AWS regularly offers credits to help customers offset their cloud bills — but many teams miss them because they don’t know where to look. Credits can cover compute, storage, AI/ML services, and more. The catch: they expire, so you want to claim and apply them as soon as possible.

Ways to Get Free AWS Credits

There are several ways you can get free credits from AWS.

1. AWS Activate for Startups

AWS Activate is the largest AWS credits program, with over 280,000 startups having claimed more than $7 billion in credits to date. It has two tiers:

  • Activate Founders: $1,000 in credits — no VC or accelerator affiliation required. You just need a paid-tier AWS account, a company website, and to have been founded in the last 10 years (pre-Series B).
  • Activate Portfolio: Up to $100,000 in credits — requires an Org ID from an affiliated VC, accelerator, or incubator (Y Combinator, Stripe Atlas, Techstars, etc.).
  • Generative AI Tier: Up to $300,000 in credits for eligible AI startups training large language models.

Credits apply to 200+ AWS services including Amazon Bedrock. Apply at aws.amazon.com/startups/credits.

2. From the AWS Marketplace

The AWS Marketplace has several product and service offerings, some of which are eligible for AWS credits. These products are usually in the big data, networking, and security categories. AWS gives credits worth $200 when a user subscribes to a qualifying product.

3. Attend AWS Webinars

AWS hosts webinars to help users learn more about cloud services, best practices, and new product updates. In some cases, attendees may be eligible to receive free AWS credits after registering and participating.

To improve your chances, sign up with the email address associated with your AWS account, attend the session, and engage where relevant. Some credit promotions may be tied to attendance, participation, or follow-up offers shared after the webinar.

4. Attend AWS Events

AWS participates in conferences, summits, partner events, and other cloud-focused programs throughout the year. These events may include AWS credit promotions, especially for startups, builders, or teams exploring new AWS services.

AWS also sponsors tech podcasts, virtual conferences, and partner events where attendees may receive links to redeem AWS credits. If you attend one of these events, watch for official AWS follow-up emails, booth links, or speaker resources that mention credit promotions.

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5. Use AWS for Nonprofits and NGOs

nOps, a Premier AWS Partner, can help eligible AWS customers qualify for $5,000 in AWS credits through the Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) process.

How it works:

  1. Complete a Well-Architected Framework Review (WAFR) with nOps as your AWS Partner.
  2. Resolve at least 25% of the High Risk Issues identified in the review.
  3. Submit your workload ARN and Opportunity ID to qualify.
  4. Complete the AWS CSAT survey to receive $5,000 in AWS credits.

Terms and Conditions for AWS Credits

AWS credits are valid under the following conditions:

  • Users must redeem them before they expire.
  • They offset an existing bill and are not transferable from one user to the other.
  • You can only use them through the official AWS platform redeeming page. You must have an AWS account.
  • AWS reserves the right to invalidate credits if there is fraudulent activity or a breach of the user’s account. AWS can also invalidate credits if the account breaks any AWS condition.
  • The users cannot use AWS credits to offset any taxes associated with their AWS accounts.

How to Maximize your AWS Discounts with nOps

If you’re looking to save on your AWS bill, commitment management is the biggest lever. 

nOps automatically adjusts your commitments every hour to match real usage, for up to 55% savings on autopilot. 

Check out a free savings assessment to see if we can shrink your AWS bill. Our fee is entirely results-based, so if you don’t get measurable cost savings, you pay nothing. 

nOps was recently ranked #1 in G2’s Cloud Cost Management category and manages $4 billion in multicloud spending.