Chapter 76: AWS Free tier
AWS Free Tier
Many people think the Free Tier is just a tiny “trial” that disappears after 12 months and then you suddenly get a huge bill. That is only half-true — and the half that’s wrong causes most of the panic emails and “AWS scammed me” posts you see on Reddit India or LinkedIn.
Let me explain it like we’re sitting together with a whiteboard and a second cup of filter coffee — slow, clear, step-by-step, full of real analogies, actual Hyderabad examples from 2026, current numbers, the three different kinds of free tiers, and exactly how smart students & startups use it without ever getting a surprise bill.
1. The Three Different Kinds of “Free” in AWS (Very Important)
AWS does not have one Free Tier — it has three completely different types of free usage. Most people only know the first one and get shocked by the other two.
| Type (2026 names) | Duration | What you get free every month | Expires? | Typical Hyderabad user |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always Free | Forever (even after 12 months) | Small but useful amounts of many services | Never | Students, side projects, very early startups |
| 12-Month Free Tier | First 12 months after sign-up | Larger amounts of popular services | Yes (after 12 months) | College projects, bootcamp students, first job |
| Short-term Trials | Varies (30 days, 90 days, etc.) | Full-featured trials of premium services | Yes | Testing paid features before committing |
Golden rule everyone must memorize:
Always Free = forever free (small limits) 12-Month Free = big limits, but only for first year After 12 months, only Always Free remains — everything else goes to normal pay-as-you-go pricing
2. The Most Important Always Free Offers (Still Active in 2026)
These are the ones you can use forever — even if your account is 5 years old.
| Service | Always Free Amount (every month) | Typical Hyderabad student/startup usage (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon EC2 | 750 hours of t4g.micro or t3.micro (Linux/Windows) | Run a small web server / API / bot 24/7 |
| Amazon S3 | 5 GB Standard storage, 20,000 GET, 2,000 PUT requests | Host static portfolio website + small file uploads |
| Amazon DynamoDB | 25 GB storage, 25 write & 25 read capacity units | Small metadata table, cart items, user preferences |
| AWS Lambda | 1 million requests + 400,000 GB-seconds | Background jobs, webhooks, image resizing |
| Amazon RDS | 750 hours db.t4g.micro (Single-AZ MySQL/PostgreSQL/MariaDB) | Dev/test database |
| Amazon SNS | 1 million publishes | Send SMS/Whatsapp alerts |
| Amazon CloudWatch | Basic monitoring, 10 custom metrics, 1 million API requests | Most dashboards & alarms |
3. The Most Important 12-Month Free Tier Offers (First Year Only)
These are the generous ones — but they disappear after 12 months.
| Service | 12-Month Free Amount (every month for first year) | Typical Hyderabad student/startup usage (first year) |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon EC2 | 750 hours t3.micro / t4g.micro | Run dev/test instances 24/7 |
| Amazon RDS | 750 hours db.t4g.micro (Single-AZ) | Full-featured dev database |
| Amazon S3 | 5 GB Standard storage + requests | Static website + user uploads |
| Amazon DynamoDB | 25 GB + 25 WCUs + 25 RCUs | Small NoSQL table |
| AWS Lambda | 1 million requests + 400,000 GB-seconds | Serverless backend |
After 12 months: All these go to normal pricing — but the Always Free amounts (above) stay forever.
4. Real Hyderabad Example — How a College Student Uses Free Tier (2026)
Your friend in CBIT / Vasavi builds a personal project: “Telugu Recipe Finder” — React frontend + Node.js API + DynamoDB + S3 for recipe photos
How he stays almost ₹0 for 18 months:
- EC2 t4g.micro (Always Free 750 h) → runs Node.js API 24/7
- S3 (Always Free 5 GB) → stores recipe photos + hosts static React site
- DynamoDB (Always Free 25 GB) → stores recipes & user favorites
- Lambda (Always Free 1 million requests) → resize uploaded photos
- CloudWatch (Always Free basic monitoring) → alarms on API errors
Monthly bill after 12 months: Still ₹0–200 (only occasional data transfer or extra requests beyond free tier)
Lesson: He never used us-east-1 (expensive region), never launched big instances, never left test resources running → bill stays near zero even after free tier ends.
5. The Biggest Free-Tier Traps (What Actually Causes Bills in India)
| Trap | Why it hurts after 12 months | How to avoid it (2026 best practice) |
|---|---|---|
| Using On-Demand in expensive regions (us-east-1, eu-west-1) | Suddenly paying 20–40 % more than ap-south-2 | Always choose ap-south-1 or ap-south-2 |
| Forgetting to delete dev/test resources | t3.medium running 24/7 → ~₹2,500/month after free tier | Use AWS Budgets alert at ₹500/month |
| Not understanding data transfer out | S3 → internet = ₹6–8/GB after free 100 GB | Use CloudFront → most egress free |
| Lambda recursive loops | 10 million requests instead of 1 million | Add timeout & logging to catch loops |
| RDS outside free tier | db.t3.medium after 12 months → ~₹4,000–6,000/month | Switch to DynamoDB or Aurora Serverless |
Summary Table — AWS Free Tier Cheat Sheet (2026 – India Focus)
| Question | Answer (Beginner-Friendly) |
|---|---|
| How long is the Free Tier? | Always Free = forever (small limits) 12-Month Free = first 12 months only (larger limits) |
| Best Region for Free Tier? | ap-south-2 (Hyderabad) — lowest latency + lowest prices in India |
| Biggest bill shock causes? | Idle EC2/RDS after 12 months, us-east-1 usage, data transfer out |
| Best practice for students/startups? | Use ap-south-2, tag everything, set Budgets alert at ₹500–1,000 |
| First thing to do today? | Go to Billing → Free Tier → see your usage → stop any non-free resources |
Teacher’s final note (real talk – Hyderabad 2026):
The AWS Free Tier is incredibly generous — but it punishes forgetfulness after 12 months.
The students & startups that stay at ₹0–500/month for years are not lucky — they are disciplined:
- Always use ap-south-2
- Tag every resource (Environment=dev, Owner=your-name)
- Check Billing → Free Tier every month
- Set AWS Budgets alert at ₹500–1,000
- Turn off everything when not using it
Do these five things religiously and you can build amazing projects for almost free — even after the 12-month tier ends.
Got it? This is the “how to use AWS without getting a heart-attack bill” lesson.
Next?
- Step-by-step: Check your Free Tier usage & stop non-free resources right now?
- Deep dive: Savings Plans vs Reserved Instances — which one saves more in 2026?
- Or how to use Trusted Advisor Cost Optimization to find idle resources?
Tell me — next whiteboard ready! 🚀💰
