Do not infer oversubscription from a low cloud bill

A low bill on a usage-metered platform does not prove that customer compute is oversubscribed. First compare billing units: a platform charging actual average CPU and memory can be far cheaper than one charging requested capacity continuously, especially for bursty services. Then examine documented infrastructure advantages such as owned hardware, workload-shaped server density, direct colocation and network contracts, and custom orchestration. Describe oversubscription only when the provider documents it; otherwise it is speculation.

Applies when: explaining large price differences between usage-metered PaaS and allocated container services. Keywords: Railway AWS ECS Fargate usage pricing oversubscription bare metal