Do you want to save money on your AWS bill? Then you’re in the right place to learn how to save money on your AWS bill. To save your AWS bill, you should understand what AWS credits are, how to get free AWS credits, and the best ways to get AWS credits for students.
Table of Contents
- How to get free AWS credits
- Way-1: From AWS Activate ( AWS Credits for Startups)
- Way 2: From Different Educational and Research Programs through the AWS
- Way 3: From different programs from nonprofit organizations through AWS
- Way-4: By creating an AWS free tier Account
- Way-5: By attending Webinars and events on AWS
- Way-6: By publishing an Alexa skill
- AWS free credits for students
- Startup India AWS credits
- FAQs
- Wrapping Up
How to get free AWS credits
To get free AWS credits, follow the steps below.
If you are a startup, Amazon offers you a valuable opportunity to access various tools and resources at no cost. Additionally, you will receive these credits to encourage you to utilize cloud solutions.
Way-1: From AWS Activate ( AWS Credits for Startups)
If you are a startup and want to host your application on the AWS cloud, you can get many benefits, and you will also get up to $100,000 in AWS credits.
AWS Activate is a program that helps startups grow by providing them with free or low-cost resources, including simple infrastructure, along with AWS credits.
The AWS Activate program provides startups with two subcategories:
- Amazon Web Services Activate Founders
- Amazon Web Services Activate Portfolio
Let’s discuss how to obtain AWS credits for startups under each category.
Case 1: From AWS Activate Founders
First, you, as a startup, need to apply for the AWS Activate Founders program. There are several eligibility criteria that you must meet. For instance, your startup should be less than 10 years old and self-funded.
Once you cross all these eligibility criteria, you will get the approval to use the Amazon Web Services Activate Founders program, and the most interesting part is that you will get $1,000 in free AWS credits. Additionally, you will receive $350 in credits for developer support.
As a startup, you can enjoy these free AWS credits to grow your business.
Case 2: From AWS Activate Portfolio
To enroll in the AWS Activate Portfolio program as a startup, you must fulfill the eligibility criteria. For instance, your startup should be associated with various startup-enabling organizations, such as incubators and venture capital firms, and it must be less than 10 years old and hold a valid AWS account.
Once you, as a startup, receive approval for the Amazon Web Services Activate Portfolio program, you will be eligible for up to $100,000 in AWS free credits. In addition, you will also get $10,000 in AWS credits for your AWS business support, some free training, some exclusive offers, etc., to grow your business as a startup.
Way 2: From Different Educational and Research Programs through the AWS
AWS offers various educational and research programs to support students, Faculty, and others with complimentary AWS credits.
Case 1: From AWS Cloud Credits for Research
AWS Cloud Credit for Research is another fabulous program that provides free AWS credits. Again, you must be eligible to apply for this program with specific criteria: You must belong to a research institution as a full-time Faculty member and a research staff member, be A student with a proper degree like a Ph.D., and must belong to an adequate research institution, etc.
Once you enter the program, you will receive a certain number of AWS credits and other rewards, which are not fixed and are based on the type of business proposal and usage.
But, as a student, you can get up to $5,000.00.
Case 2: From AWS EdStart
AWS EdStart is another educational program that enables entrepreneurs to learn and transition to the AWS cloud, utilizing various cloud solutions.
To encourage you as an entrepreneur, AWS EdStart helps you with different free trainings on the AWS cloud, support from EdTech experts, and discounted resources. Additionally, it offers you free AWS credits to provide financial support.
Case 3: From AWS Educate
The AWS Educate program is an excellent choice for anyone, whether a student or professional, to learn about the cloud for free through free training, labs, and environments. As an educator, an institution, or even an individual, you can get these free credits to help you build your cloud world.
This is one of the best ways for students to get AWS credits.
Way 3: From different programs from nonprofit organizations through AWS
There is also another way to get these credits from different programs for different nonprofit organizations.
Case 1: From the Nonprofit Credit Program by AWS
The AWS Nonprofit Credit Program helps nonprofits implement various solutions on the AWS cloud by providing $1,000 in AWS credits. Amazon helps nonprofits to grow towards cloud solutions.
Case 2: From AWS Imagine Grant
The AWS Imagine Grant is an excellent program for nonprofit organizations to learn about the cloud, work on proof-of-concepts (PoCs) for cloud solutions, and transition to the AWS cloud to build various solutions. This program supports nonprofit organizations.
There are specific criteria for nonprofit organizations to apply for this program; for instance, the organization should have 501(c) status, etc.
The AWS Imagine Grant program is further divided into two categories,s and those are
- Go Further, Faster Award
- Momentum to Modernize Award
As part of the Go Further, Faster Award, you will receive USD 100,000 in AWS Credits and USD 150,000 for financial support.
In the same way, as part of the Momentum to Modernize Award, you will receive USD 10,000 in AWS Credits and USD 30,000 for financial support.
Way-4: By creating an AWS free tier Account
The best way to earn AWS credits is by creating an AWS free tier account. Along with that, you will get a lot of free resources to work with the AWS cloud. For instance, you will receive 25 GB of Free storage for Amazon DynamoDB, 1 million free requests per month for AWS Lambda, and more. You will get almost all the valuable resources you need to work with the AWS cloud free of cost.
Way-5: By attending Webinars and events on AWS
You can earn some AWS credits by attending some of the webinars and events on AWS. However, one important thing to note is that they will see proof that you have participated in the event or the webinar.
Way-6: By publishing an Alexa skill
If you are a developer, you have one more simple way to earn $100 in AWS credits for publishing an Alexa skill—the time to show your skills.
AWS free credits for students
AWS encourages students to learn about AWS Clouds by providing numerous free training materials, tools, Access to various AWS events and forums, and free AWS credits for students through the AWS Educate program.
A student can get USD 35 in free AWS credits, and another point is if the student belongs to an organization that is a member of the AWS Educate program, then that student can get $100 in free AWS credits.
If you are a student interested in learning about AWS cloud, you can create an AWS Free Account for Students and utilize the benefits of AWS free credits for students now.
Startup India AWS credits
Amazon encourages all startups, including startups in India, to grow and implement their cloud solutions with AWS.
Amazon helps all startups by providing free resources or resources at a lower cost, as well as the simple infrastructure needed for the cloud, via the AWS Activate program. Additionally, as a startup, you will receive a substantial amount of AWS free credits, subject to specific terms and conditions, to help you financially with cloud solutions.
To help startups in India, AWS has Data Centre clusters in India (Mumbai, Telangana regions, etc.). If you’re a startup, you can register for the AWS Activate program now to take advantage of this opportunity.
FAQs
What are AWS credits?
AWS credits are a perk offered by Amazon that helps you save money on your AWS cloud bill. A promotional program from Amazon for the benefit of customers and users.
You can use your AWS credits against some eligible services. You can use the AWS credits until they expire.
You may also like the following articles below
Wrapping Up
Now, you have a better understanding of AWS student credits. And how do you get free AWS credits? As an individual or an Organization? Now, it’s your turn to earn as many AWS credits as possible and improve your learning about the AWS cloud.

I am Rajkishore, and I am a Microsoft Certified IT Consultant. I have over 14 years of experience in Microsoft Azure and AWS, with good experience in Azure Functions, Storage, Virtual Machines, Logic Apps, PowerShell Commands, CLI Commands, Machine Learning, AI, Azure Cognitive Services, DevOps, etc. Not only that, I do have good real-time experience in designing and developing cloud-native data integrations on Azure or AWS, etc. I hope you will learn from these practical Azure tutorials. Read more.
