AWS Free Tier Limits: The Only Guide You Need to Avoid Surprise Bills

You signed up for AWS Free Tier thinking it’s 100% free, only to get a $50 bill a month later. Sound familiar? Thousands of new AWS users fall into this trap every year, not because the Free Tier is a scam, but because they don’t understand AWS Free Tier limits.

The AWS Free Tier is incredibly valuable for testing services, building side projects, and learning cloud computing. But it comes with strict usage caps, and exceeding them leads to standard pay-as-you-go charges with no warning. This guide breaks down everything you need to know about Free Tier limits, how to track your usage, and how to avoid unexpected bills for good.

What Is the AWS Free Tier?

The AWS Free Tier is a set of free cloud services for new AWS accounts, designed to help you experiment with AWS at no cost. It’s split into three categories, each with its own set of limits:

3 Types of AWS Free Tier Offerings

1. 12-Month Free: Services that are free for the first 12 months after you create your AWS account. Examples include EC2 t2.micro instances, S3 standard storage, and RDS databases.
2. Always Free: Services with no time limit, available to all AWS users even after the 12-month period ends. Examples include AWS Lambda (1M requests/month) and Amazon DynamoDB (25GB storage).
3. Short-Term Trials: Services free for a limited time (usually 30–90 days) regardless of account age. Examples include Amazon Lightsail (3-month free trial) and Amazon QuickSight.

If you’re new to AWS, our guide to setting up your first AWS account walks you through the sign-up process step by step.

Critical AWS Free Tier Limits You Must Know

Exceeding these common limits is the #1 cause of surprise AWS bills. Memorize these caps for the services you use most:

Compute (EC2) Limits

• 750 hours per month of t2.micro or t3.micro instance usage (enough for 1 instance running 24/7 all month, since 24*31 = 744 hours)
• Running 2 or more instances, or leaving an instance running for more than 31 days, will immediately exceed this limit
• Elastic IPs, NAT Gateways, and load balancers are not included in the Free Tier, even if attached to free EC2 instances

Storage (S3) Limits

• 5GB of Amazon S3 Standard storage
• 2,000 PUT requests (uploads) and 20,000 GET requests (downloads) per month
• S3 Glacier and S3 Intelligent-Tiering are not included in the Free Tier

Database (RDS) Limits

• 750 hours per month of db.t2.micro or db.t3.micro RDS instances
• 20GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage per month

Serverless (Lambda) Limits

• 1 million free requests per month
• 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time per month (enough for 400,000 seconds of a 1GB Lambda function, or equivalent)

Refer to the official AWS Free Tier page for the most up-to-date list of eligible services and limits, as offerings may change over time.

How to Track Your AWS Free Tier Usage

You can’t avoid exceeding limits if you don’t know how much you’ve used. Use these three tools to stay on top of your Free Tier usage:

AWS Free Tier Dashboard

Log in to the AWS Console, go to Billing & Cost Management, then select Free Tier from the left sidebar. This dashboard shows exactly how much of each Free Tier limit you’ve used, and how many days are left in your 12-month period.

Billing Alerts

AWS does not send automatic alerts when you exceed Free Tier limits. To get notified, go to Billing > Budgets, create a budget for $0, and set up email alerts to trigger when your charges exceed $0. This is the single most effective way to avoid surprise bills.

Weekly Usage Checks

Don’t wait until the end of the month to check your usage. Set a weekly calendar reminder to review your Free Tier dashboard and catch overages early.

For more tips on reducing your AWS spend, check out our post on 10 AWS cost optimization strategies for beginners.

Common Mistakes That Lead to Unexpected AWS Bills

Even experienced users make these mistakes. Avoid them at all costs:

• Running multiple EC2 instances instead of a single t2.micro
• Forgetting to stop EC2 instances when you’re not using them (pausing instances still counts toward your 750-hour limit)
• Using paid add-ons like Elastic IPs or NAT Gateways with free services
• Exceeding S3 storage or request limits for static website hosting
• Not setting up billing alerts (the #1 mistake new users make)

What Happens When You Exceed AWS Free Tier Limits?

Exceeding any Free Tier limit triggers standard pay-as-you-go pricing immediately. There is no grace period, and you will be charged for the full amount of overage usage. For example, if you run 2 EC2 t2.micro instances for a month, you’ll be charged for 750 hours of usage (the free limit) plus 744 hours of paid usage at the standard t2.micro rate.

Your 12-month Free Tier benefits will expire exactly 12 months after you create your AWS account, even if you haven’t used all eligible services. Always-free services will remain free after this date.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does AWS Free Tier automatically expire?
A: Yes, the 12-month Free Tier benefits expire exactly 12 months after you create your AWS account. Always-free services like Lambda and DynamoDB remain free even after the 12-month period ends.

Q: Can I create multiple AWS accounts to extend my Free Tier benefits?
A: No, AWS Free Tier eligibility is tied to the root user of an account, not individual email addresses. Creating multiple accounts to bypass Free Tier limits violates AWS’s Terms of Service and can result in account suspension.

Q: How do I get notified if I exceed my Free Tier limits?
A: AWS does not send automatic alerts when you exceed Free Tier limits. You must manually set up billing alerts in the AWS Billing & Cost Management console to get email or SMS notifications when charges are incurred.

Q: Are there any costs associated with AWS Free Tier?
A: You will only be charged if you use services not included in the Free Tier, exceed usage limits, or use paid add-ons (like Elastic IPs or NAT Gateways) with free services.

Conclusion

AWS Free Tier is one of the best ways to learn cloud computing and build projects at no cost, but it’s not a free-for-all. Understanding AWS Free Tier limits, tracking your usage, and setting up billing alerts are the only ways to avoid surprise charges.

Take 10 minutes today to log in to your AWS account, check your Free Tier usage, and set up a $0 billing budget. It’s a small step that will save you hundreds of dollars down the line.

Ready to get started with AWS without surprise bills? Sign up for your free AWS account today, and immediately set up a $0 billing budget to stay on track. Got questions about Free Tier limits? Let us know in the comments!