AWS Free Tier FAQs

AWS Free Tier program allows new customers to explore AWS services at no cost for up to 6 months. New customers receive up to $200 in AWS credits — $100 upon sign-up and up to $100 more as you explore foundational AWS services. You can access over 30 services with always free offers. Services with an Always Free offer allow you to use the product for free up to specified limits as long as you are an AWS customer.

The AWS Free Tier is available to all new customers – students, entrepreneurs, and small businesses are all welcome to sign up online. 

You can visit the AWS Management Console or AWS Free Tier and click on “Create an AWS Account” to start the sign up process. During sign-up, you'll choose between two plans – Free and Paid. With both plans, you can receive up to $200 in AWS credits and access over 30 always-free services that offer free monthly usage.

Refer to AWS Free Tier for the list of eligible services for your account type. 

Free Tier credits expire 12 months from the date you create your AWS account. You can view the credit expiration date in the Credits page in the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console.

When your account joins an AWS Organization or sets up an AWS Control Tower landing zone, your Free Tier credits expire immediately, and your account will be ineligible to earn more AWS Free Tier credits. Additionally, your free account plan will automatically be upgraded to a paid plan. 

You would be ineligible for free plan or Free Tier credits if you have an existing AWS account or have had one in the past. The free plan and Free Tier credits are available only to new AWS customers. 

No, your credits cannot be transferred to another AWS account.

If you exceed the free usage limits, your account will begin incurring charges at the standard pay-as-you-go service rates (see each service page for full pricing details). Your Free Tier credits will automatically apply to these charges. If your account is under the free plan, you won’t see any charges on your AWS Bills. If your account is under a paid plan, you’ll simply pay for charges that exceed your Free Tier credit balance. 

Yes, you are required to provide a valid payment method to sign up for an AWS account, whether you choose a free plan or a paid plan. 

The free plan allows you to experiment with AWS services and build proof-of-concepts at no cost for up to 6 months until you upgrade to a paid plan. 

You can monitor your free plan expiration date, credit balance, and days remaining through the Cost and Usage widget in the AWS Management Console Home or programmatically through the AWS SDK and command line at no cost. Please refer to the GetAccountPlanState API Reference for information about programmatically tracking your free plan expiration. You will also receive periodic email alerts regarding your credit balance and when you are approaching the end of your free plan period. 

Your free plan expires the earlier of (1) 6-months from the date you opened your AWS account, or (2) once you have exhausted your Free Tier credits. 

No, you cannot extend your free plan beyond 6 months. 

When your free plan expires, AWS closes your account, and you’ll lose access to your resources and data. AWS will retain your data for 90 days after your free plan expires. During this period, you have the option to upgrade to paid plan to reopen your account and restore access to your resources. If you don’t upgrade your account within 90 days, AWS will permanently erase your AWS account and all its content.  

Yes, you can download data from your AWS account within 90 days after your free plan expires. However, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan to download your data. Once you’ve retrieved your data, we recommend closing your AWS account to prevent any future billing charges. 

You must upgrade your account to a paid plan. However, your account will automatically upgrade to a paid plan in certain cases, such as when you create or join an AWS Organization, set up an AWS Control Tower landing zone,  join AWS Partner Network, create a Professional Services contract, enroll in an Enterprise Agreement with AWS, purchase an AWS Skill Builder Team subscription, or designate your AWS account as HIPAA or SEC compliant.

To upgrade your free plan to paid plan, log into your AWS account, then select “Upgrade Plan” in the Cost and Usage widget in the AWS Management Console. Alternatively, you can find the “Upgrade Plan” option in the navigation bar and the information banner within the AWS Billing and Cost Management console pages. 

When you upgrade to paid plan, your remaining Free Tier credits will automatically apply to future AWS bills until they expire. Free Tier credits expire 12 months after you create your account. However, if you upgrade to paid plan by joining an AWS Organization or setting up an AWS Control Tower landing zone, your Free Tier credits expire immediately, and your account will be ineligible to earn more AWS Free Tier credits.

Your free plan is limited from accessing a subset of AWS services and offerings that would immediately consume the entire Free Tier credit amount or require hardware purchases. To see which AWS services are available under the free plan, visit AWS Free Tier. Additionally, your free account plan is ineligible for other promotional credits or incentive offers. These limitations can be removed by upgrading to a paid plan. 

AWS requires a valid payment method to verify your identity and prevent abuse of AWS resources. AWS will not charge your payment method until you upgrade to paid plan, and you will not need to reenter your payment method when you upgrade.

Basic AWS support is included with free plan. 

The paid plan gives you full access to AWS services and features to build production applications that scale beyond the Free Tier credit amount. You will be automatically charge for any usage beyond the credit balance or when you access a service where credits don’t apply. Additionally, you will have access to all always free services and short-term trials. Always free services allow you to use the product for free up to specified limits as long as you are an AWS customer, while short-term trials are free to use for a specified period or up to a one-time limit depending on the service selected. Visit AWS Free Tier for list of always free services and short-term trials. 

You can track your actual usage against short-term trial and always free limits by using the Free Tier GetFreeTierUsage API. Please refer to the GetFreeTierUsage API Reference to learn more about how to track your free usage limits. You can also see current month activity by service, usage type and region by logging into your account and going to the Free Tier page in the Billing & Cost Management console. This allows you to understand when your free usage will switch to pay-as-you-go pricing each month. 

Yes, you are eligible for Free Tier credits if you select paid plan at sign up or upgrade to paid plan within 6-months of opening your AWS account.

You are eligible to earn additional Free Tier credits when you create an AWS account online, regardless of whether you choose the free plan or paid plan. 

You can earn up to an additional $100 Free Tier credits by completing activities in the Explore AWS widget by their specified completion date. To view activities, visit the Explore AWS widget found on your AWS Console Home dashboard and set the filter to "Earn AWS credits" or visit Earning additional credits.

You will need to complete the activities within 6 months from the date you open your AWS account to earn Free Tier credits. However, the activities will expire immediately, and you will become ineligible to earn more credits when you join an AWS Organization or set up an AWS Control Tower landing zone. You can find an activity’s complete by date in the Explore AWS widget in the AWS Console home. 

To verify if you received credits, visit the Credits page in the Billing and Management Console. Your credits may take up to 30 minutes to appear in your account. 

The credits you earned from completing activities expire 12 months from the date you create your AWS account. You can view the expiration date for each credit in the Credits page in the Billing and Management Console.

The AWS Free Tier credit applies to participating services across our global regions. Your usage is calculated each month across all regions. Your credits under AWS Free Tier will be in USD and automatically applied to your bill. The AWS Free Tier credits and account plan selections are not available in the China (ZHY) and China (BJS) regions. Please refer to the ZHY and BJS AWS Free Tier page for more information. The AWS Free Tier is not available in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions, with the exception of certain services such as Lambda for AWS GovCloud (US). 

All the benefits of the existing Free Tier program for existing customers will remain unchanged. Existing customers are ineligible for Free Tier credits or the free account plan.