A new account gets a 100 USD credit and up to another 100 USD for exploring services - 200 USD within six months. But the free and paid plans are two different tracks, and startup credits require a paid plan, so both decisions are linked.
If you sign up for a new AWS account today, the official page says one line: register and receive a 100 USD service credit, and up to another 100 USD while exploring key AWS services.
That is no longer the same thing as the "twelve months free" most people remember. What changed is covered in what changed in the AWS free tier in 2025; this page is about what a new account should actually do - how to get both credits, which account plan to pick, and where the traps are.
The conclusion up front: accounts created after 15 July 2025 run on a credit model. Older accounts still follow the previous rules, which is why two sets of advice circulate online - the tutorial you are reading may describe a product you cannot sign up for.
First: it is a credit model now, not twelve months free
The difference is not the amount but the form the money takes:
| Old rules (older accounts) | Credit model (new accounts after 15 Jul 2025) | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Free allowance per service | A service credit denominated in dollars |
| Period | Twelve months from sign-up | A defined expiry |
| When it runs out | Excess usage billed at standard rates | Pay-as-you-go once the credit is used up |
| Classic misunderstanding | "Nothing costs anything for twelve months" | "The 200 USD is cash I can spend on anything" |
⛔ Two things to hold on to: a credit is a budget against your bill, not cash deposited into the account; and it does not cover everything - data transfer being the classic exclusion, stated plainly on the China Regions page.
Where the 200 USD comes from: two lots of 100
The official offers page spells out two separate things, and they should not be read as one:
- 100 USD on registration - it lands once the account exists, with nothing further to do.
- Up to another 100 USD for exploring key AWS services - this one requires you to actually use those services. It does not fill itself.
So of the "up to 200 USD", 100 USD requires action. Running the services you expect to use - compute, storage, database - is the natural way to earn the second lot, and it doubles as a tour of the console.
An easily missed detail: the same official wording says the free tier includes free usage of selected services. So the credit and the free allowances are two benefits that stack, not alternatives - the credit offsets services that have no allowance, while the selected services carry their own.
Free plan or paid plan: this choice matters more than you think
The free tier lists two options side by side: the free plan and the paid plan. Most people assume this is only about whether to add a card. It actually swings three things:
| Free plan | Paid plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Trying things out and learning | Running real workloads |
| When the term ends | The account is closed - the point to watch | Continues on pay-as-you-go, account retained |
| Eligible for startup credits | No - the official Activate criteria require the account to be on a paid tier plan | Yes |
⛔ The middle row is the most valuable line on this page: the official AWS Activate eligibility criteria state that the account must be on a Paid Tier Plan. If your AWS account sits on the free plan, then even if the company matches every funding-stage and age requirement, the startup credit application stalls right there. So "just open a free account for now" and "we will apply for credits later" are in conflict - decide at the start. Tier and requirements are in how to apply for AWS startup credits.
One more thing: the free plan closes the account when its term ends, and that closure is not a silent stop - it can happen while you still have data or unexpired commitments. Charges that continue after an account is closed (unexpired reservations and Savings Plans, Marketplace subscriptions) are covered in why your AWS bill jumped.
What the free tier actually includes
The free tier has three parts, and understanding the categories matters more than memorising numbers:
- Twelve months free: available for a year from sign-up, covering the conventional services you would try first - compute, block storage, relational databases, object storage.
- Always free: does not expire with the twelve months and is offered to new and existing customers indefinitely - typically serverless compute, queues and notifications, where the usage model suits "a free slice forever".
- Short-term trials: time-limited from first use, billed at standard rates afterwards.
By service, the allowances are roughly these orders of magnitude (exact figures are on the official pages, and can differ by region):
| Category | Typical allowance |
|---|---|
| Compute (EC2) | A number of hours per month on an entry-level instance (the 1 vCPU / 1 GB class) plus a volume of SSD |
| Serverless (Lambda) | Hundreds of thousands of seconds of compute plus millions of requests per month, always free |
| Object storage (S3) | A few GB of standard storage, tens of thousands of GETs, thousands of PUTs |
| Block storage (EBS) | Tens of GB plus a volume of I/O and snapshot storage |
| Relational database (RDS) | An entry-level instance plus tens of GB of storage, backups and snapshots |
| NoSQL (DynamoDB) | Tens of GB of storage plus a slice of read/write capacity, always free |
| Container registry (ECR) | Hundreds of MB of storage, with free data ingress |
How to read that table: do not plan around "how much do I get", plan around "how will I be billed once the allowance is gone". The real value of a free allowance is a stretch of time to validate an architecture without cost pressure - and the bill step change at the moment it runs out is what you need to prepare for.
The China Regions run a different rulebook
This deserves its own section: the free tier in the AWS China Regions (Beijing and Ningxia) is not the same programme as the global one.
- The China Regions free tier covers dozens of core services split into twelve-months-free / always-free / short-term trial - that is, it still uses the older classification, not the global credit model.
- Usage in the Beijing and Ningxia Regions is counted separately and does not accumulate, and neither merges with the global Regions.
- Data transfer is not included in the free tier - stated plainly in the official wording, and billed at standard rates if you use it.
- The two China Regions are operated by different entities (Beijing by Sinnet, Ningxia by NWCD) and their terms are separate.
The full comparison is in AWS free tier: the China Regions are a different programme. If you are signing up in a China Region, the "two lots of 100 USD" above does not apply - confirm which one you are registering for first.
The three easiest mistakes
- Treating the credit as a replacement for twelve months free. The credit expires and runs out, after which usage returns to on-demand pricing; and it is denominated in money, not in "this service is free" - burning half of it in a month is entirely possible.
- Starting on the free plan, then discovering you cannot apply for startup credits. The official criteria require a paid tier plan (see the second section). If your company matches the funding and age requirements, choose the paid plan from the beginning - do not let one account setting shut the door on tens of thousands of dollars.
- Ignoring what the credit does not cover. Data transfer is the classic case: not covered by the free tier, and still charged after the credit is gone. The mechanics get their own page in why AWS data transfer costs so much.
One thing that is not a trap but is worth doing early: tag your resources from day one. Resources from the free period scatter easily, and once the credit is exhausted and the bill becomes real money, an untagged bill leaves you nowhere to start (methods in AWS billing: six actions that actually work).
FAQ
Can I still get twelve months free?
It depends when you signed up. Accounts created before 15 July 2025 still follow the old rules; accounts created after run on the credit model (100 USD plus up to another 100 USD). Both sets of advice are findable online, but only one applies to you.
Do the credit and the free allowances apply at the same time?
Yes, they stack. The official wording says the free tier includes free usage of selected services - those services carry their own allowance, and the credit offsets the parts that do not. You do not need to choose, and the order is handled for you.
Can I withdraw the credit or transfer it?
No. Service credits are denominated in US dollars, governed by the AWS service credit terms, usable only against eligible usage, and generally carry an expiry. They cannot be withdrawn or transferred. The official terms are authoritative.
Will the bill jump when the 200 USD runs out?
Yes - and that is exactly what the free period is for preparing. The moment the credit is exhausted, all usage returns to on-demand rates and the shape of the bill changes. Two ways to prepare: watch the burn rate with alerts and budgets, and decide the long-term arrangement before the credit ends (commitment discounts or a channel) rather than after the step change. See how to buy AWS Savings Plans and AWS discounts and reseller pricing.
Does the account really get closed when the free plan ends?
By the official description the free plan has a term, and the account is closed when it ends - which is the essential difference from the paid plan. If the account holds data you need to keep, or unexpired commitment discounts, deal with it before the term ends. The wider picture, including the startup tier, is in AWS credits and discounts are not the same thing; the mechanism differences across all five providers are in cloud discount mechanisms compared.