AWS Free Tier: What’s Included and How to Get Started

AWS Free Tier: What’s Included and How to Get Started

AWS offers a Free Tier designed to help new customers get started with cloud services without incurring costs. The AWS Free Tier provides access to a limited set of AWS resources, allowing developers, startups, and enterprises to experiment, build, and test their applications without worrying about the initial financial investment.

The Free Tier is ideal for learning, proof-of-concept development, and exploring AWS services. However, it's important to understand the specific resources and limits that are part of the Free Tier, as well as any associated charges for usage beyond the free limits.

In this article, we will explain the key services included in the AWS Free Tier, their usage limits, and how you can get started with AWS’s free offerings.

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What Is the AWS Free Tier?

The AWS Free Tier is a collection of services and resources offered by AWS for free, under specific usage limits. It helps new users familiarize themselves with AWS products without financial commitment. The Free Tier includes services that are fully free, some with limited usage, and others with a 12-month free offer that expires after your first year.

There are three primary categories of the AWS Free Tier:

1. Always Free: These services are free for an unlimited period, as long as usage stays within the limits.
2. 12-Month Free: These services are free for the first 12 months after signing up for AWS.
3. Trials: These are short-term promotional offers, free for a limited time, to give users an opportunity to try out specific services.

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Key AWS Services in the Free Tier

Here’s a breakdown of some of the most commonly used AWS services available in the Free Tier, along with their usage limits:

1. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Amazon EC2 allows users to launch virtual servers, known as instances, to run applications on the cloud.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 750 hours of t2.micro or t3.micro instances per month (for 12 months).
  • This is sufficient to run one EC2 instance full-time throughout the month.
• Use Case: Ideal for testing, developing small applications, or running low-traffic websites.

2. Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Amazon S3 is an object storage service for storing and retrieving data.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 5 GB of standard storage.
  • 20,000 GET requests and 2,000 PUT requests per month.
• Use Case: Perfect for storing backups, static files, and media content for websites and applications.

3. Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)

Amazon RDS makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 750 hours of db.t2.micro instances per month (for 12 months).
  • 20 GB of database storage and 20 GB for backups.
• Use Case: Great for hosting databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MariaDB for small projects or testing.

4. AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 1 million free requests per month.
  • 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time per month.
• Use Case: Ideal for event-driven applications, serverless architectures, and backend processing.

5. Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 25 GB of storage.
  • Up to 200 million requests per month (25 write capacity units and 25 read capacity units).
• Use Case: Excellent for applications requiring fast and scalable NoSQL database solutions, such as mobile apps and gaming backends.

6. Amazon CloudFront

Amazon CloudFront is a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for delivering data globally.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 50 GB of data transfer out and 2 million HTTP/HTTPS requests per month (for 12 months).
• Use Case: Great for caching and delivering static content like images, videos, and scripts with low latency.

7. Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)

Amazon SNS is a fully managed messaging service for sending notifications.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 1 million mobile push notifications.
  • 1,000 email notifications.
• Use Case: Ideal for sending notifications for mobile apps, application alerts, or event-driven workflows.

8. AWS CloudWatch

AWS CloudWatch monitors resources and applications, providing observability and operational insights.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 10 custom metrics and 10 alarms.
  • 1,000,000 API requests per month.
• Use Case: Useful for monitoring infrastructure, tracking application performance, and setting up automatic alarms.

9. Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Elastic Load Balancing distributes incoming traffic across multiple resources to ensure high availability.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 750 hours per month of Classic Load Balancer (CLB) usage (for 12 months).
  • 15 GB of data processing per month.
• Use Case: Perfect for balancing traffic for web applications, APIs, and microservices.

10. AWS CodeBuild

AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed build service to compile source code, run tests, and produce artifacts.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • 100 build minutes per month.
• Use Case: Ideal for automating the build and test phases in a CI/CD pipeline.

11. AWS Elastic Beanstalk

AWS Elastic Beanstalk is an easy-to-use service for deploying and managing applications.

• Free Tier Offer:
  • Usage is based on underlying AWS resources (e.g., EC2, RDS, S3). There is no specific Free Tier for Elastic Beanstalk itself.
• Use Case: Useful for deploying applications in Java, .NET, Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and more.

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How to Get Started with AWS Free Tier

1. Create an AWS Account: If you don’t have one, go to the AWS website and sign up for an account. You’ll be asked for your billing details, but you won’t be charged unless you exceed the Free Tier limits.

2. Select Services to Use: After creating your account, you can start using AWS services from the Free Tier. You can use the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI to provision resources.

3. Monitor Your Usage: AWS provides tools like AWS Budgets and AWS Cost Explorer to help you monitor your usage and stay within the Free Tier limits. AWS also sends notifications when you approach the Free Tier limits.

4. Understand Usage Limits: Be mindful of the usage limits for each service, as exceeding them may result in charges. Always check the specific Free Tier offering for each service to ensure you stay within the free limits.

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Important Considerations

• 12-Month Free Tier: Some AWS services are free only for the first 12 months after account creation. Once this period ends, you'll be charged at standard rates for those services.
• Always Free: Many services, such as Amazon DynamoDB, AWS Lambda, and Amazon S3, offer free usage with no expiration. However, the free usage is subject to certain limits, so monitor usage carefully.
• Trial Services: Some services offer a free trial period, and once the trial ends, regular charges apply.

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Conclusion

The AWS Free Tier is an excellent way to start exploring and experimenting with AWS cloud services. Whether you are a developer learning the platform, a startup building your first application, or an enterprise testing cloud services, the Free Tier offers a risk-free way to get started.

With services like Amazon EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, and more, AWS provides a wide range of tools to help you build scalable applications, manage data, and create high-performance solutions—all for free within the service limits. Just remember to monitor your usage to avoid unexpected charges and take full advantage of the Free Tier’s offerings.

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