How the AWS Free Tier Actually Works
AWS free tier isn't one thing โ it's three different types of free access bundled under the same label, and mixing them up is how people end up with unexpected charges.
12-month free applies from the date you register and covers the services most people care about, including EC2. Currently this includes t2.micro or t3.micro instances (varies by region) for 750 hours per month โ enough for one instance running continuously, but two instances running simultaneously will exceed the limit. Check aws.amazon.com/free before signing up to confirm which instance types qualify in your region, since AWS adjusts this occasionally.
Always free has no time limit. Lambda gets 1 million invocations per month, DynamoDB 25GB of storage, CloudWatch basic monitoring. These don't expire after 12 months.
Short-term trials are 30- or 60-day one-time credits on specific services. Once used, they're gone.
For VPS-focused users, the relevant resources are EC2 and EBS storage. The t2.micro/t3.micro gives you 1 vCPU and 1GB RAM โ sufficient for WordPress, Docker experimentation, and basic development environments. The free tier includes 30GB of EBS storage per month; anything beyond that is billed separately, which is a detail that catches people off guard.
Before You Register
Three things to have ready: a real email address (not a temporary one โ AWS billing alerts, security notices, and MFA codes all go through email, and losing access to the inbox means losing practical access to the account), a phone number that can receive SMS, and a Visa or Mastercard credit or debit card. AWS requires a payment method even for free tier access. A small pre-authorization charge appears during registration and typically reverses within a few days.
Registration and First Instance
The signup flow at aws.amazon.com takes around 10โ15 minutes: email verification, password setup, contact information, card binding, phone verification, and support plan selection. Choose Basic Support โ it's free and sufficient. If the card verification fails, it's usually a bank risk management issue; trying a different card or briefly contacting the issuing bank generally resolves it.
Once in the console, select a region before doing anything else. For Asia-Pacific users, Tokyo or Singapore are the standard choices. Then navigate to EC2 and launch an instance:
- Choose an OS โ Ubuntu 22.04 LTS or Amazon Linux 2023 are both solid options
- Select the instance type and confirm the "Free tier eligible" label is visible โ anything without it will start billing immediately
- Create a Key Pair and download the .pem file somewhere safe โ losing it means rebuilding the instance
- Review the security group settings; SSH on port 22 is open by default
# Connect to the instance (replace with your actual values)
ssh -i "your-key.pem" ubuntu@your-ec2-public-ip
# Set correct key file permissions before first connection
chmod 400 your-key.pemThe Mistakes That Actually Cost Money
Closing the browser tab does not stop billing. An EC2 instance in "running" state generates charges regardless of what you're doing on your end. To stop billing, go to EC2 โ Instances โ select the instance โ Instance State โ Stop or Terminate. Stop pauses the instance but EBS storage continues to accrue charges. Terminate deletes everything. For learning purposes, Terminate is usually the right call.
Selecting the wrong instance type is the other common one. t2.micro and t3.micro qualify for free tier. t3.small does not. GPU instances like g4dn are nowhere near free tier โ they're billed by the hour at rates that add up fast. The "Free tier eligible" label in the instance selection screen is the check to make every single time.
Detached EBS volumes keep billing after an instance is terminated. AWS deletes the root volume by default on Terminate, but any additional EBS volumes you attached remain and continue generating charges. After terminating an instance, check EC2 โ Elastic Block Store โ Volumes for orphaned volumes. Check Snapshots too โ same issue.
Skipping billing alerts is probably the most consequential omission for new users. Go to Billing and Cost Management โ Budgets and set a threshold โ $5 is reasonable for someone on free tier. Configure email alerts at 80% and 100% of the budget. This catches problems early, when the bill is still small enough to be recoverable.
AWS vs. Standard VPS: The Honest Comparison
| Dimension | AWS EC2 | Standard VPS (DO / Vultr / Hostinger) |
|---|---|---|
| Learning value | High โ real cloud architecture exposure | Medium โ more practical, less conceptual |
| Billing complexity | High โ many components, easy to slip up | Low โ monthly or hourly, predictable |
| Ease of use | Steeper โ console is dense | Lower barrier โ simpler interfaces |
| Free access | Yes, with conditions | Some providers, simpler rules |
| Long-term cost | Expensive once free tier expires | Generally more economical |
For anyone whose goal is to deploy WordPress, run WooCommerce, or host a standard web application, a VPS from DigitalOcean, Vultr, or Hostinger is genuinely more straightforward โ billing is transparent, the interfaces are simpler, and there are fewer ways for things to go unexpectedly wrong. AWS earns its place when the goal is learning cloud architecture concepts: IAM permission systems, VPC networking, security group configuration, and the broader patterns that appear in real production environments. If you're trying to understand how cloud infrastructure actually works, AWS Free Tier is a good place to learn it. If you're trying to get a website live, a conventional VPS is faster and easier.
Recommended Setup Order
Following this sequence on a new AWS account eliminates most of the common problems:
Set up a billing alert first โ $5 budget with email notifications at 80% and 100%. Enable MFA on the root account before anything else. Create an IAM user for day-to-day work and avoid logging in as root for routine tasks. Confirm "Free tier eligible" every time you create an EC2 instance. When done with an experiment, Terminate the instance and then check EBS Volumes and Snapshots to confirm nothing is still running and billing.
Follow that order and the 12-month free tier period is unlikely to produce any surprise charges.