AWS for DevOps — AWS Free Tier
AWS Free Tier
Good news — you do not need a credit card with thousands of dollars to learn AWS. The AWS Free Tier gives you access to many services at no cost, making it perfect for learning and experimentation.
Three Types of Free Tier
AWS offers three categories of free usage:
| Type | Duration | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Month Free | First 12 months after sign-up | 750 hours/month EC2 t2.micro, 5 GB S3, 750 hours RDS |
| Always Free | Never expires | 1 million Lambda requests/month, 25 GB DynamoDB, 1 million SNS publishes |
| Trials | Short-term (30–60 days) | Amazon Inspector (90-day trial), GuardDuty (30-day trial) |
Key Free Tier Limits for DevOps
| Service | Free Tier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| EC2 | 750 hours/month (t2.micro or t3.micro) | ~1 instance running 24/7. Linux or Windows. |
| S3 | 5 GB storage, 20,000 GET, 2,000 PUT | Enough for artifacts and logs |
| RDS | 750 hours/month (db.t2.micro or db.t3.micro) | Single AZ only |
| Lambda | 1M requests + 400,000 GB-seconds | Always free — plenty for learning |
| CloudWatch | 10 custom metrics, 10 alarms, 1M API requests | Always free |
| DynamoDB | 25 GB storage, 25 read/write units | Always free |
| CodeBuild | 100 build minutes/month | general1.small |
| CodePipeline | 1 active pipeline | Additional pipelines cost $1/month |
| CloudFormation | Free | You only pay for the resources created |
| IAM | Free | Always free — no limits |
Setting Up an AWS Account
- Go to aws.amazon.com and click Create an AWS Account
- Enter your email, password, and account name
- Add a credit/debit card (required, but not charged for free tier usage)
- Verify your identity (phone verification)
- Choose the Basic (Free) support plan
- Sign in to the AWS Management Console
Avoiding Surprise Bills
The number one fear for AWS beginners: unexpected charges. Here is how to avoid them:
1. Set up a billing alarm immediately:
$ aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm \
--alarm-name "billing-alarm-10usd" \
--metric-name EstimatedCharges \
--namespace AWS/Billing \
--statistic Maximum \
--period 21600 \
--threshold 10 \
--comparison-operator GreaterThanThreshold \
--evaluation-periods 1 \
--alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:billing-alerts \
--dimensions Name=Currency,Value=USD
2. Check the billing dashboard regularly:
Navigate to Billing and Cost Management → Free Tier to see your usage vs limits.
3. Clean up after every exercise:
Always terminate EC2 instances, delete S3 buckets, and remove resources when you are done practising. Resources left running overnight can accumulate charges.
4. Use tags to track resources:
Tag every resource you create for practice:
$ aws ec2 create-tags \
--resources i-0abcd1234 \
--tags Key=Purpose,Value=learning
Common Mistake
“I forgot to stop my EC2 instance and got charged $50.”
This happens to everyone at least once. Set a calendar reminder to check the EC2 dashboard before going to bed. Stopped instances still incur EBS storage costs, so terminate (not just stop) instances you no longer need.
Quick Reference
| Concept | Detail |
|---|---|
| 12-Month Free | EC2 t2.micro (750h), S3 (5 GB), RDS (750h) |
| Always Free | Lambda (1M requests), DynamoDB (25 GB), CloudWatch (10 alarms) |
| Billing alarm | Set one immediately — alert at $5 or $10 |
| Key rule | Always terminate resources after practice |
| IAM, CloudFormation | Always free — use them without worry |
Next → AWS CLI Setup
