AWS Free Tier FAQs

Q1: What is the AWS Free Tier?

The AWS Free Tier provides customers the ability to explore and try out AWS services free of charge up to specified limits for each service. The Free Tier is comprised of three different types of offerings, 12 months free, always free, and short term free trials. Services with 12 months free allow customers to use the product for free up to specified limits for one year from the date the account was activated. Services with an Always Free offer allow customers to use the product for free up to specified limits as long as they are an AWS customer. Services with a short term trial are free to use for a specified period of time or up to a one-time limit depending on the service selected. Details on the limits and services provided for free are detailed in each card on the Free Tier page. If your application use exceeds the Free Tier limits, you simply pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates (see each service page for full pricing details). Restrictions apply; see offer terms for more details.

Q2: When does the AWS Free Tier expire?

Services with 12 months free allow customers to use the product for free up to specified limits for one year from the date the account was activated. Services with an Always Free offer allow you to use the product for free up to specified limits as long as you have a valid AWS account. Services with a short term trial are free to use for a specified period of time or up to a one-time limit depending on the service selected. Additionally, short term trial period may start when you first use the service, not when you create your account. When your Free Tier expires or if your application use exceeds the Free Tier limits, you simply pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates (see each service page for full pricing details). Restrictions apply; see offer terms for more details.

Q3: What do I need to do to qualify for the AWS Free Tier?

The AWS Free Tier is available to all types of customers – students, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies are all welcome to sign up. If you are linked to an Organization (under AWS Organizations), only one account within the organization can benefit from the Free Tier offers. To calculate the Organization’s use of AWS Services under any Offers, we will aggregate the usage across all accounts in the Organization. You will be charged standard rates for use of AWS Services if we determine that you are not eligible for the Free Tier or have exceeded the limits for a particular service.

Q4: Are there any limitations to how I use the AWS free usage tier?

AWS’s free usage tier is not limited to specific use cases. This offering provides new AWS customers with free usage tiers for certain AWS services to help you get started. If you have a new idea that you’d like to launch or if you have an existing application you want to run in the cloud, this is a great way to get started for free. Some ideas include, but are not limited to, hosting low traffic websites or blogs, social media applications, development and test projects, proof of concepts, and more. See how other customers are using AWS today in our case study section.

Q1: If I go over the Free Tier limit in a given month, how much will I have to pay?

If your usage exceeds the monthly Free Tier limits, you simply pay standard, pay-as-you-go AWS service rates. See the AWS Pricing page for full pricing details.

Q2: How do I track my free usage to avoid unexpected spend?

There are three ways we recommend tracking your free usage to avoid unexpectedly transitioning to pay-as-you-go pricing: [1] View on the Free Tier page in AWS Billing & Cost Management console (See Question 3). [2] Use the GetFreeTierUsage API (See Question 4). [3] Read your AWS Free Tier usage alert emails (See Question 5).

Q3: How do I track my free usage in the AWS Management Console?

You can see current month activity by service, usage type and region by logging into your account and going to the Billing & Cost Management console’s Free Tier page. To dive deeper into your cost and usage, you can visualize your costs and usage your cost drivers and usage trends via Cost Explorer and set budget alerts using AWS Budgets. To learn more about how to control your AWS costs, check out the Control your AWS costs 10-Minute Tutorial.

For EC2 Free Tier usage specifically, the EC2 Dashboard uses the GetFreeTierUsage API to display information about EC2 services such as EC2 and EBS.

Q4: How do I track my free usage programmatically?

You can access AWS Free Tier usage in your account programmatically through the AWS SDK, command line, and 3rd party tools at no cost. Using the Free Tier GetFreeTierUsage API, customers can track Free Tier usage against monthly usage limits which allows you to understand when your free usage will switch to pay-as-you-go pricing each month.

Please refer to the AWS Free Tier API Reference to learn more about how to use the GetFreeTierUsage API to track your free usage.

Q5: Can I use email to keep track of AWS Free Tier usage?

Yes, you will automatically receive Free Tier usage alerts in your root account email when you’re nearing Free Tier limits as a reminder. You can disable Free Tier usage alerts as well as configure to send to a different email if you prefer using Free Tier Usage Alert Preferences. Learn more about Free Tier Alert Preferences in the User Guide.

Q6: Why don’t I see any Free Tier usage in the console or when using the GetFreeTierUsage API?

You may not see free tier usage for several reasons. First, member accounts do not see Free Tier usage in the console or when using the GetFreeTierUsage API. Only the Consolidated Billing family’s management account can see Free Tier usage in the console or when using the GetFreeTierUsage API. Second, there may be no eligible free tier usage occurring in the account. Third, it may be the beginning of the month and there hasn’t been an estimated bill generated for the new month yet. Estimated bills occur typically three times per day or around every eight hours depending on the size of the account or consolidated billing family.

Q7: I’m eligible for the free usage tier, but I received a charge. Why?

The AWS Free Tier is available to new AWS accounts. The Free Tier applies to certain participating AWS services up to a specific maximum amount of usage each month. Applicable services and usage limits are defined at aws.amazon.com/free. When an account goes over the Free Tier limit, the standard AWS service rates will be billed to your credit card.

If you have not exceeded the limits of the Free Tier, you may have been charged for other AWS services that are not covered under the Free Tier. Some examples include: if you are running an Amazon EC2 t2.small instance rather than a t2.micro instance, or if you are using a service not included in the offer, such as Amazon Aurora. To review your AWS usage activity, log into your Billing & Cost Management Dashboard.

Q8: If we sign-up for Consolidated Billing, can we get the AWS Free Tier for each account?

No, customers that use Consolidated Billing to consolidate payment across multiple accounts will only have access to one Free Tier per Organization.

Q9: How does Free Tier work with Consolidated Billing?

If you created an organization, your Free Tier usage will be shared across all accounts in the Consolidated Billing family. However, only the management/payer account will be able to track in the console.

Q10: If I don’t use all of my free usage per month will it roll over to the next month?

No, the AWS Free Tier is applied to your monthly usage. It will expire on the 1st day of each month, and does not accumulate.

Q1: Can I use the AWS Free Tier in any region?

The AWS Free Tier applies to participating services across our global regions. Your free usage under the AWS Free Tier is calculated each month across all regions and automatically applied to your bill. For example, you will receive 750 Amazon EC2 Linux Micro Instance hours for free across all of the regions you use, not 750 hours per region. Unused monthly usage will not roll over to future months. The AWS Free Tier is now available in China (ZHY) and China (BJS) regions as well. The AWS Free Tier is not available in the AWS GovCloud (US) regions, with the exception of Lambda for AWS GovCloud (US).

Q1: Where can I find information on using Amazon EC2 Microsoft Windows Server Micro Instances as part of AWS Free Tier?

Please see AWS Free Tier with Windows FAQ.

Q2: Where can I find information on using Amazon RDS Micro Instances as part of AWS Free Tier?

Please see AWS Free Tier with Amazon RDS.

Q3: Does an AWS customer have access to 750 instance hours each of the Linux and Windows t2.micro instances under the AWS Free Tier?

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. Usage of the Linux and Windows t2.micro instances are counted independently.

Q4: Does the AWS Free Tier include Amazon S3 Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS)?

No, the AWS Free Tier does not include Amazon S3 RRS storage. The AWS Free Tier includes 5 GB of Amazon S3 standard storage, which offers the highest Amazon S3 durability.

Q5: What size EC2 instances are available for free? EC2 t2.micro instances are not available in the region I want to use. Is there another option available for free?

The EC2 instance sizes available as part of the Free Tier depends on the region you choose to provision your resources. Some regions like the Middle East (Bahrain) region and the EU (Stockholm) region do not offer t2.micro instances. In cases like these, AWS offers the same 750 hour usage on t3.micro instances as they do for t2.micro instances in other regions. Check the console in the region you plan to provision your resources or use the describe-instance-types API to determine which one is Free Tier in any specific region.

Q6: Where can I find more information on using Amazon Redshift as part of AWS Free Tier?

Please see the Amazon Redshift Free Trial page for more details.

Q7: Does an AWS customer have access to 750 hours of public IPv4 addresses per month when used on EC2 instances under the AWS Free Tier?

Yes. A customer with access to the 12 months free offering of AWS Free Tier can use up to 750 hours of public IPv4 addresses free per month when used on EC2 instances. This is independent of the instance type that is used.