The AWS Free Tier is one of the best ways to get hands-on experience with cloud computing without risking a hefty bill. But “free” comes with fine print — usage limits, expiration dates, and categories that work differently from each other. Understanding those details is the difference between learning for free and waking up to an unexpected invoice.

Whether you’re a student spinning up your first EC2 instance, a startup prototyping a new product, or an experienced developer exploring a service you haven’t used before, the Free Tier offers real production-grade resources at zero cost — within limits. In this guide, we’ll break down how each tier works, which services are most useful, and how to make sure you never get surprised by a charge.

The Three Types of Free Tier Offers

Not all free offers on AWS work the same way. AWS structures its Free Tier into three distinct categories, and understanding the differences is crucial before you provision any resources.

12

12-Month Free

Available to new AWS customers for 12 months after sign-up. Covers core services like EC2, S3, and RDS. Once the year ends, standard pay-as-you-go rates kick in automatically — so mark your calendar.

∞

Always Free

These offers never expire and are available to all AWS customers, not just new ones. Services like Lambda and DynamoDB have permanently free usage tiers with monthly limits that reset every billing cycle.

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Short-Term Trials

Trial offers activate when you first use a specific service and expire after a fixed period. They often provide higher resource limits than Always Free tiers, giving you room to properly evaluate a service.

Watch out

The 12-month clock starts ticking from your AWS account creation date — not the date you first use a service. If you create an account in January but don’t touch EC2 until October, you only have two months of free usage left.

AWS offers free tier access to dozens of services, but a handful stand out as the ones most developers reach for first. Here’s what you get with each and the limits you need to know.

Compute

Amazon EC2

Run virtual servers on-demand. The free tier includes 750 hours per month of t2.micro or t3.micro instances for both Linux and Windows — enough to keep one instance running 24/7 all month.

750 hrs/mo t2.micro / t3.micro 12-month
Storage

Amazon S3

Store and retrieve any amount of data. The free tier gives you 5 GB of standard storage with generous request allowances — plenty for hosting static assets, backups, or serving a small website.

5 GB storage 20K GET reqs 2K PUT reqs
Database

Amazon DynamoDB

A fully managed NoSQL database with single-digit millisecond performance. The always-free tier is generous enough to power small applications and prototypes indefinitely.

25 GB storage 25 read units 25 write units
Serverless

AWS Lambda

Run code without provisioning servers. The always-free allowance is substantial — enough to handle lightweight APIs, automation scripts, and event-driven processing at no cost forever.

1M requests/mo 400K GB-sec Always free
Database

Amazon RDS

Managed relational databases supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and more. Run a db.t2.micro or db.t3.micro instance continuously for a year — ideal for development and testing environments.

750 hrs/mo 20 GB storage 12-month
Messaging

Amazon SNS

Publish messages to subscribers or endpoints at scale. The always-free tier supports mobile push notifications, email delivery, and cross-service messaging for event-driven architectures.

1M publishes 100K HTTP deliveries Always free

How to Avoid Surprise Charges

The Free Tier is generous, but it won’t warn you loudly before you exceed its limits. Charges can accumulate silently if you’re not paying attention. Here’s how to stay protected.

  • 01

    Enable Free Tier Usage Alerts

    In the AWS Billing Console, turn on Free Tier usage alerts. AWS will email you when your usage reaches 85% of any service’s free limit, giving you time to react before charges begin.

  • 02

    Set a Zero-Dollar Budget

    Create an AWS Budget with a $0.01 threshold. This acts as a trip wire — you’ll get an immediate notification the moment any charge appears on your account, no matter how small.

  • 03

    Check the Billing Dashboard Weekly

    Make it a habit to review the Free Tier usage section in the Billing Console. It shows your current consumption against each service’s limit in an easy-to-read bar chart format.

  • 04

    Terminate Resources You’re Not Using

    Idle EC2 instances, unattached EBS volumes, and forgotten load balancers are the most common sources of unexpected charges. If you’re done experimenting, clean up immediately.

  • 05

    Know Your 12-Month Expiration Date

    Mark the anniversary of your AWS account creation on your calendar. When the 12-month window closes, services like EC2 and S3 will start billing at standard rates without any warning.

Pro tip

Combine Lambda (always free) with DynamoDB (always free) to build lightweight APIs and microservices that will genuinely cost you nothing — even after your 12-month window expires.

Final Thoughts

The AWS Free Tier is more than a marketing tool — it’s a legitimate platform for learning, prototyping, and even running small production workloads. The key is understanding which category each service falls into, knowing your limits, and setting up alerts so you’re never caught off guard.

Start with EC2 and S3 for the basics, pair Lambda with DynamoDB for serverless experiments, and always set a billing alert before you provision anything. That simple discipline will let you explore AWS freely and fearlessly.

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