Control Your AWS Costs
|
AWS experience |
Beginner |
|
Time to complete |
10 minutes |
|
Cost to complete |
Free Tier |
|
Last updated |
October 8, 2025 |
Overview
AWS Free Tier
In this tutorial, you will learn to track your AWS Free Tier usage, manage credits, and set up cost alerts using AWS Budgets.
AWS Free Tier includes:
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$100 USD in credits
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Up to $100 USD additional credits ($20 each) for exploring key services:
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Amazon EC2
- You'll learn how to launch an EC2 instance and terminate it. -
Amazon RDS
- You'll learn the basic configuration options for launching an RDS database. -
AWS Lambda
- You'll learn to build a straightforward web application consisting of a Lambda function with a function URL. -
Amazon Bedrock
- You'll learn how to submit a prompt to generate a response in the Amazon Bedrock text playground. -
AWS Budgets
- You'll learn how to set a budget that alerts you when you exceed your budgeted cost amount.
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Exploration period
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6 months to use your credits
What you will accomplish
In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
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Navigate the new Free Tier credit system
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Earn additional credits through service exploration
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Monitor your Free Tier usage
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Set up cost control alerts
Prerequisites
Before starting this tutorial, you will need:
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A supported web browser (latest version of Chrome or Firefox)
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An AWS account created after July 15, 2025: If you don't already have one, follow the Setting Up Your AWS Environment tutorial for a quick overview.
Note
New accounts may need 24 hours before accessing all services in this tutorial.
Note
Accounts created before July 15, 2025 will remain on the Legacy AWS Free Tier
Implementation
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Open the AWS Free Tier page, under the AWS Free Tier header, choose Create a Free Account.
When signing up for Free Tier you can choose between two plans:
Free Plan: Explore AWS for up to 6 months without cost or commitment. You won't be charged unless you switch to the Paid Plan.
Paid Plan: Develop production-ready workloads with access to all AWS services and features.
You can see the credit details in the Explore
AWS widget in the AWS Management Console
These activities are designed to expose you to important building blocks of AWS, including cost and usage that show up in the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console. These charges are deducted from your Free Tier credits and help teach you about selecting the appropriate instance sizes to minimize your costs.
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Choose Set up a cost budget using AWS Budgets to earn your first $20 credits. It redirects to the AWS Billing and Cost Management console
. 
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On the Choose budget type page, choose Use a template (simplified) and Monthly cost budget.
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Enter a name for your monthly cost budget, set the budgeted amount to 100.00 (credited amount from account creation), and enter your email address to receive spend updates.
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Choose Create budget.
Note
We'll send an email alert when 50 percent, 25 percent, or 10 percent of your AWS credits remain. We'll also send notifications to the AWS console and your email inbox when you have 15 days, 7 days, and 2 days left in your 6-month free period. After your free period ends, we'll send you an email with instructions on how to upgrade to a paid plan. You'll have 90 days to reopen your account by upgrading to a paid plan.
You can go to the Credits page in the left navigation pane in the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console
Note
It can take up to 10 minutes for your credits to appear.
You can receive an additional $80 by completing the remaining four activities.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have finished the Control your AWS Costs tutorial.
You have successfully analyzed your Free Tier usage, explored and managed your credits, and set up cost alerts using AWS Budgets. You can now confidentially explore the portfolio of services without incurring costs, making it even easier to get started with AWS.
For more information about AWS Free Tier, see the AWS Free Tier User Guide, AWS Free Tier Blog
