The S3 free tier provides 5GB of standard storage in Amazon S3 and 20,000 GET requests per month for the first 12 months of an AWS account. This offer includes 100,000 PUT requests and 15GB of data transfer out each month.
When you create a new AWS account, you automatically qualify for the AWS Free Tier, which includes the S3 free tier. The free tier applies to the first 5GB of standard storage in Amazon S3, with specific limits on requests and data transfer.
After the first 12 months, you'll be charged standard rates for any usage beyond the free tier limits. To avoid unexpected charges, monitor your usage through the AWS Management Console.
| Component | Free Tier Limit |
|---|---|
| Standard Storage | 5GB |
| GET Requests | 20,000 requests per month |
| PUT Requests | 100,000 requests per month |
| Data Transfer Out | 15GB per month |
The S3 free tier is not designed for high-traffic websites, large-scale applications, or long-term data archiving. It also does not cover all AWS services, such as Amazon EC2 or Amazon RDS. For these use cases, you'll need to consider other AWS offerings or pay for additional services.
Another common misconception is that the free tier is available indefinitely. In reality, the S3 free tier is only available for the first 12 months of your AWS account. After that, you'll be charged standard rates for any usage beyond the free tier limits.
I used the S3 free tier to host a static website for a personal project. The website consisted of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, totaling about 2GB of data. I stored the files in an S3 bucket and enabled static website hosting. The cost was minimal, as the usage fell well within the free tier limits.
However, I had to be mindful of the data transfer limits. When the website received more traffic than expected, I had to monitor the data transfer usage closely to avoid exceeding the free tier limits.