AWS Free Tier Limits: What’s Free, Usage Limits & Charges
If you are trying to work out how much AWS you can actually use for free, there is no single number to check. AWS Free Tier limits depend on your account plan, available credits, the services you use, and any monthly free allowances attached to them. The rules also changed on July 15, 2025, which is why older guides still mention 12-month benefits while accounts created on or after that date follow the current credit-based model.
At Stormit, we find it more useful to separate these limits rather than treat the Free Tier as one offer. This guide answers four practical questions:
- What is the limit?
- Who does it apply to?
- How long does it apply?
- What happens when you reach it?
It also breaks down commonly used AWS services and shows where charges can still appear.
Quick summary
- There is no single AWS Free Tier limit. For accounts created on or after July 15, 2025, the Free plan lasts up to six months or until Free Tier credits run out, whichever comes first.
- New AWS customers receive $100 in credits and can earn up to another $100 through eligible activities. Credits expire 12 months after account creation and can still be used if you upgrade to Paid after the Free plan ends.
- AWS Free Tier usage limits vary by service. AWS Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB have recurring monthly allowances, while Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, and Amazon RDS primarily use Free Tier credits for new accounts.
- If a Free plan account reaches the six-month limit or runs out of credits, AWS closes the account unless you upgrade. On the Paid plan, usage not covered by allowances or credits is billed at standard rates.
AWS Free Tier limits at a glance
| Limit type | Limit | Who gets it? | Duration | What does this mean? |
| Free plan | 6 months or until credits run out | New customers who choose the Free plan | Until credits run out or 6 months pass, whichever comes first | Account closes unless you upgrade to the Paid plan |
| Free Tier credits | $100 at sign-up + up to $100 more through eligible activities | New AWS customers | Valid for 12 months from account creation; the Free plan lasts up to 6 months | Free plan: upgrade to Paid to use any credits left when the plan ends. Paid plan: AWS automatically applies remaining credits to eligible charges until they expire. |
| Always Free allowance | Service-specific monthly allowance | Customers using eligible AWS services | Renews monthly | Extra eligible activity is covered by Free Tier credits. Free plan: the account closes when credits run out. Paid plan: standard pricing applies after credits are exhausted. |
| Legacy 12-month Free Tier | Service-specific monthly allowances | Accounts created before July 15, 2025 | 12 months from account creation | No longer available; the 12-month benefits have expired |
The AWS Free Tier time limit therefore depends on whether you mean the plan, the credits, or a service allowance.
💡 Good to know: Before July 15, 2025, selected AWS services offered 12-month introductory Free Tier benefits. Those benefits have now expired.
How AWS Free Tier limits work in 2026
At Stormit, we break down AWS Free Tier account limits across the account plan, credits, and service-level allowances, making the different AWS free limits easier to compare. AWS documents the current rules in its AWS Free Tier FAQs.
Free plan vs. Paid plan
The Free plan lasts up to six months and ends sooner if your credits run out. It doesn’t automatically switch to Paid. If you don’t upgrade, AWS closes your account.
If you upgrade to the Paid plan, AWS automatically applies any remaining Free Tier credits to eligible charges until they expire 12 months after account creation. Monthly free allowances still apply, but you pay standard rates for usage they or your credits don’t cover.
💡 Good to know: Creating or joining an AWS Organization, or setting up an AWS Control Tower landing zone, moves a Free account to the Paid plan and expires any remaining Free Tier credits.
AWS Free Tier credits
Credits are a dollar balance, not a usage allowance. New customers receive $100 at sign-up and can earn up to another $100 through eligible Explore AWS activities. AWS Free Tier usage limits, by contrast, are service-specific allowances measured in requests, storage, compute, or another usage unit.
Always Free monthly limits
More than 30 AWS services provide recurring monthly free usage. Extra eligible usage can consume available credits; on the Paid plan, standard pricing applies after both the allowance and credits are exhausted.
Is AWS Free Tier 6 months or 12 months?
For current accounts, the answer is 6 months for the Free plan and 12 months for Free Tier credits. This is why older guides describing a 12-month Free Tier no longer apply to new accounts.
Older guides may describe the legacy model for accounts created before July 15, 2025. Those benefits have expired.
💡 The simplest way to remember it: The Free plan lasts up to 6 months, while credits expire 12 months after account creation. Upgrade to Paid to use any credits left when the Free plan ends. Always Free allowances renew monthly.
AWS Free Tier limits by service
| AWS service | What is free? | Who does it apply to? | How long does it apply? | What happens at the limit? |
| Amazon S3 | Eligible usage can consume Free Tier credits | New customers with eligible credits | Free plan: up to 6 months; credits: up to 12 months | Free plan: the account closes when credits run out. Paid plan: standard pricing applies after credits are exhausted. |
| Amazon EC2 | Eligible instance types can consume Free Tier credits | New accounts using eligible instance types | Free plan: up to 6 months; credits: up to 12 months | Free plan: the account closes when credits run out. Paid plan: standard pricing applies after credits are exhausted. |
| AWS Lambda | 1 million requests + 400,000 GB-seconds | Eligible AWS customers | Monthly | Extra eligible usage uses available credits. On the Paid plan, standard pricing applies after credits run out. |
| Amazon DynamoDB | 25 GB storage + 25 provisioned WCUs + 25 provisioned RCUs | Customers using DynamoDB Standard tables (storage in both capacity modes; WCUs and RCUs in provisioned capacity mode only) | Monthly | Extra eligible usage uses available credits. On the Paid plan, standard pricing applies after credits run out. |
| Amazon RDS | Eligible database usage can consume Free Tier credits | New accounts using eligible configurations | Free plan: up to 6 months; credits: up to 12 months | Free plan: the account closes when credits run out. Paid plan: standard pricing applies after credits are exhausted. |
Amazon S3 Free Tier limits
For current accounts, Amazon S3 Free Tier limits are primarily credit-based. Amazon S3 can charge separately for storage, requests, retrievals, lifecycle operations, and data transfer.
The legacy offer included 5 GB of S3 Standard storage, 20,000 GET requests, and 2,000 PUT requests monthly for 12 months; it has expired.
As storage grows, storage class matters more. See our guide to Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering.
Amazon EC2 Free Tier limits
For new accounts, Amazon EC2 Free Tier limits use credits and eligible instance types rather than the old 750-hour allowance. Eligible types include T3 (t3.micro, t3.small), T4g (t4g.micro, t4g.small), C7i-flex (c7i-flex.large), and M7i-flex (m7i-flex.large).
Amazon EBS volumes, snapshots, and public IPv4 addresses can have separate pricing.
Stopping an eligible EC2 instance ends compute usage, but attached EBS volumes and retained snapshots can still consume credits or incur storage charges.
For workloads that do not need to run continuously, see our guide to AWS Instance Scheduler.
AWS Lambda Free Tier limits
The AWS Lambda Free Tier limits include 1 million requests and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time per month. These are separate allowances, so a function can stay below one while exceeding the other.
For example, 500,000 requests stay below the request limit, but longer runtimes or higher memory can still exceed 400,000 GB-seconds.
Amazon DynamoDB Free Tier limits
The Amazon DynamoDB Free Tier limits include 25 GB of storage for DynamoDB Standard tables, plus 25 write capacity units (WCUs) and 25 read capacity units (RCUs) of provisioned capacity, per Region and payer account.
The storage allowance applies in both capacity modes. The WCU and RCU allowances only cover tables in provisioned capacity mode, so reads and writes on on-demand tables are billed per request.
Table class, backups, replication, and additional features can still affect cost.
Amazon RDS Free Tier limits
For new accounts, Amazon RDS Free Tier limits use Free Tier credits. Supported classes are T3 (db.t3.micro) for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition, and T4g (db.t4g.micro) for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MariaDB.
The legacy offer included 750 instance hours, 20 GB of General Purpose SSD storage, and 20 GB of automated backup storage per month for 12 months. It has expired.
At Stormit, we would also check storage, backups, snapshots, public IPv4 addresses, and data transfer. A retained manual snapshot can still add cost after the database is deleted.
See our guides to Amazon RDS pricing and Amazon RDS cost optimization.
What is the AWS Free Tier data transfer limit?
The AWS Free Tier data transfer limit includes 100 GB out to the internet per month, aggregated across applicable AWS services and Regions, excluding China and AWS GovCloud Regions.
It is a shared monthly allowance, not 100 GB per service or Region. Cross-Region, Availability Zone, and specialized networking traffic can have different pricing.
See our guide to AWS data transfer pricing. For content-delivery workloads, our Amazon CloudFront pricing guide covers another part of the network cost model.
What happens when you reach an AWS Free Tier limit?
If you are wondering what happens after the AWS Free Tier expires or when a usage limit is reached, the outcome depends on which limit you reached.
If you reach a monthly Always Free limit
Additional eligible usage can consume Free Tier credits. On the Paid plan, standard pricing applies once neither the allowance nor credits cover it.
If you use up your Free Tier credits
On the Free plan, using all credits ends the plan even if six months have not passed. AWS closes the account unless you upgrade.
On the Paid plan, the account stays active and standard charges can apply to usage no longer covered by a free allowance or credits.
If your 6-month Free plan expires
After six months, the Free plan does not automatically switch to Paid. AWS closes the account unless you upgrade. On Paid, any remaining credits are automatically applied to eligible charges until they expire 12 months after account creation.
You have 90 days to upgrade and restore access before AWS permanently deletes the account and its content. This recovery period does not extend the Free plan.
The practical sequence is: monthly limit reached → check credits; credits exhausted → check plan; Free plan expired → upgrade or the account closes.
How to monitor AWS Free Tier usage and avoid charges
To prevent AWS Free Tier charges, track plan expiration, credit balance, service-level usage, and active resources separately. AWS explains the available options in its Free Tier usage documentation.
- Check the Free plan expiration date and credit balance. Use the Cost and Usage widget on the AWS Management Console home page.
- Open the Free Tier page in Billing and Cost Management. Review current-month service-level usage.
- Check the Credits page on the Paid plan. Confirm the remaining balance and expiration date.
- Keep Free Tier usage alerts enabled and create an AWS Budget. AWS sends an email when usage exceeds 85% of an applicable Free Tier limit. AWS Organizations management accounts must opt in to these alerts; a zero-spend budget adds another warning layer.
- Review every Region you have used. Forgotten resources can keep consuming credits or generating charges.
- Remove unused resources. Check EC2 instances, EBS volumes and snapshots, RDS databases and snapshots, load balancers, public IPv4 addresses, and other persistent resources.
💡 Practical example: A forgotten RDS database, EBS volume, or snapshot in another Region can keep consuming credits or generating charges.
Beyond the Free Tier: keeping AWS costs under control
Free Tier limits are useful for learning and prototypes. Beyond them, ask whether the architecture still makes financial sense without temporary credits or allowances.
At Stormit, that means reviewing resource sizing, idle infrastructure, storage, data transfer, and commitment-based discounts.
📖 For a broader look at what matters once Free Tier limits stop being the main constraint, see our guide to AWS cloud cost optimization strategies and tools.
Once a workload moves beyond the Free Tier, we can review your AWS environment, pinpoint avoidable cost drivers, and prioritize changes that can reduce spend without compromising performance or reliability.
FAQs
There is no single limit. It can refer to the six-month Free plan, available Free Tier credits, or a service-specific monthly allowance.
If the Free plan expires, AWS closes the account unless you upgrade. AWS retains the content for 90 days, giving you time to upgrade and restore access.
The Free plan does. It ends after six months or when credits run out, whichever comes first. Credits expire 12 months after account creation and can still be used if you upgrade to Paid.
Accounts created before July 15, 2025 used the legacy model, where selected services offered 12-month introductory allowances. Those periods have now expired.
Yes, on the Paid plan. AWS charges after the Free Tier can apply when usage is not covered by a monthly allowance or eligible credits.
Monitor the plan, credit balance, service-level usage, and active resources. Use AWS Billing and Cost Management, budgets and usage notifications, and remove unused resources.
Conclusion
There is no universal AWS Free Tier limit. For current accounts, the key rules are up to six months for the Free plan, 12 months for Free Tier credits, and separate monthly limits for Always Free services.
Before keeping a resource running, check which limit applies, what the service bills for, and what happens when it runs out.
A Cloud Engineer with hands-on experience in supporting the design, implementation, and optimization of AWS cloud infrastructures. At Stormit he contributes to customer projects across the cloud lifecycle assisting with architecture implementation, cloud migration support, monitoring, automation, and cost optimization initiatives while working closely with senior architects to deliver secure, scalable, and well-architected AWS solutions.
