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What is the AWS Free Tier, and what services are included?

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Here is a technical breakdown of the AWS Free Tier:

  1. Duration:
    • The AWS Free Tier is available for 12 months from the date of sign-up. After the 12-month period or if your application use exceeds the tiers, you pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates.
  2. Services:
    • The AWS Free Tier includes a selection of AWS services across various categories. Some of the commonly included services are:
      • Compute Services:
        • Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): Provides scalable compute capacity in the cloud.
        • AWS Lambda: Allows you to run code without provisioning or managing servers.
      • Storage Services:
        • Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service): Offers scalable object storage for storing and retrieving data.
        • Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service): Provides managed relational databases.
      • Data and Analytics:
        • Amazon DynamoDB: A fully managed NoSQL database service.
        • Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service): Enables the sending of messages and notifications.
      • Networking:
        • Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): Lets you provision a logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud.
        • AWS CloudFront: A content delivery network (CDN) service for securely delivering data.
      • Other Services:
        • AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Manages access to AWS services and resources securely.
  3. Usage Limits:
    • The AWS Free Tier comes with specific usage limits for each service. Once you exceed these limits or the 12-month period expires, standard AWS rates will apply.
  4. Monitoring:
    • AWS provides monitoring tools, such as AWS CloudWatch, which allows users to track their usage and stay within the free tier limits.
  5. Terms and Conditions:
    • Users need to adhere to the terms and conditions of the AWS Free Tier, and it's essential to understand the specific limitations and restrictions for each service.
  6. Renewal and Billing:
    • After the 12-month period, or if your application use exceeds the tiers, you will be billed at standard rates for any additional usage.