Amazon Web Services (AWS) Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Amazon Web Services (AWS) costs Free to $50K per month as of June 2026, with 7 plans available including a free tier. Plans: Free Tier (free), On-Demand — t3.micro at $7.59/month, On-Demand — t3.medium at $30.37/month, Business Support+ at $29/month, Enterprise Support at $5000/month, and Unified Operations at $50000/month. Enterprise pricing is available on request. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: Yes
Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers 7 pricing tiers: Free Tier, On-Demand — t3.micro, On-Demand — t3.medium, Savings Plans, Business Support+, Enterprise Support, Unified Operations. A free plan is available. Paid plans include On-Demand — t3.micro at $7.59/month, On-Demand — t3.medium at $30.37/month, Business Support+ at $29/month. The On-Demand — t3.micro plan is small workloads, development servers, and microservices.
Yes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a forever free plan as of June 2026. The free tier includes 7 features with limits on usage. Paid plans start at $7.59/month (On-Demand — t3.micro). Pricing verified from 1 sources by CostBench.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- 750 hours/month t2.micro or t3.micro EC2 instance (12 months)
- 5 GB Amazon S3 standard storage (12 months)
- 750 hours Amazon RDS db.t2.micro (12 months)
- 1 million AWS Lambda requests/month (always free)
- 25 GB DynamoDB storage (always free)
- 1 GB CloudFront data transfer/month (12 months)
- 30+ always-free services with monthly usage limits
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- 2 vCPUs, 1 GiB memory
- $0.0104/hour in us-east-1 (Linux)
- Pay-per-second billing (60-second minimum)
- No upfront commitment
- Burstable CPU performance
- Multiple OS options (Linux, Windows)
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like 2 vCPUs, 1 GiB memory or $0.0104/hour in us-east-1 (Linux)
- You require premium support or SLA guarantees
- You need to remove branding or watermarks
- You need advanced integrations or API access
Hidden Restrictions on Free Plan
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) branding may appear on your content or communications
- Support is limited to community forums or email with longer response times
- Export options may be restricted or include watermarks
- API access is typically limited or not available
- Advanced reporting and analytics require paid plans
Free vs Paid: Which Do You Need?
Free Plan is Enough If...
- You're an individual or very small team
- You need only basic features
- You don't mind usage limits
- Branding on output is acceptable
- Community support is sufficient
You Need Paid If...
- Your team is growing beyond limits
- You need advanced features
- Professional branding is required
- You need priority support
- Integrations/API access is critical
Free vs On-Demand — t3.micro Plan Comparison
| Free Tier $0 | On-Demand — t3.micro $7.59/month | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 7 included | 6+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Amazon Web Services (AWS) branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Developers learning AWS, small experiments, and proof-of-concept projects | Small workloads, development servers, and microservices |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Amazon Web Services (AWS) free?
Yes, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers a forever free plan with 7 core features included. However, there are limits on users and features that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan includes: 750 hours/month t2.micro or t3.micro EC2 instance (12 months), 5 GB Amazon S3 standard storage (12 months), 750 hours Amazon RDS db.t2.micro (12 months), 1 million AWS Lambda requests/month (always free), 25 GB DynamoDB storage (always free), and 2 more features. Key limits include basic usage caps.
03 What's NOT included in Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan?
The free plan excludes: 2 vCPUs, 1 GiB memory, $0.0104/hour in us-east-1 (Linux), Pay-per-second billing (60-second minimum), No upfront commitment, Burstable CPU performance. You'll also have Amazon Web Services (AWS) branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like 2 vCPUs, 1 GiB memory or $0.0104/hour in us-east-1 (Linux), require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $7.59/month.
05 Is Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan really free forever?
Yes, Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit. However, feature and usage limits may restrict what you can do without upgrading to a paid plan.