AWS Has Replaced Its Free Tier — Here's How the New Credit-Based System Works (2025 Guide)

If you've been learning AWS with the old Free Tier, you might've missed the quiet but critical shift: Amazon Web Services officially replaced its 12-month Free Tier with a new credit-based model as of early 2025.

This isn't just a tweak — it's a strategic overhaul. The goal? Reduce abuse, improve monetization, and better align free access with real-world learning needs.

But don't panic. The new system still offers generous access — if you know how to use it.

In this guide, we'll break down:

How the new AWS Free and Paid plans differ
Who qualifies for signup credits
Which plan to choose based on your goals
Pro tips to avoid unexpected charges

Whether you're studying for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, building a personal project, or evaluating AWS for your team — this is essential reading.

🔍 The Two New Paths: Free Plan vs Paid Plan

AWS now offers two distinct tiers for new users. Understanding the difference is crucial to avoiding surprises down the road.

Free Plan

The Free Plan is designed as a risk-free sandbox for learners and explorers. Here's what you get:

Duration: Up to 6 months or until your signup credits expire (whichever comes first)
Cost: \$0 while you remain on the plan
Service Access: Core AWS services with strict limits on instance types, storage, and features
What Happens After: Your account doesn't disappear, but you'll need to upgrade to Paid within a grace window (typically 7-14 days) to retain your data and configurations

Best for: AWS beginners, certification students (Cloud Practitioner, Solutions Architect Associate), anyone exploring AWS basics without billing risk.

Paid Plan

The Paid Plan removes most restrictions and gives you the full AWS experience:

Duration: No automatic expiration
Cost: Free while you have signup credits; pay-as-you-go once credits are exhausted
Service Access: Nearly all AWS services with time-limited trials (e.g., 12 months of Lightsail, 30 days of Redshift)
Flexibility: Build complex, multi-service architectures without feature restrictions

Best for: Developers building capstone projects, teams evaluating AWS for production, anyone needing continuity beyond 6 months.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Free Plan	Paid Plan
Duration	6 months max	No expiry
Signup Credits	Yes (new customers only)	Yes (same credits)
Service Limits	Strict (limited EC2 types, RDS engines, etc.)	Full access with trial periods
Billing	\$0 until plan ends	Pay after credits run out
Data Continuity	Must upgrade within grace period	Always accessible
Ideal Use Case	Learning, certification prep	Production testing, complex labs

💡 Key Insight: The Free Plan isn't a permanent free tier—it's a time-bound learning environment. The Paid Plan is your long-term AWS home.

This is where AWS has gotten strict. Signup credits are now reserved exclusively for first-time AWS customers.

Here's what that means:

No second chances: If you've ever created an AWS account before (even years ago), you won't qualify for new signup credits
Account-bound: Credits are tied to the specific account that receives them and cannot be transferred
Verification required: You must provide a valid payment method (credit card or debit card) even for the Free Plan

Common Misconceptions

❌ "I can just create a new email and get credits again"
Reality: AWS ties accounts to payment methods, phone numbers, and other identifiers. Attempting to game the system can result in account suspension.

❌ "I can share my credits with my team"
Reality: Credits are non-transferable. Each team member needs their own eligible account.

✅ Pro Tip: If you're genuinely new to AWS in 2025, sign up now and make the most of your one-time credit allocation.

📋 What Services Can You Actually Use?

Both plans give you access to AWS's core services, but with very different boundaries.

Free Plan Service Limits

The Free Plan includes the essentials you need to learn cloud fundamentals:

Service	Monthly Free Tier Limit
Amazon EC2	750 hours of t2.micro or t3.micro instances (Linux/Windows)
Amazon S3	5 GB storage + 20,000 GET requests + 2,000 PUT requests
AWS Lambda	1 million free requests + 400,000 GB-seconds compute
Amazon RDS	750 hours of db.t3.micro (Single-AZ, limited database engines)
Amazon DynamoDB	25 GB storage + 25 write capacity units + 25 read capacity units
Amazon CloudWatch	10 custom metrics + 1 million API requests
Amazon API Gateway	1 million API calls per month
Amazon SNS	1,000 email notifications
AWS CloudFormation	1,000 handler operations per month

What's Restricted on the Free Plan?

EC2: Only t2.micro and t3.micro instances (no GPU, no high-memory instances)
RDS: Limited to specific database engines (usually MySQL and PostgreSQL only)
Elastic Load Balancing: Not included—Application Load Balancers and Network Load Balancers will consume credits quickly
Data Transfer: Limited outbound data transfer (typically 15 GB/month)

⚠️ Important: These limits are usage-based per month. If you exceed them, you'll start consuming your signup credits even on the Free Plan.

Paid Plan: Full Service Access

On the Paid Plan, you get:

All EC2 instance types (though you still pay for what you use after credits)
Full RDS engine support (Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Aurora)
Load balancers, NAT gateways, and VPC peering
Time-limited trials for premium services (e.g., 12 months of Amazon Lightsail, 2 months of Amazon WorkSpaces)

✅ Pro Tip: Always check the current service catalog on the AWS Free Tier page. AWS updates these limits monthly, and outdated blog posts can mislead you.

🎯 Which Plan Should You Choose?

Your choice depends entirely on your goals for the next 60-90 days.

Choose the Free Plan If You're:

✅ Preparing for AWS certification exams
The Free Plan gives you hands-on access to everything covered in Cloud Practitioner, Solutions Architect Associate, and Developer Associate exams—without the stress of watching a billing meter.

✅ Learning cloud fundamentals
If you're exploring IAM policies, S3 bucket configurations, Lambda functions, or basic EC2 deployments, the Free Plan is perfect.

✅ Building simple, single-service demos
Static websites on S3, serverless APIs with Lambda and API Gateway, or basic automation with CloudFormation all fit comfortably within Free Plan limits.

✅ On a strict budget
You won't see a bill as long as you stay within the service limits and time frame.

Choose the Paid Plan If You're:

✅ Building multi-service architectures
Projects that require EC2 + RDS + Load Balancers + S3 + CloudFront quickly exceed Free Plan limits.

✅ Testing production-grade configurations
High-availability setups, cross-region replication, auto-scaling groups, and VPC peering require Paid Plan access.

✅ Planning to use AWS beyond 6 months
If you need long-term access for a startup prototype, portfolio project, or ongoing learning, the Paid Plan's lack of expiration is crucial.

✅ Comfortable with basic cost controls
As long as you set up AWS Budgets, Cost Alerts, and understand the AWS Pricing Calculator, the Paid Plan gives you room to grow without artificial limits.

🛡️ 5 Ways to Avoid Surprise AWS Bills

Even on the Free Plan, you can rack up charges—especially if you leave resources running or misconfigure services. Here's how to stay safe.

1. Enable AWS Budgets (Before You Do Anything Else)

AWS Budgets let you set spending thresholds and get alerts before you exceed them.

How to set it up:

Go to AWS Billing Dashboard → Budgets → Create Budget
Choose Cost Budget
Set your budget amount (even \$0.01 works for Free Plan users)
Enable alerts for both Actual Spend and Forecasted Spend
Add your email for notifications

✅ Pro Tip: Set alerts at 50%, 80%, and 100% of your budget threshold.

2. Turn On Free Tier Usage Alerts

AWS will notify you when you're approaching your free usage limits—before you start consuming credits.

How to enable:

Go to Billing Dashboard → Billing Preferences
Check Receive Free Tier Usage Alerts
Confirm your notification email

3. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator

Before launching any resource, estimate what it will cost.

Example scenario: You want to run a t3.small EC2 instance with 20 GB EBS storage, 500 GB data transfer, and an Application Load Balancer for 30 days.

Plug these into the AWS Pricing Calculator and you'll see the monthly estimate before you commit.

4. Clean Up After Every Session

This is the #1 mistake new users make: leaving resources running.

Post-session checklist:

☑️ Stop or terminate EC2 instances (stopped instances still incur EBS storage costs)
☑️ Delete unused S3 buckets (storage + request costs add up)
☑️ Remove idle load balancers (ALBs cost \$15-20/month even if unused)
☑️ Delete EBS snapshots you don't need
☑️ Terminate RDS instances (stopped RDS instances auto-restart after 7 days)

💬 Real Story: "I thought I was on the Free Plan—but I forgot a test ALB running for 3 months. It cost me \$47." — Reddit user, r/aws

5. Use AWS Cost Explorer + Anomaly Detection

AWS Cost Explorer shows you where your money is going. Anomaly Detection uses machine learning to alert you to unusual spending patterns.

How to enable:

Go to Cost Explorer → Cost Anomaly Detection
Create a monitor for your account
Set notification preferences

🔄 What Happens When Your Free Plan Ends?

Your Free Plan account doesn't self-destruct after 6 months—but your free usage rights expire.

You Have Three Options:

Option 1: Upgrade to Paid Plan

You'll have a grace window (typically 7-14 days) to convert your account to Paid. All your data, configurations, and resources stay intact.

How to upgrade:

Log into your AWS account
Go to Billing Dashboard → Account Settings
Select Upgrade to Paid Plan
Confirm payment method

Option 2: Export Your Data and Close the Account

If you're done with AWS for now:

Export critical data (S3 downloads, database exports, CloudFormation templates)
Delete all resources to avoid residual charges
Close your account via Account Settings → Close Account

Option 3: Do Nothing (Not Recommended)

If you don't act, AWS may suspend your account. Recovering it later often requires creating a new account—which means you lose all your configurations and can't reclaim credits.

⚠️ Set a Calendar Reminder: On day 150 after signup, review your AWS usage and decide your next move.

✅ Final Verdict: Is the New System Better?

Let's be honest: the old 12-month Free Tier was simpler. But the new credit-based model is more realistic and prepares you for actual cloud usage patterns.

Pros

✅ Forces better cost awareness
You learn to monitor spending from day one—a critical skill for any cloud professional.

✅ More realistic usage patterns
The Free Plan mirrors how you'd use AWS in a production environment, just at a smaller scale.

✅ Paid Plan offers full flexibility
No artificial restrictions once you're ready to build something serious.

Cons

❌ No more 12-month safety net
The psychological comfort of "a full year to learn" is gone.

❌ No second chances
If you waste your credits or time, you can't re-qualify.

❌ Harder for educators
Setting up classroom accounts or workshop environments requires more planning.

Bottom Line

If you treat AWS like a real cloud environment—not a consequence-free playground—you'll thrive under the new model. The key is understanding the rules, setting up cost controls early, and choosing the right plan for your goals.

🚀 Your Next Steps

Ready to get started? Here's what to do:

Sign up for AWS (if you haven't already)
→ Create a Free AWS Account
Enable cost controls immediately
→ Set up AWS Budgets, Free Tier alerts, and Cost Explorer
Explore the Free Tier service catalog
→ View AWS Free Tier Details
Start building
→ Launch your first EC2 instance, create an S3 bucket, or deploy a Lambda function
Track your learning
→ Keep a log of what you build and what it costs (even if it's \$0)

💬 Join the Conversation

Are you using the new AWS Free Plan or Paid Plan? What's your biggest challenge with AWS cost control?

Drop your experience in the comments below—let's help each other avoid costly mistakes and make the most of AWS in 2025.

About TechCirrus

TechCirrus is your trusted source for cloud computing tutorials, certification guides, and practical DevOps insights. We break down complex tech topics into actionable, easy-to-understand guides.

Published: October 23, 2025
Author: TechCirrus Team
Category: Cloud Computing, AWS, DevOps
Tags: #AWSFreeTier #AWSCreditSystem #AWS2025 #CloudComputing #AWSCertification #AWSBilling #LearnAWS #CloudCostManagement

Tech Cirrus: Navigating the Cloud Frontier

Search This Blog