# Explore AWS services with AWS Free Tier
<a name="free-tier"></a>

You can use AWS Free Tier to explore AWS services without cost commitments. When you sign up for your AWS account, you can choose between **Free account plan** or **Paid account plan**. If you are new to AWS, you receive USD $100 in credits after you create an account, regardless of your account plan. You can also earn up to an additional USD $100 in credits by completing activities. For more information about earning additional credits, see [Earning additional credits](free-tier-plans-activities.md). In addition, you have access to over 30 always free AWS services that offer monthly free usage limits.

The **Free account plan** is ideal for customers experimenting with AWS services and building proof of concepts at no cost for up to six months. You will not incur any charges during this period until you upgrade to a paid account plan. Your free account plan ends after six months or when your credits are fully used - whichever occurs first. Additionally, free account plans don't have access to certain AWS services that would rapidly consume the entire AWS Free Tier credit amount, or hardware purchases. For a list of eligible services on the free account plan, see [AWS Free Tier FAQs](https://aws.amazon.com/free/free-tier-faqs/).

The **Paid account plan** is ideal for building production applications that scale beyond the initial credit amount. When you usage exceeds your credit balance or when you use a service where credits don't apply, you pay standard pay-as-you-go pricing. For more information about each plan, see [Choosing a plan](free-tier-plans.md).

**Note**  
If you use billing transfer and you sign in as a bill source account or its linked account, your Free Tier credits apply to the chargeable bill sent to your bill transfer account. These credits don't appear in your pro forma billing artifacts (Bills page, Cost Explorer, or AWS Cost and Usage Report) unless AWS Cost and Usage Report, and the **Bills** page. The **Credits** page doesn't support billing view functionality. You can only view credits redeemed in your own AWS organization. To view credits from bill source organizations, you need an IAM role in those organizations.

## AWS Free Tier offers
<a name="free-tier-offers"></a>

All AWS customers have access to select short-term trials and Always Free tier offers. Your AWS Free Tier offerings depend on your plan type. **Paid plan** accounts might have `Short-term trial` and `Always Free` offerings active. **Free account plan** only have `Always Free` offerings active.

**Always free**  
You receive an ongoing monthly allowance for some AWS services.

**Short-term trials**  
You can try selected services through limited free trials. Your trial begins when you activate the service.

If you go beyond these monthly allowances, your AWS Free Tier credits are automatically applied to cover the eligible costs. If you are on the paid plan, you're charged at the standard AWS billing rates for eligible usage beyond your credits or when your credits expire.

**To find services with an AWS Free Tier offer**

1. Navigate to the [AWS Free Tier page](http://aws.amazon.com/free/).

1. Under **Explore our offers**, choose a filter to search for the offer type and product category.

   For example, you can choose **Always Free** and choose **Compute** to learn about the number of free requests available for AWS Lambda (Lambda).

## Getting started with AWS Free Tier
<a name="free-tier-gettingstarted"></a>

**To start with AWS Free Tier**

1. Navigate to the [AWS Free Tier](https://aws.amazon.com/free) website.

1. Choose **Create free account**.

1. Follow the sign up process. This includes choosing your AWS account plan: **Free account plan** or **Paid account plan**.

   For more information about the sign up process, see [AWS account Management](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/getting-started.html) guide.

## More AWS Free Tier resources
<a name="free-tier-gettingstarted-resources"></a>

Explore the following resources to learn more about AWS Free Tier.
+ [AWS Free Tier](https://aws.amazon.com/free/)
+ [AWS Free Tier FAQs](https://aws.amazon.com/free/free-tier-faqs/)
+ [AWS Free Tier API Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/latest/APIReference/API_Operations_AWS_Free_Tier.html)