My taxes are pending but I wasnt charged anything. I went with the free option but I did that last year too and still had to pay.

And what is your question?  Last year you might have needed to upgrade to Deluxe or higher.

Well its more so asking what's different as I didn't upgrade last year and did the simple standard one that's free but I still had to pay to receive my tax refund. I forgot the exact total but it was somewhere around 20-40$.

Maybe you added Plus support in the Free Edition.  What is Plus Help & Support

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/choosing-a-product/help/what-s-included-in-plus-help-tools/01/26430

Wait nevermind I looked back on last years documents I was mistaken completely so sorry!