Skip to main content
Om

From 3 Months of GCP Billing Hell [OR_BACR2_44] to AWS Success in Minutes: A Cautionary Tale for Indian Devs

I spent 90 days fighting Google Cloud’s opaque billing errors in India, trying every card and "fix" in the book. I finally gave up, moved to AWS, and was onboarded with two startups and full Activate credits in under an hour. Here is why GCP is losing the battle for Indian startups.
Om
2 min read

I am officially done with Google Cloud. For the last three months, I have been trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare trying to do the simplest thing possible: give a multi-billion dollar company my money. Instead, I have been met with the infamous, soul-crushing error: This action couldn’t be completed. [OR_BACR2_44].

I’ve tried everything. I used Visa and Mastercard (Debit/Credit) from HDFC, ICICI, and SBI with every international and e-mandate toggle turned on. I created fresh accounts, used Incognito, tried fresh Chrome profiles, and even switched to mobile data to avoid IP flags. I even waited a full 90 days between attempts to let any "security cooling periods" expire. Nothing worked. It is staggering that a company at the forefront of infrastructure has an onboarding process that feels like it was coded in a basement and abandoned.

The reality of being a developer in India trying to use GCP is that you are fighting an uphill battle against a system that doesn't understand local banking regulations. You get a cryptic error code, zero human support because you don't have a "paid" account yet, and no way to actually start your project.

Then, I tried AWS.

The difference was night and day. I used the exact same cards that GCP rejected, and AWS accepted them on the first try. No payment failures, no "OR_BACR2_44" nonsense, and no "fraud" flags. Within minutes, I had my account fully active.

Better yet, I applied for AWS Activate credits for both of my startups. The application took 10 minutes, and I was approved and onboarded almost immediately. I didn't need to pray to the RBI gods or wait months for a "fix." AWS actually seems to want my business, whereas GCP treated me like a security threat just for trying to add a payment method.

If you are a developer or a startup founder in India currently stuck in the GCP billing loop: save your sanity and move to AWS. One company has figured out the local payment ecosystem and actually supports its users; the other has a front door that is effectively locked.

It’s not just the billing. Google’s whole developer ecosystem feels like it's falling apart. Their 'Antigravity' IDE is throttling Claude models to force-feed us Gemini 3.1 Pro, which—ironically—feels dumber and slower than Gemini 3 Flash. They’ve gone from a company that builds tools for developers to a company that builds obstacles for them. Switching to AWS wasn't just a billing move; it was a 'sanity' move.

I’m finally back to building. Peace out, GCP.