What is the AWS Free Tier?
The AWS Free Tier is a program offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to access a limited amount of AWS services for free. It is designed to give users the opportunity to explore and experiment with AWS services without incurring any charges. The Free Tier is available to new AWS customers and is valid for 12 months from the date of sign-up.
Here are some technical details about the AWS Free Tier:
- Eligibility:
- The Free Tier is available to new AWS customers only.
- It is applicable to customers worldwide.
- Duration:
- The Free Tier benefits are available for 12 months from the date of signing up for an AWS account.
- After 12 months, or if your application use exceeds the tiers, you simply pay standard, pay-as-you-go service rates.
- Services Covered:
- The Free Tier covers a wide range of AWS services, including but not limited to Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud), Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service), and many more.
- Each service has its own limitations and restrictions in the Free Tier.
- Usage Limits:
- The Free Tier provides specific usage limits for each service, such as a certain number of hours of EC2 usage, amount of data transfer in Amazon S3, or number of requests in Amazon DynamoDB.
- If your usage exceeds these limits, you will be billed at the standard pay-as-you-go rates for the additional usage.
- Monitoring Usage:
- AWS provides tools and dashboards to monitor your usage and understand how much of your Free Tier usage has been consumed.
- Users can set up billing alerts to be notified when their usage approaches the Free Tier limits.
- Automatic Account Shutdown:
- To prevent unintended charges, AWS may automatically shut down resources if your Free Tier usage exceeds certain limits.
- Educational and Developmental Use:
- The Free Tier is ideal for educational purposes, personal projects, and development environments.