AWS Free Tier Explained: How to Use It Without Overspending
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most widely used cloud platforms in the world, and for new users, the AWS Free Tier is an excellent way to explore services without immediate cost. However, many users unknowingly exceed free usage limits and incur unexpected charges. To avoid this, it is essential to understand what the AWS Free Tier includes, how long it lasts, and best practices to use it wisely.
This guide provides a detailed breakdown of the AWS Free Tier, what services are included, limitations, and strategies to prevent overspending.
What is the AWS Free Tier?
The AWS Free Tier is a cost-free offering designed to help users learn, build, and test applications on AWS at no initial cost. It includes three types of offers:
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12-Month Free Tier: Valid for the first 12 months after account creation
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Always Free: Services that remain free forever up to certain limits
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Trials: Short-term free trials that activate when you use a service for the first time
The Free Tier is ideal for students, developers, startups, and businesses trying AWS before committing to full usage.
What Services Are Included in the AWS Free Tier?
Below are the most popular services under the Free Tier and their monthly limits.
Compute and Containers
| Service | Free Tier Limit | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon EC2 | 750 hours per month of t2.micro or t3.micro | 12 months |
| AWS Lambda | 1 million requests and 400,000 GB-seconds compute time | Always free |
| Amazon Lightsail | First 3 months: 750 hours of small instance | 3 months |
| Elastic Container Registry | 500 MB storage | Always free |
Storage and Databases
| Service | Free Tier Limit | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 | 5 GB storage, 20,000 GET, 2,000 PUT requests | 12 months |
| Amazon RDS | 750 hours db.t2.micro or db.t3.micro, 20 GB storage | 12 months |
| DynamoDB | 25 GB storage, 200M requests | Always free |
| Amazon EFS | 5 GB storage | 12 months |
Networking and Delivery
| Service | Free Tier Limit | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon CloudFront | 1 TB data transfer out | 12 months |
| Amazon Route 53 | Not part of Free Tier | Not applicable |
Security and Management
| Service | Free Tier Limit | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| AWS IAM | Unlimited users and roles | Always free |
| CloudWatch | 10 custom metrics, 5GB logs | Always free |
These limits reset monthly, but unused units do not carry over to the next month.
Common Reasons People Accidentally Get Charged
Many new AWS users overspend because they misunderstand limits or forget to shut down services. The most frequent causes of unexpected billing include:
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Leaving EC2 instances running 24×7 beyond Free Tier hours
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Storing more than 5 GB in S3 or using the wrong storage class
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Using paid services not included in the Free Tier
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Data transfer charges for outbound traffic beyond free limits
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Creating multiple accounts and forgetting old resources running
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Running databases with larger storage or higher instance classes
Knowing what is and is not free can help avoid surprise charges.
Best Practices to Use AWS Free Tier Safely
Follow these strategies to enjoy the Free Tier without overspending.
1. Use the AWS Free Tier Dashboard
AWS provides a dedicated Free Tier usage tracking dashboard to monitor how much of your free quota is consumed. It displays service-by-service usage and alerts if you are close to limits.
2. Enable Billing Alerts and Budgets
Set budgets and alerts in AWS Billing to notify you when you approach cost thresholds. Configure monthly budget alerts for both cost and usage.
Recommended alerts to enable:
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Free Tier usage alerts
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Monthly cost threshold alerts
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Forecasted billing alerts
3. Stop or Terminate Resources When Not Needed
Shut down or delete the following if not in use:
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EC2 instances and EBS volumes
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RDS databases
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Load Balancers
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NAT gateways
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Any unused storage and snapshots
A stopped instance may still incur storage charges, so delete volumes when safe.
4. Choose Only Free-Tier Eligible Options
AWS offers Free Tier eligible options for certain services. Look for the “Free Tier Eligible” label when launching resources.
For example:
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Choose t2.micro or t3.micro for EC2, not m5.large or t2.medium
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Select db.t2.micro or db.t3.micro when setting up RDS
5. Be Careful with Data Transfer
Inbound traffic to AWS is free, but outbound data to the internet is limited. Avoid heavy streaming or public downloads if using Amazon S3 and CloudFront.
6. Use Serverless Architectures Where Possible
Serverless services like Lambda, DynamoDB, and API Gateway offer generous free tiers and scale automatically. Use serverless for cost efficiency.
Examples of Projects You Can Build Free
You can build several useful projects using only the Free Tier without incurring charges:
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A simple website hosted on S3 and CloudFront
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A serverless API using API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB
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A WordPress blog using EC2 Free Tier
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A small practice database on RDS
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A container app using ECS with Fargate Free Tier trial credits
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A portfolio application hosted on Amplify
These allow learning hands-on cloud development without investment.
What Happens After 12 Months?
Once the 12-month Free Tier expires:
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Your account continues, but regular billing applies
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Always free services remain free up to their limits
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You must remove unwanted resources to avoid charges
If you want to continue without costs, switch workloads to Always Free services only.
Final Thoughts
The AWS Free Tier provides an excellent opportunity to learn cloud computing, test services, and build applications at zero cost. However, it must be used carefully to avoid accidental spending. By tracking usage, enabling billing alerts, using Free Tier eligible resources, and understanding limits, you can safely experiment with AWS without incurring unexpected charges.
Use the Free Tier as a learning tool, evaluate services, build prototypes, and once your application grows, scale gradually into paid tiers.
