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AWS credits are promotional funds offered by AWS to help businesses offset the cost of cloud services. These credits are available through multiple AWS programs, including AWS Activate, AWS Nonprofits, AWS Educate, AWS Events, AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP), and AWS Rapid Adoption Migration Program (RAMP). AWS credits can be applied to eligible AWS services, reducing the out-of-pocket cost for startups, nonprofits, students, and event participants.
In this article, we’ll explain each of these programs, how the credits work, how to get them, how to track them, and how to maximize your total savings.
The AWS Activate program is designed to help startups build and scale on AWS with cloud credits, technical support, and training resources. These credits help startups reduce infrastructure costs while they develop and launch their products.
AWS Activate credit tiers include:
- $1,000 in AWS credits(available in the Activate Founders program, valid for one year, typically for early-stage startups)
- Up to $100,000 in AWS credits(available for startups in the Activate Portfolio program, valid for two years)
How Do AWS Credits Work?
When starting a business, you can apply AWS credits to your AWS bills to help launch your business and accelerate its growth. However, here are a few things to keep in mind about AWS credits. They:
- Only apply to current or future AWS usage—credits cannot be used to cover a past billing cycle. For instance, an AWS promotional credit received in August cannot offset a bill incurred in June or July.
- Expire after their validity period—unused credits are forfeited when they expire. That’s why it is advisable to apply only for credits that you can utilize before they expire.
- Do not cover all AWS services— they cannot be used for Amazon Mechanical Turk, AWS Managed Services, ineligible AWS Support, AWS Marketplace (except third-party foundation models on Amazon Bedrock), AWS Professional Services, AWS Training and Certification, Route 53 domain registration or transfer, cryptocurrency mining, reseller accounts or upfront fees for Savings Plans and Reserved Instances.
If a startup previously received AWS Activate credits, it may be eligible to apply for additional credits. However, AWS may only approve the difference between prior credits and the new request. For example, if a business received $5,000 in credits and later applies for $15,000, AWS may approve only the additional $10,000. And if you have exhausted your lifetime value of $100,000, you will not receive any credits on any subsequent applications.
How to view and track your AWS Credits
You can view your AWS credits in the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console. The AWS Activate Console lists the eligible services where you can apply for credits.
You can also use a solution like nOps to view and monitor your AWS credits. The nOps cost management console gives you deeper insights into your AWS bills, ensuring you maximize the value of your credits and spot other cost-saving opportunities.
How to Get Free AWS Credits
Here are additional ways for users to get AWS credits:
1. VCs & Institutional Investors
If your startup is backed by a recognized VC, accelerator, or incubator, you may be eligible for AWS Activate Portfolio credits—ranging from $5,000 to $100,000. You’ll need a valid OrgID from your investor and an AWS account tied to your company to apply. Credits can also include AWS Business Support and technical training resources.
2. AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP)
3. AWS Rapid Adoption Migration Program (RAMP)
4. AWS Free Tier
The AWS Free Tier offers limited, no-cost access to popular services for 12 months after you create a new AWS account. It includes 750 hours of EC2 (t2.micro or t3.micro), 5GB of S3 storage, and 25GB of DynamoDB, among others. After 12 months, usage beyond always-free limits is billed at standard rates.
5. AWS Credits for Non Profits
AWS provides cloud credits and resources for nonprofit organizations through programs like the AWS Imagine Grant. These grants help nonprofits leverage AWS services for digital transformation, data analytics, machine learning, and improving operational efficiency. Eligible organizations can receive funding and credits to support their cloud initiatives, ensuring they can focus on their mission rather than IT costs.
6. AWS Cloud Credits for Research
Academic researchers—including faculty, graduate students, and research staff—can apply for AWS Promotional Credits through the AWS Cloud Credit for Research program. Student applicants can receive up to $5,000 per project, while faculty and research staff are eligible for higher amounts. These credits support research use cases such as running simulations, processing large datasets, or building cloud-native research tools. Credits are typically valid for up to one year and apply to a wide range of AWS services.
7. Educational Institutions: AWS Educate & AWS Academy
8. AWS Community Programs
AWS Community Builders and open-source projects recognized by AWS can qualify for recurring AWS credits. Community Builders are given credits to support workshops, experiments, and demos, while open-source maintainers may receive credits through the AWS open-source sponsorship program. These initiatives are designed to empower builders and maintainers in expanding the AWS ecosystem.
9. AWS Competitions, Hackathons, and other Events
AWS occasionally provides credits to attendees of AWS-sponsored events such as AWS re:Invent, AWS Summits, hackathons, and industry conferences. These credits allow participants to explore AWS services and test cloud-based solutions at no cost. Businesses and developers attending these events can use AWS credits to experiment with AWS offerings and accelerate their cloud adoption.
10. AWS Promotional Credits
AWS Promotional Credits are periodically offered across a range of channels—online webinars, digital marketing campaigns, partner events, and more. These credits can range from modest amounts (e.g., $25–$100) to substantial sums (e.g., $1,000+), depending on the promotion. To take advantage, simply register for the event or program, follow the instructions for redeeming the promo code in your AWS console, and apply them toward eligible AWS services within the specified timeframe.
Things to Know Before Applying for AWS Credits
Before applying for AWS credits, it’s important to understand a few key considerations that could impact how much value you actually get.
Forecast Usage Carefully: Most AWS credits have expiration dates and won’t be extended. Before applying, estimate how much credit you’ll actually use within the validity period. Unused credits are forfeited, so aligning your forecasted workloads with your credit timeline ensures you maximize the benefit.
Credits Don’t Apply to Marketplace Offerings: AWS credits generally can’t be used on third-party products from the AWS Marketplace. That includes software licenses, SaaS tools, and infrastructure packages sold by vendors. Make sure your planned usage involves native AWS services to ensure your credits apply.
- Sharing AWS Credits: You can share AWS credits with a valid AWS account in your organization. Credit sharing can be enabled through the AWS Billing and Cost Management Console. It can take up to a month or so to approve after applying, so it is advisable to request it early. You can deactivate sharing at any time.
Ways to Spend AWS Credits
AWS credits can be spent on a wide range of AWS services including:
- Compute – EC2, Lambda, and AWS Fargate for running virtual machines, serverless functions, and containers.
- Storage – S3, EBS, and Glacier for object storage, block storage, and archival solutions.
- Databases – RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, and Redshift for managed SQL and NoSQL databases.
- Networking – VPC, NAT Gateway, Route 53, and CloudFront for secure, scalable networking and content delivery.
- Machine Learning – SageMaker, Bedrock, and Rekognition for building, training, and deploying ML models.
- Monitoring & Security – CloudWatch, AWS Config, and GuardDuty for observability, compliance, and threat detection.
- Developer Tools – CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, and CodePipeline for CI/CD automation.
- Analytics – Athena, EMR, Kinesis, and Glue for querying, processing, and transforming data at scale.
Credits cannot be used for third-party services on the AWS Marketplace or for support plans unless otherwise specified.
Other AWS Programs and Discounts
Beyond credits, AWS offers several pricing models designed to reduce long-term cloud costs. These programs reward commitment, flexibility, or scale—and can be used alongside credits to stretch your budget even further.
Savings Plans: Savings Plans offer flexible pricing in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment to a consistent amount of usage (measured in $/hour). They apply automatically to eligible compute services like EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, offering up to 72% off compared to On-Demand pricing. Unlike Reserved Instances, Savings Plans are not tied to specific instance types or regions.
Reserved Instances (RIs): Reserved Instances provide discounted pricing for specific EC2 instance types and regions in exchange for a long-term commitment. They offer up to 75% off On-Demand pricing but require upfront planning. Standard RIs are best for predictable workloads, while Convertible RIs allow you to change instance types during the term.
AWS Spot Instances: Spot Instances let you use unused AWS compute capacity at up to 90% off regular prices. They’re ideal for fault-tolerant or flexible workloads like data processing, CI/CD pipelines, and stateless services. Pricing fluctuates based on demand, and AWS can reclaim capacity with a two-minute warning, so Spot isn’t suited for all workloads.
These pricing options can significantly reduce your AWS bill when used strategically alongside promotional credits.
Maximize your AWS Credits with nOps
nOps is an end-to-end solution for maximizing your AWS cloud credits, discounts and usage.
- Gain deep insights into your spending with reports, ROI, budgets, cost anomaly detection, forecasting and cost-saving recommendations
- Automatically optimize Reserved Instances & Savings Plans (and Spot, if desired)
- Automatically rightsize workloads, optimize storage, and eliminating idle cloud resources
nOps is rated 5 stars on G2 and optimizes $2 billion in AWS spend for its customers. Schedule a Demo to find out how nOps can help you maximize your AWS credits and savings.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to get 1000 AWS credits?
AWS credits can be earned through startup programs (like AWS Activate), events, hackathons, or partnerships. Startups in AWS Activate may receive up to $100,000 in credits, depending on funding stage and partner affiliation. Individual developers can earn smaller amounts through educational programs, certification vouchers, or attending AWS events. To get $1,000 specifically, your best bet is applying through Activate with a valid incubator, VC, or accelerator referral.
Is AWS still free after 12 months?
After 12 months, the AWS Free Tier expires for most services. At that point, any usage beyond always-free limits (like Lambda or S3’s 1GB storage) is billed at standard rates. AWS does not notify you when the free trial ends, so it’s critical to monitor usage and billing. You can set budgets and alerts in the Billing Console to avoid unexpected charges once your promotional period ends.
Can I sell my AWS credit?
No, AWS credits are non-transferable and cannot be sold, traded, or exchanged for cash. Selling AWS credits violates AWS’s terms of service and can result in account suspension or termination. Credits are intended only for the account and purpose specified during issuance (e.g., a specific startup project or education program). If you can’t use your credits, AWS will not reallocate or extend them.
Do AWS credits expire?
Yes, AWS credits typically have an expiration date, often ranging from 3 to 12 months depending on how they were issued. The expiration date is listed in your AWS Billing Console under “Credits.” Unused credits are forfeited after this date and cannot be extended.
