Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a broad platform full of services that cover all kinds of business needs using all kinds of technologies. But did you know that Amazon also offers a free tier?
With AWS, almost any functionality you want from an IT perspective is available "as a service," meaning there are no upfront costs and you only pay for the resources you use.
However, what you may not realize is that a significant number of AWS products can actually be used without breaking the bank.
In this post, we'll answer all your questions about the AWS free tier to help you get the most out of the AWS free trial for your business.
Is AWS free?
Unfortunately, full access to AWS tools and services isn't free—instead, you will becharged based on your usage.
However, AWS offers a free tier; a set of tools and services that can be used to test AWScompletely free.
What is the AWS Free Tier?
The AWS Free Tier is a collection of over 100 AWS services that you can use for free. Whether you're testing products to see which one best fits your business, have a short-term or small project in hand, or want to learn more about AWS and get some hands-on experience, you can access much of the AWS world before you have to spend a dime.
It's an AWS free tierreallya book?
AWS Free Tier is really free; you get access to a convenient and valuable amount of cloud computing resources without having to pay a dime. However, there are restrictions for some products.
What are the limitations of the AWS Free Tier?
Some products are free forever and have usage limits that limit the amount of resources you can spend per month, such asAWS Service Catalog, which grants users 1000 free API calls per month.
Others are completely unlimited, for example,AWS License Manager, which enables customers to manage software licenses from third-party vendors in AWS and on-premises environments.
Who can use the AWS Free Tier?
Anyone can use the AWS Free Tier. It is available to all customers, from students and professionals to SMEs and Fortune 500 companies.
It's important to note that only one account per organization can benefit from Amazon's free tier. If your account is associated with an organization that already uses the AWS Free Tier, you will be charged the standard rates for the tool or service you are using.
Is the AWS free tier available for all regions?
AWS Free Trier is available worldwide27 AWS regions.
Your total usage of the free tier will be calculated for all regions, rather than your limits being reset for each region and availability zone.
How long does the AWS Free Tier last?
There are three types of offerings in the AWS free tier:
- Always free:Available forever to new and existing AWS customers (subject to usage limits)
- 12 months free:Available to new AWS customers for one year after creating your AWS account — again, there are some usage limits with these products, so if you exceed those limits or continue to use them after 12 months, you'll be charged
- Essay:Short-term tests are limited to a period of time (eg two months) or a limited amount of resources (eg 1000 pages)
Do I need a credit card to use the AWS free tier?
You must enter payment information such as a credit or debit card to use the free tier if you exceed usage limits. As long as you don't exceed any of these limits, you won't be charged.
How do you use the AWS Free Tier?
When you sign up for an AWS account, you're automatically eligible to use the free tier for 12 months. Once you've signed up, you can start testing any of the free services right away.
Be sure to check which type of offer you are using - Always Free, 12 Months Free or Trial - so you know what thresholds you have to work with in terms of time and resource consumption. If you want to check whether your project or planned use of AWS is within the limits of the free tier, you can do so viaAWS price calculator.
To help you stay within the limits of your free tier, AWS sends automatic email alerts through its AWS Budgets tool to let you know when you've used 85% of your allowance. These alerts are sent for every free product you use that falls under the Always Free and 12 Months Free categories; simply opt-in to the Billing Settings section of the Billing Management Console.
You can also set up custom alerts viaAWS budgets, including predictions to let you know when you're likely to run out of free level features.
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What is included in the AWS Free Tier?
The AWS Free Tier makes many of the most popular AWS products available for free. More than 100 products and services are available in a free tier in some capacities, in categories such as compute, storage, analytics, machine learning, and even robotics. This includes free access to AWS EC2, S3, DynamoDB and more — just check out the full list below!
Analyze
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon OpenSearch service | 12 months free | 750 hours per month |
| Amazon QuickSight | Free trial (30 days) | 10 GB SPICE capacity >4 users |
| Amazon red shift | Free trial (2 months) | 750 hours per month |
| AWS Data Pipeline | 12 months free | 3 prerequisites of low frequency |
| Cola AWS | Always free | 1 million objects |
| AWS data exchange | Always free | More than 1,600 third-party datasets |
application integration
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon MQ | 12 months free | 750 hours per month |
| Amazon SQS | Always free | 1 million requests |
| Amazon SWF | Always free | 10,000 activity tasks |
| AWS step functions | Always free | 4000 status changes per month |
| AWS AppSync | 12 months free | 250,000 queries or data changes per month |
business productivity
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon Chime | Always free | No |
| Amazon Chime Pro | Free trial (30 days) | No |
| Amazon WorkDocs | Free trial (30 days) | 1 TB of storage space per user, >50 users |
| Amazon WorkSpaces | Free trial | >50 users |
| Amazon Honeycode | Always free | 20 users, 2500 rows per workbook |
Calculate
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon EC2 | 12 months free | 750 hours per month |
| AWS Lambda | Always free | 1 million requests per month |
| Amazon's Glowing Sail | Free trial (3 months) | 750 sati |
| Registar Amazon Elastic Container | 12 months free | 500 MB of storage per month |
| elastic load balancing | 12 months free | 750 hours per month |
Customer involvement
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon SES | Always free | 62,000 outgoing messages per month |
| Amazon Connect | 12 months free | 90 minutes per month |
Database
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon RDS | 12 months free | 750 hours per month |
| Amazon DynamoDB | Always free | 25 GB of storage space |
| Amazon ElastiCache | 12 months free | 750 sati |
| Amazon red shift | Free trial (2 months) | 750 hours per month |
| Amazon Database Migration Service | Always free | 750 sati |
| Amazon Keyspaces | Free trial (3 months) | 30 million on-demand reads/writes per month |
| Amazon MemoryDB | Free trial (2 months) | 750 hours, 20 GB storage |
| Amazon Keyspaces | Free trial (30 days) | 750 hours, 5 GB storage |
| Amazonian Neptun | Free trial (30 days) | 10 million I/O requests, 1 GB of storage |
development tools
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon CloudWatch | Always free | 10 user metrics and alarms |
| AWS CodeBuild | Always free | 100 minutes of construction |
| AWS CodeCommit | Always free | 5 active users per month |
| AWS CodePipeline | Always free | 1 active pipeline per month |
| AWS X-rays | Always free | 100,000 searches per month |
| AWS CodeArtifact | Always free | 2 GB of storage per month |
| Hospedagem AWS Amplify | 12 months free | 1000 minutes of creation per month, 15 GB |
End user computing
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon AppStream 2.0 | Free trial | 40 sati |
Front-end Web e Mobile
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon SNS | Always free | 1 million publications |
| Amazon Cognito | Always free | 50,000 MAU per month |
| Amazon Pinpoint | 12 months free | 5000 targeted users per month |
| Amazon API Gateway | 12 months free | 1 million per month |
| AWS device farm | Free trial | 1000 minutes of the device |
| Amazon's location service | Free trial (3 months) | 500,000 map tiles / 200,000 position entries / 200,000 position estimates |
| AWS AppSync | 12 months free | 250,000 queries or data modification operations |
game technology
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon GameLift | 12 months free | 125 hours per month |
Internet of Things
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| AWS Greengrass | 12 months free | 3 devices |
| AWS IoT Core | 12 months free | 500,000 messages per month |
| AWS IoT device management | 12 months free | 50 remote actions per month |
| AWS IoT Events | 12 months free | 2500 views of messages per month |
machine learning
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon SageMaker | Free trial (2 months) | Several |
| Understanding Amazon | 12 months free | 50k text units per API per month / 5 theme modeling jobs > 1MB each per month |
| Amazon Comprehend Medical | Free trial | 8.5 million characters |
| Amazon Lex | 12 months free | 10,000 SMS requests per month |
| Amazonka Polly | 12 months free | 5 million characters per month |
| Amazon Rekognition | 12 months free | 5000 pictures per month |
| Amazon SageMaker is based on truth | Free trial (2 months) | 500 marked objects per month |
| Transcript of Amazon | 12 months free | 60 minutes per month |
| Amazon Translate | 12 months free | 2 million characters per month |
| Amazon's Augmented AI | 12 months free | 500 objects |
| Amazon Text Extraction | Free trial | 1000 pages per month |
| Amazon Kendra | Free trial (30 days) | 750 sati |
| Amazon Personalize | Free trial (2 months) | > 20 GB data processing per month |
| AWS DeepRacer | Free trial (30 days) | 10 hours / 5 GB storage space |
| Amazon's forecast | Free trial (2 months) | >10,000 predictions per month |
| AWS Fraud Detector | Free trial (2 months) | >50 computing hours per month |
| Amazon Lookout for Vision | Free trial (3 months) | 10 hours of training per month |
| Amazon Lookout for gear | Free trial period (1 month) | 250 hours of training per month |
| Amazon Lookout za metrike | Free trial period (1 month) | 100 metric |
| Amazon DevOps Guru | Free trial (3 months) | 7,200 hours / 10,000 DevOps Guru API calls |
Management and governance
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon CloudWatch | Always free | 10 custom metrics and 10 alarms / 1 million API requests / 5 GB log data input and 5 GB log data file / 3 dashboards with up to 50 metrics each per month |
| AWS License Manager | Always free | No |
| AWS OpsWorks za Chef Automate | 12 months free | 7500 hours of node usage per month |
| AWS OpsWorks za Puppet Enterprise | 12 months free | 7500 hours of node usage per month |
| AWS well designed tool | Always free | No |
| AWS CloudTrail | Always free | 1 song |
| AWS System Manager | Always free | Includes 12 key system manager features |
| AWS CloudFormation | Always free | 1000 handler operations per month |
| AWS control tower | Always free | No |
| AWS organizations | Always free | No |
| AWS Resiliency Hub | Free trial period (6 months) | Up to 3 applications |
| AWS Service Catalog | Always free | 1000 API calls per month |
media services
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon Elastic Transcoder | 12 months free | 20 minutes transcoding |
| Amazon's interactive video service | 12 months free | 100 outgoing hours / 5 incoming hours per month |
Migration and transfer
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| AWS Database Migration Service | Always free | 750 hours of instance usage/50 GB general purpose storage |
| AWS Migration Hub | Always free | No |
| AWS Application Discovery Service | Always free | 1000 applications per account |
| Cloud Endure Migration | Free trial (90 days) | No |
| AWS Service Catalog | Always free | 1000 API calls per month |
| AWS application migration service | Free trial (90 days) | No |
| migration evaluator | Always free | No |
Networking and content delivery
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon API Gateway | 12 months free | 1 million incoming calls per month |
| Amazon CloudFront | Always free1 | Output data transfer of 1TB |
robotics
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| AWS RoboMaker | Free trial (30 days) | 25 hours are SU |
Security, identity and compliance
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon GuardDuty | Free trial (30 days) | No |
| Amazon Inspector | Free trial (15 days) | No |
| Amazon Matt | Always free | 1 GB |
| AWS Key Management Service | Always free | 20,000 requests per month |
| AWS Security Center | Free trial (30 days) | No |
| Amazon detective | Free trial (30 days) | No |
| AWS Audit Manager | Free trial period (60 days) | 35,000 feature reviews per month |
| Manage bot for AWS WAF | Always free | 10 million requests per month |
| Amazon Cognito | Always free | 50.000 MAU/10GB Cloud Sync |
without a server
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon DynamoDB | Always free | 25 GB of storage space |
| AWS Lambda | Always free | 1 million free requests per month |
| Amazon SNS | Always free | 1 million publications |
| Amazon API Gateway | 12 months free | 1 million API calls received per month |
| Amazon SQS | Always free | 1 million requests |
| AWS step functions | Always free | 4000 status changes per month |
| AWS AppSync | 12 months free | 250,000 queries or data changes per month |
Store
| products | Free Tier Offer Type | restrictions on use |
| Amazon S3 | 12 months free | 5 GB of standard memory |
| Amazon CloudFront | Always free | Output data transfer of 1TB |
| Amazon EFS | 12 months free | 5 GB of storage space |
| Amazon Elastic Block Storage | 12 months free | 30 GB general purpose or magnetic storage |
| Amazon Glacier (samo Glacier API) | Always free | 10 GB for data recovery |
| AWS Storage Gateway | Always free | 100 GB per account |
| Amazon ECS anywhere | Free trial period (6 months) | 2200 hours per month |
When does the AWS Free Tier expire?
AWS Free Tier offers expire at different times depending on the tier. Always Free products do not expire (although many have higher usage limits related to resources).
Predictably, the free tier for any product in the 12 months free category expires one year from the date you signed up for AWS.
Expiration dates for trial products in the free tier vary; some offer unlimited free usage for a certain period of time, for example 30 days, some offer a predefined amount of usage that must be used within a certain time period, for example 750 hours to be used in a month.
Do unused limits roll over to the next month?
Unfortunately, usage expires at the end of each month and does not continue. This means that your limits will be reset at the beginning of each month during the trial period.
How can I check the expiration date of my AWS free tier?
The easiest way to find out when your 12 months of free tier access expires is to check your email to find out when you first signed up for an AWS account. Your 12 months of free tier use expires one year from the date of your application. You can also use the billing dashboard in your AWS account to see what month you're signed up for (this will be the first monthly bill in your account).
Don't worry, AWS will send you an email when you get close to the end of your free access period so you can prepare.
What happens when the AWS Free Tier expires?
When your free level of access expires, you'll have to start paying on-demand fees for any features you use going forward. If you want to start paying to continue using these services, you don't have to do anything, you'll just be billed monthly for usage.
If you don't want to be charged, be sure to turn off or delete any features that run on your account. You can also delete your account if you want.
How do I upgrade from the AWS free tier?
If you want to continue using the services you used in the free tier after it expires, you don't need to do anything; you'll simply pay the standard on-demand fee for everything you use in the future.
If you want to use a more expensive type of resource than the one offered in the free tier, you can't just pay the difference. You'll need to sign up for the service directly, bypassing the free tier entirely.
Want more information about the AWS community?
Jefferson Frank Careers and Hiring Guide: AWS Edition provides businesses large and small with a unique view of the Amazon Web Services community.
FAQs
Is AWS free tier enough? ›
Yes. A customer with access to the AWS Free Tier can use up to 750 instance hours each of t2. micro instances running Linux and Windows.
Which of the following best describes the AWS free tier? ›Which of the following best describes the AWS Free Tier? C. The Free Tier provides free access to basic levels of AWS services for a new account's first year.
How long does AWS free tier give you to try certain services for free before you get charged? ›The AWS Free Tier allows you to get hands-on experience with AWS Services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, and Amazon RDS. The AWS Free Tier provides three types of offers. Some services are free to a certain limit, others are free for up to 12 months, and some are short term free trials, typically 30-60 days.
What is the limit of AWS free tier? ›AWS Budgets has a Free Tier limit of 62 budget days per month, so creating a single budget falls within the AWS Free Tier limit. As the name implies, AWS Free Tier-eligible service usage is free.
What happens after 12 months of AWS free tier? ›When your 12-month free usage term expires, or if your application use exceeds the tiers, you simply pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates. Always Free – These free tier offers do not expire and are available to all AWS customers.
Why is AWS still charging me for free tier? ›When using AWS Free Tier, you might incur charges due to the following reasons: You exceeded the monthly free tier usage limits of one or more services. You're using an AWS service, such as Amazon Aurora, that doesn't offer free tier benefits. Your free tier period expired.
How do I check my free tier remaining on AWS? ›Sign in to the AWS Management Console and open the Billing console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/billing/ . Under Preferences in the navigation pane, choose Billing preferences. For Alert preferences, choose Edit. Select Receive AWS Free Tier alerts to opt in to Free Tier usage alerts.
Does AWS free tier require a credit card? ›You must add a valid credit card, debit card, or another payment method for your accounts covered under the AWS Free Tier for the following reasons: Accounts covered under the AWS Free Tier aren't restricted in what they can launch.
Which is free in AWS? ›- Amazon EC2. Elastic Cloud Computing. 12 MONTHS FREE. ...
- Amazon Lightsail. Simple Virtual Private Servers. ...
- AWS Lambda. Serverless Computing. ...
- Amazon Elastic Container Registry. Fully Managed Container Registry. ...
- Elastic Load Balancing. Distribute Network Traffic.
On the Account Settings page, scroll to the end of the page to the Close Account section. Read and ensure that you understand the text next to the check boxes. After you close an AWS account, you can no longer use it to access AWS services. Select the check boxes to accept the terms, and then choose Close Account.
How do I waive my AWS bill? ›
After Some time you get phone calls from the AWS Support team, You can discuss your issue regarding AWS bill charges Those teams will help you . Then they will ask you to mention which month you want to be waved off. They will consider the charges and wave if off case by case.
How do I activate free tiers on AWS? ›The AWS Free Tier is automatically activated on each new AWS account. With the AWS Free Tier, you can try out some AWS services free of charge up to a specific maximum amount of usage each month.
Can I learn AWS on my own? ›Is it possible to learn AWS without prior IT experience? Yes. Without an IT background or degree, it is possible to learn AWS and become certified if the necessary training hours are accomplished. This article will answer all of your questions on how to become AWS certified without IT expertise.
Can I host my website on AWS for free? ›The total cost of hosting your personal website on AWS will vary depending on your usage. Typically, it will cost $1-3/month if you are outside the AWS Free Tier limits. If you are eligible for AWS Free Tier and within the limits, hosting your personal website will cost around $0.50/month.
How do I stop AWS from charging me? ›Log in to your Customer Control Panel and click on the AMAZON WEB SERVICES tile. Click on the ACTIONS dropdown arrow and click on VIEW SUBSCRIPTION. Click on the 3 DOTS button and then click on DISABLE AUTO-RENEW.
Will closing AWS account stop billing? ›When you close your AWS account, you must terminate all your resources or you might continue to incur charges. The on-demand billing for your resources stops when you close your account.
How many days required to complete AWS? ›We recommend six months to two years of hands-on experience using AWS. We also offer training and materials to help you prepare.
Which AWS service has unlimited free use? ›AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid cloud storage service that gives you on-premises access to virtually unlimited cloud storage.
Why did AWS charge me a dollar? ›When you add a new payment card to your AWS account, an authorization charge of $1 is sent to verify that the card is valid. The authorization charge is also used to verify that the card wasn't reported lost or stolen. For AWS customers, the temporary authorization charge is 1.00 USD.
What is the minimum charge for having an AWS account each month? ›Pricing for AWS Support Plans | Starting at $29 Per Month | AWS Support.
Can I open a free AWS account without using credit card details? ›
The answer to this is Yes, you can sign up for a free AWS account without a credit card. Instead, you can use your Debit card. All you need to do is, During sign-up for a free tier AWS account, on the Billing Information section, provide the Debit card details instead of your credit card.
How do I remove a credit card from AWS free tier? ›Open the AWS Billing console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/billing/ . In the navigation pane under Preferences, choose Payment methods. Under the Payment profiles section, choose Visit payment profiles. Under the Payment profiles section, choose a payment profile and choose Delete.
How many hours are free in AWS? ›As part of the AWS Free Tier, you can get started with EC2 for free. This includes 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances (t3.micro for the regions in which t2.micro is unavailable), each month for one year. To stay within the Free Tier, use only EC2 Micro instances.
Is AWS free for beginners? ›AWS For Beginners. Enroll in this free course for a strong foundation in cloud computing and AWS services. Learn about cloud models, deployment, and demos of AWS compute services to gain necessary skills.
Is AWS free to study? ›AWS Educate provides hundreds of hours of free, self-paced training, resources, and labs specifically designed for the new-to-the-cloud learner.
How to safely use AWS free tier? ›- Understand what services and resources are covered by the AWS Free Tier.
- Monitor Free Tier usage with AWS Budgets.
- Monitor costs in the Billing and Cost Management console.
- Find and terminate resources when you're done using them.
You must add a valid credit card, debit card, or another payment method for your accounts covered under the AWS Free Tier for the following reasons: Accounts covered under the AWS Free Tier aren't restricted in what they can launch.
Why might you shut down your EC2 instances in AWS when practicing with the free tier account? ›Why might you shut down your EC2 instances in AWS when practicing with the Free Tier account? In order to remain within the Free Tier limits. Common services of cloud computing? Computer power, storage, databases, networking, analytics, developer tools, virtualization and security.
How do I make my AWS account always free? ›Email address: Provide the mail id which hasn't been registered yet with Amazon AWS. Password: Type your password. Confirm password: Authenticate the password. AWS Account name: Choose a name for your account.
How do I remove my credit card from AWS free tier? ›Open the AWS Billing console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/billing/ . In the navigation pane under Preferences, choose Payment methods. Under the Payment profiles section, choose Visit payment profiles. Under the Payment profiles section, choose a payment profile and choose Delete.
How do I know when my AWS free tier expires? ›
- Under Preferences in the navigation pane, choose Billing preferences.
- For Alert preferences, choose Edit.
- Select Receive AWS Free Tier alerts to opt in to Free Tier usage alerts. ...
- Choose Update.
If you don't pay your AWS bill, AWS will attempt to contact you to resolve the outstanding balance. If the balance remains unpaid, AWS may eventually suspend your account, which means that you won't be able to use AWS services until the balance is paid.
Can AWS charge my credit card? ›Supported payment methods
AWS supports Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and RuPay credit and debit cards for AWS India accounts. You can also use internet banking (net banking) accounts to pay for AWS India invoices.
Pricing for AWS Support Plans | Starting at $29 Per Month | AWS Support.
How do I create a free virtual machine in Amazon AWS? ›- Create an AWS account. ...
- Launch AWS virtual machine. ...
- Choose AMI. ...
- Choose and configure instance type. ...
- Add storage and tags. ...
- Configure security. ...
- Review and launch your AWS virtual machine. ...
- Connect to an instance.
As part of the AWS Free Tier, you can get started with EC2 for free. This includes 750 hours of Linux and Windows t2.micro instances (t3.micro for the regions in which t2.micro is unavailable), each month for one year. To stay within the Free Tier, use only EC2 Micro instances.
Do EC2 instances cost money when stopped? ›Stopped instances don't incur charges, but Elastic IP addresses or EBS volumes attached to those instances do. To disassociate an Elastic IP address from an instance, see Disassociate an Elastic IP address.
How many EC2 instances can be used in free tier? ›The Free Tier for Amazon EC2 allows you to run two EC2 instances -- one Linux, one Windows -- each month for a full month. For each operating system, you get 750 hours of a t2. micro instance.