For eight years, I’ve watched the same story play out: excited newcomers sign up for AWS thinking they have a free account, only to get blindsided by unexpected charges. I’ve been beating this drum for years–through public blog posts, making a scene in public, and private conversations with AWS leadership. Now, in what may be the most comprehensive cross-service collaboration I’ve witnessed, AWS has delivered a solution that actually works.
Over the past few months, AWS walked me through their new approach. While I’m admittedly deep in the AWS ecosystem (hard to have fresh eyes after building a career around it for a decade), I channeled my inner newcomer and asked every naive question I could think of. Here’s what they’ve built.
The New Sign-Up Experience
The initial process remains familiar: you create an account and provide a payment method. AWS still places a small temporary hold (around $1) as a fraud check–a surprisingly effective strategy they’ve used since day one. This requirement also prevents the hilarious scenario of an enterprise customer spreading their $80 million annual spend across half a billion free accounts.
$200 in Free Credits (Yes, Really)
Here’s where things get interesting. You start with $100 in free credits immediately. Want another $100? Complete these five simple tasks:
– Launch an EC2 instance
– Experiment with a foundation model in Amazon Bedrock
– Set up a cost budget in AWS Budgets
– Create an RDS instance
– Navigate through the Lambda console (oddly specific, but okay)
I knocked out all five in under 30 minutes. More services may offer similar bonuses in the future, but this is your starting lineup.
The Six-Month Countdown
Your free credits expire after six months–and here’s the crucial part: you won’t be automatically charged. Instead, you face a clear choice:
Option 1: “I’m In”
You actively upgrade to a paid account (the traditional AWS account type). You’ll still have access to always-free tier resources, but now you’re responsible for any overages. The key difference? This is your conscious decision, not a default trap.
Option 2: “Thanks, But No Thanks”
Do nothing, and your account begins shutting down. Running resources get stopped. Your data remains safe for a grace period (with plenty of email warnings), and you can reactivate anytime by upgrading to a paid account. But without that explicit action, your bill stays at $0.
What About Existing Users?
If you signed up before this change, nothing happens. Your account continues as-is. All existing free tier offerings, including perpetual free resources, remain unchanged.
Why This Actually Matters
After years of defending their position, this is AWS quietly acknowledging that their onboarding experience was hostile to newcomers. But this is hardly a surprise; I’ve spent years telling AWS executives their free tier was broken. What’s fascinating isn’t that they fixed it–it’s how they fixed it that reveals their evolving philosophy.
This marks a return to product-led growth rather than focusing on enterprise revenue to the exclusion of all else. Let’s be honest: big companies don’t care about the free tier. Big companies don’t give a shit. But students, hobbyists, and the next generation of developers who are currently starting on simpler platforms? They care deeply.
It’s also an early indicator that AWS is beginning to understand that different customers have different needs. This is the first step toward a future where big banks and students in dorm rooms are no longer forced through the same onboarding gauntlet. Customer segmentation isn’t just for marketing anymore–it’s becoming part of the product experience.
The Hidden Cost of Doing the Right Thing
Here’s what AWS isn’t advertising: since their billing system still puts the “eventual” in “eventual consistency,” they’re going to eat some costs. If someone spins up resources in excess of the free tier, AWS might take it on the chin for part of a day before the account shuts down.
I posit that AWS can afford this far more readily than some poor kid who accidentally committed their credentials to GitHub. This isn’t just good PR–it’s an investment in winning back developer mindshare that’s been steadily flowing to Vercel, Netlify, and Cloudflare.
The Bottom Line
This isn’t just a policy tweak–it’s AWS admitting that surprise bills hurt more than just customer wallets; they hurt trust. Nobody who gets burned by a surprise bill is going to come back to the platform, regardless of whether that bill is forgiven. By requiring explicit consent before charging begins and absorbing some risk themselves, they’re removing the biggest barrier to AWS adoption for newcomers.
It took nearly a decade to deliver on, but they clearly understood: the cost of a hostile onboarding experience isn’t measured in missed $23 monthly bills–it’s measured in developers who never come back.
