This inefficiency occurs when Provisioned Concurrency is enabled for Lambda functions that do not require consistently low latency or steady traffic. In such cases, reserved capacity remains allocated and billed during idle periods, creating ongoing cost without proportional performance or business benefit. This is distinct from standard Lambda execution charges, which are purely usage-based.
Lambda Provisioned Concurrency is billed per unit of concurrency per hour while enabled, regardless of invocation volume. Charges accrue continuously for reserved capacity even when functions are idle.
