 429.

Sunday, August 2, 2026 Read
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When RDS Proxy Eats 70% of Your Total CloudWatch Ingestion Cost

Pulling up a client’s Cost Explorer, I found RDS Proxy responsible for 70% of their total CloudWatch Logs ingestion cost — while their actual “RDS Proxy” line item looked completely normal. The line item said normal. The bill said otherwise. My first reaction, and the first reaction of nearly every client I’ve shown this number to, is always the same: “I’m already paying for RDS Proxy by the vCPU-hour — why is it also eating into my CloudWatch bill? Aren’t those two completely separate things?”

Sunday, August 2, 2026 Read
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That CloudWatch Logs Insights Query Just Cost You $2.50

One click on CloudWatch Logs Insights, a few seconds waiting for results — and a bill for scanning half a terabyte of logs. One query, half a terabyte scanned, and CloudWatch didn’t even pretend to warn you first. CloudWatch Logs Insights is a genuinely convenient SQL-like log query tool. The way AWS bills for it, though, catches a lot of people off guard. 😱 The common mistake Open Logs Insights, pick a log group that’s accumulated 6 months of logs (~500 GB), type a broad search query with no explicit time range set, hit Run.

Tuesday, May 5, 2026 Read