Amazon accidentally spent $1.8 million using Claude for a menial coding task, went 860% over budget — 'catastrophically expensive' coding blunders discovered in internal Amazon AI usage metrics

Internal Amazon reports say several AI projects blew past budget, led by a Claude Sonnet deployment that cost $1.8 million and ran 860% over plan.

Other efforts, including an auditing tool and a logistics system, also generated far larger-than-expected costs.

The case highlights how agentic AI and per-token pricing can turn routine coding tasks into major expenses.

Amazon says it is still experimenting with AI and working to improve how it uses the technology.