AWS free credits: up to $200

AWS’s current Free Tier gives new accounts up to $200 in credits: $100 at signup, plus up to $100 more earned by exploring key services. The free plan runs until the earlier of 6 months or credit exhaustion, and the credits themselves expire 12 months from account creation. AWS requires a valid payment method to verify your identity, but you are not charged until you upgrade to the Paid plan. Figures come from AWS’s official Free Tier pages, checked on 2026-09-02.

How the up-to-$200 splits

The headline number is not a flat grant. You get $100 when you sign up, and you can earn up to $100 more by trying out key services. So a new account that signs up and does nothing else has $100, not $200. Alongside the credits, AWS lists 30 plus Always Free services that stay within monthly limits.

When the free plan ends, your account closes

This is the part most roundups skip. The free plan ends at the earlier of 6 months or credit exhaustion, and the account is then closed unless you upgrade to the Paid plan, with a 90 day window to retain your data. You cannot extend the free plan or downgrade back to it. Joining an AWS Organization or Control Tower expires the credits immediately and auto-upgrades the account to Paid.

GPU on the free plan

The free plan is limited to select services, and GPU or accelerated EC2 instances are not listed among them. The Paid plan has full service access, with GPU quotas handled separately. If free GPU time is the goal, Google Cloud’s $300 credit has the same shape: GPUs only after upgrading to paid.

Other restrictions

Existing customers keep the old Free Tier and cannot get the new credits. While on the free plan you are ineligible for other promotional credits. The offer is not available in China or GovCloud regions.

AWS Activate, the gated tier

Beyond the signup credits, AWS Activate is application-based. Founders (self-apply, self-funded) starts with $1,000, and select participants may qualify for additional credits up to $5,000. Portfolio (pre-Series B) goes up to $200,000 but requires an Org ID from an Activate Provider. An invite-only AI startups tier above that is described as $200,000 plus. Activate requires an account on the Paid tier plan, so the free plan itself is ineligible. Note a common stale figure: the $100,000 Portfolio ceiling circulating in older posts is outdated; the official page now says up to $200,000. Activate credits have expiration dates, but no single public duration is stated.

Two clocks: the 6-month plan and the 12-month credits

The plan window and the credit lifetime are different clocks, and AWS’s own FAQ quotes both, rechecked 2026-09-02. The free plan runs on the first clock: “Your free plan expires the earlier of (1) 6-months from the date you opened your AWS account, or (2) once you have exhausted your Free Tier credits.” The credits run on the second: “Free Tier credits expire 12 months from the date you create your AWS account.” The homepage’s “up to $200 over 6 months” describes the window in which credits are earned, not how long they live. Even the activity-earned portion follows the longer clock: the FAQ states those credits also “expire 12 months from the date you create your AWS account.”

The practical consequence sits in this FAQ sentence: “When you upgrade to paid plan, your remaining Free Tier credits will automatically apply to future AWS bills until they expire.” A plan that ends at month 6 does not kill the money; upgrading carries leftover credit into months 7 through 12 with no further action. The exception, noted above: upgrading by joining an AWS Organization or Control Tower expires the credits immediately.

What I have done with it

Not tested yet. This page reports only what the official pages state.

For the other hyperscaler grants, see Microsoft Azure free credits and the Oracle Cloud free trial, or read how to choose between a VPS, GPU cloud, serverless, or a sandbox. Every grant I track is on the credits index.