AWS pricing follows a few core principles the Cloud Practitioner exam loves: pay-as-you-go, pay less when you reserve, and pay less as you use more. The Free Tier lets you try many services at no cost within limits.
The three Free Tier types
Always Free — permanent limits (e.g., Lambda’s monthly free requests). 12 Months Free — free for a year after sign-up (e.g., a small EC2 instance). Trials — short-term free access to specific services. And remember the pricing principles: pay-as-you-go, reserve for discounts, volume discounts.
Test yourself
Which AWS pricing principle explains why committing to a 1-year Reserved Instance costs less than On-Demand?
- Pay-as-you-go
- Pay less when you reserve
- Pay less as AWS grows
- Pay more for flexibility
👉 Click to reveal the answer & explanation
Correct answer: B. “Pay less when you reserve” is the principle behind Reserved Instances and Savings Plans — commitment earns a discount. Pay-as-you-go (A) is about no upfront cost; the others (C, D) aren’t AWS pricing principles.
Related topics
AWS Cost Explorer · AWS Budgets · Amazon EC2
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