Program

AWS Free Tier credits

Every new AWS account can earn up to $200 in credits: $100 at sign-up and up to $100 more for trying core services. Small, but instant.

AWS Free Tier credits is for anyone opening a new AWS account. Up to $200.

Credits: $100 at sign-up + up to $100 for activities
Who: New AWS accounts
Plan: Free plan or paid plan
Application: None, automatic

At a glance

Credits: $100–$200
Decision time: Immediate. The USD 100 sign-up credit appears on account creation. Activity credits appear within about 10 minutes (launch blog) to 30 minutes (FAQ).
Credits last: CONFLICTING OFFICIAL STATEMENTS. Free Tier Terms (Jul 9, 2025) and the July 2025 launch blog: credits expire 12 months after the account is opened. The current FAQ (changed between 2026-08-25 and 2026-10-04) says in General Q6 and Advanced Features Q2 that credits expire 6 months after account creation, but still says 12 months in Paid Plan Q8 and for activity credits (Earning Q5). The Free plan itself ends after 6 months or when credits run out, whichever comes first.
Access: Open application

Official application page

01 · Overview

A good fit if you are

Founders testing AWS for the first time
Side projects and prototypes
Anyone before applying to Activate

Not for

Existing AWS accounts
Production workloads with real traffic

Timeline and terms

Application window: Automatic at sign-up for new AWS customers. Activity credits must be earned within 6 months of opening the account, by each activity's complete-by date.
Decision time: Immediate. The USD 100 sign-up credit appears on account creation. Activity credits appear within about 10 minutes (launch blog) to 30 minutes (FAQ).
Program length: Free plan: up to 6 months (no extension). After it ends, there are 90 days to upgrade to a Paid plan before the account and data are permanently deleted.
Credit validity: CONFLICTING OFFICIAL STATEMENTS. Free Tier Terms (Jul 9, 2025) and the July 2025 launch blog: credits expire 12 months after the account is opened. The current FAQ (changed between 2026-08-25 and 2026-10-04) says in General Q6 and Advanced Features Q2 that credits expire 6 months after account creation, but still says 12 months in Paid Plan Q8 and for activity credits (Earning Q5). The Free plan itself ends after 6 months or when credits run out, whichever comes first.
Where: All commercial AWS Regions; usage is calculated across regions. Not available in AWS GovCloud (US) (with exceptions) or the China Regions.

USD 100 in credits at sign-up, on either the Free or the Paid plan. Up to USD 100 more can be earned (USD 20 each) by completing 5 console activities: launch an EC2 instance, create an RDS database, build a Lambda web app, use a model in the Bedrock playground, and set up an AWS Budgets cost budget. Separately, more than 30 'Always Free' services have monthly free usage limits.

What changed recently

2026-09-16
New simplified sign-up experience (rolling out to a limited set of new customers): sign in with Google, GitHub, Apple or Amazon; projects with per-project monthly spend limits from USD 20 on the Paid plan; 'advanced features' activation. Accounts on the new sign-up can't use AWS Marketplace or Savings Plans, join the AWS Partner Network, or earn extra AWS Activate credits until advanced features are activated. The AWS blog says new customers get USD 100 in Free Tier credits; the What's New post says up to USD 200. Source
2026-08-25 to 2026-10-04 (between Wayback snapshot and the live page)
FAQ partly rewritten: General Q6 now says credits expire 6 months from account creation (previously 12 months), and Advanced Features and spend-limit sections were added. Other answers and the Terms still say 12 months. Source
2026-02-16
Other AWS programs started excluding Free Tier plan accounts (for example AWS Cloud Credit for Research: 'Effective February 16, 2026, Free Tier accounts will be ineligible for promotional credits'). Source
2025-07-15
Free Tier changed from the 12-month free-usage model to a credit-based model: USD 100 at sign-up plus up to USD 100 earned through activities, with a Free plan (6 months, no charges) or a Paid plan. Earlier accounts keep the legacy Free Tier. Source

02 · Eligibility

Hard eligibility rules

You must

New AWS customer: you must not have, or have previously had, an AWS account
Only one account per customer can receive Free Tier credits
Activity credits: complete the activities within 6 months of opening the account and before joining an AWS Organization or setting up a Control Tower landing zone
A payment method isn't required for most new customers (AWS may request one for identity verification)

Excluded

Existing or previous AWS customers
Accounts created before 2025-07-15 (legacy 12-month Free Tier instead)
Free plan accounts are excluded from all other promotional credits and incentive offers, including AWS Activate, until they upgrade
AWS GovCloud (US) Regions (except certain services such as Lambda) and China (Beijing/Ningxia) Regions
Earning further activity credits once you join AWS Organizations, set up Control Tower or activate advanced features

Have this ready before you apply

Email address (or a Google, GitHub, Apple or Amazon identity in the new sign-up experience)
Phone verification and, in some cases, a payment method for identity verification
Choice of Free plan or Paid plan at sign-up
Payment method when upgrading to the Paid plan

03 · How to apply

How to apply

1
Create a new AWS account.
2
Choose the free or paid plan.
3
Complete the suggested activities in the console to unlock the extra credits.

What catches founders out

On the free plan the account closes when credits or the plan period run out unless you upgrade.
Activate Founders needs a paid plan, so upgrade before applying.

What founders report Show

Summarised from public founder posts. Anecdotal, not official AWS policy.

Why applications get rejected

Sign-up blocked with 'not eligible for the free plan' even with a new email address; posters believe AWS matched other identity or payment details to a previous account

Approval times reported

Sign-up credit visible immediately after account creation (several posts)

Gotchas

Joining an AWS Organization or setting up IAM Identity Center automatically upgrades a Free plan to Paid, and ends eligibility for activity credits. Users say this isn't obvious
Hackathon participants found they couldn't use event credits because their Free plan had ended or Free plan accounts were ineligible
Confusion over whether Free plan expiry affects AWS Certification access (it relates to the AWS account, not the certification profile)
Users are unsure whether credits carry over after upgrading to Paid; per AWS they do, until expiry
Some new Free plan accounts got stuck in a 'complete your account setup' redirect loop
Legacy t2.micro '750 hours' expectations don't apply to new credit-based accounts

04 · Credits & stacking

What the credits cover

Covered

Free plan: a subset of services (AWS page: 'over 90 services'), excluding services that could quickly use up the credits and hardware purchases
Paid plan: all eligible AWS services; credits apply automatically, and usage beyond them is billed on demand
Always Free allowances (30+ services) on both plans
Short-term service trials (Paid plan only)

Not covered

Amazon Mechanical Turk
AWS Managed Services
Ineligible AWS Support (Enterprise, Unified Operations, Enterprise On-Ramp, resold support, Partner-Led Support)
AWS Marketplace
AWS Professional Services
AWS Training
AWS Certification
Amazon Route 53 domain name registration or transfer
Services used for cryptocurrency mining
Upfront fees for Savings Plans and Reserved Instances
Any other services designated by your AWS contracting entity
On the Free plan: Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, certain AWS Marketplace offers, hardware purchases and other 'paid-plan exclusive' services (for example Amazon Bedrock AgentCore)

Stacking with other credits

Can combine with

Always Free allowances and short-term trials (Paid plan)
Other AWS promotional credits, but only on a Paid plan (the Free plan comparison table marks Promotional Credits as 'Eligible' for Paid plans)

Can't combine with

Free plan accounts can't receive any other promotional credits or incentives (for example AWS Activate, event codes, Cloud Credit for Research)
Free Tier Terms: 'Free Tier Credits may not be used in conjunction with any other promotional or incentive offer from us or our affiliates'. This seems to conflict with the Paid-plan 'Eligible' marking; how the two apply together isn't explained
Free Tier credits on more than one account

Lifetime cap: USD 200 maximum per customer, once (new customers only, one account). An AWS Organization benefits from Offers from only one account.

05 · Alternatives

If this isn't the right program

AWS Activate Founders
Open all year, apply yourself for $1,000 to $5,000.
AWS Activate Portfolio
Up to $200,000 through an accelerator, angel or VC.

Sources

AWS Free Tier

Checked October 2026. AWS can change amounts and rules at any time.

Facts on this page checked against official sources on 2026-10-04.

Questions

Can I get Free Tier credits and Activate?

Yes. Free Tier credits come with the account; Activate is a separate application.

Do I need a card?

Yes, AWS asks for a payment method when you sign up.

Prices and credit amounts are estimates and may change. Check AWS for current terms.