Source-linked reports: Amounts and outcomes come from the original reports and linked replies.
Dawei Ma: RealtimeKit billed during Beta, about $295 disputed, later refunded.
Dawei Ma (@madawei2699) says RealtimeKit was documented as free during Beta, yet he was billed $147.62 at GA prices with voice traffic counted as audio/video, then charged about $30 more as stale sessions kept 10 participants live. He says disputed charges reached about $295 under an engineering investigation, and later that the charges were refunded without an explanation.
What happened
Latest reported outcome
In October the author says Cloudflare in the end refunded him after a month of back-and-forth with no explanation; his updated blog post says Cloudflare has since refunded the disputed charge.
View this update in the timelineOriginal sources
- Author’s original report
- Author: case under engineering investigation, ~$295 disputed
- Author reports the refund
- Author’s blog post on the incident
Each entry links to the report or reply it describes.
Case timeline
Author reports the Beta charge
Read on 𝕏The author says RealtimeKit is still in Beta and documented as free, but he was charged $147.62 at GA prices and Voice preset traffic was counted as Audio/Video.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
@Cloudflare RealtimeKit 明明还在 Beta，官方文档也写着 Beta 期间免费，结果账单直接按 GA 价格扣了我 $147.62，连 Voice preset 的语音流量还算成 Audio/Video。Beta 都能收费了是吧？🤡 https://t.co/XGwXAcV76A
Author suspects a metering error
Read on 𝕏The author says most of his usage was voice but appears to be billed entirely as video at GA rates, and that Cloudflare’s serverless SFU would be cheaper.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
@waylybaye @Cloudflare 我怀疑他们计费有问题，因为我实际上大部分是语音而不是视频，但是看起来全部变成视频的 GA 收费了，实际上现在还是 Beta，应该是免费的，另外如果用它自家的 serverless SFU应该能便宜很多，realtime kit 并不便宜
Another $30 charge
Read on 𝕏The author says he woke up to another $30 charge, the ticket response is very slow and still needs investigation, and Cloudflare’s own AI agrees the billing is wrong.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
一觉醒来又被收了 30 刀，提 ticket 响应巨慢，还需要调查，连他们自己的 AI 都说计费有问题，我不知道为什么会这么慢去解决计费问题，相比 AWS 迅速响应迅速退钱，这个体验太糟糕了 😡 @Cloudflare https://t.co/dZSjjpGiyX
Stale sessions keep billing
Read on 𝕏After production traffic stopped, the author found 12 sessions still LIVE with exactly 10 live participants, which he puts at 10 × 1,440 × $0.002 = $28.80 a day.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
@CloudflareDev RealtimeKit incident update: After production traffic had stopped, I found 12 sessions still marked LIVE with exactly 10 live participants. All associated meetings were already INACTIVE, and some sessions had been stuck for weeks. 10 × 1,440 × $0.002 = $28.80/day
Author cleans up the sessions
Read on 𝕏The author says he had already migrated production away, enumerated 2,609 sessions himself and used the kick-all API, bringing live participants from 10 to 0.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
I had already migrated production away from RealtimeKit, yet participant billing kept increasing. I eventually had to enumerate 2,609 sessions myself and use Cloudflare’s kick-all API to terminate the stale participants. After cleanup: 10 → 0 live participants.
Case under engineering investigation
Read on 𝕏The author says support case #02288047 has been under Engineering Investigation since August 19, disputed charges are now about $295, and he is still waiting for a root-cause analysis.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
Support case #02288047 has been under Engineering Investigation since Aug 19. Disputed charges are now ~$295. RealtimeKit is also still documented as free during Beta. Full incident details and evidence: https://t.co/ds2cxdrY0F Still waiting for Cloudflare’s root-cause analysis
A month of back-and-forth
Read on 𝕏The author says ticket replies were drafted with Kimi AI, support suggested deleting the app while Engineering asked him to keep it as evidence, and cross-team handling was very slow.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
持续一个多月的扯皮，让我见识到了所谓“互联网活菩萨”的另一面：客服不专业，ticket 用 Kimi AI 辅助回复；建议我删除 App 来解决他们的问题，转头 Engineering 又要求我保留 App 作为调查证据；整个事故处理和跨团队推进也异常缓慢。Beta 产品有 bug 可以理解，但 billing、support 也像在 Beta 😂 https://t.co/2dUCAgG3t2
Blog post says the charge was refunded
Open original sourceThe author’s blog post on free4chat, last modified October 7, 2026, says “Cloudflare has since refunded the disputed charge” and describes about $29 a day of stale-participant billing on August 22–23.
Author reports a refund
Read on 𝕏Replying about Cloudflare support, the author says the process dragged on for a month with no explanation, and although he was in the end refunded, the experience was very poor.
Dawei Ma
@madawei2699 · Original 𝕏 post
@meathill1 @supabase 我的数据量在 500MB 内，所以就用了免费的了，Cloudflare 的 support 更是无语，非常无语，他们甚至建议我删 App 最后有不让删说要采集数据，前后拖了一个月，没任何解释，不了了之，虽然最后只退了款，但是整个过程和体验无比糟糕，远不如 AWS 的 support
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