AWS RDS Free Tier | What 750 Hours Actually Gets You and What It Does Not | Usage.ai

Skip to content

Login<br>Get a Demo

Product

Resources

Learning Hub<br>Blogs<br>Case Studies<br>Documentation<br>FAQ

Glossary

Pricing

Company

Become a Partner<br>Careers<br>About Us<br>News

See Your Savings<br>Login<br>Get a Demo

All blog posts

AWS, RDS

RDS Free Tier: 750 Hours of db.t3.micro — What Is Actually Free

Vishal Sharma

Senior Content Strategist

Originally Published on<br>May 7, 2026

Updated May 7, 2026

19 min read

On this page

The AWS RDS free tier is more constrained than most developers realize until their first unexpected bill arrives. It gives you one db.t3.micro running continuously for 12 months at no charge — but only one. Run a second db.t3.micro simultaneously and you consume the 750-hour pool twice as fast, hitting the limit in 15.6 days instead of 31. Enable Multi-AZ and you are immediately billed at the Multi-AZ rate for every hour. Add an RDS Proxy and a separate billing clock starts. Use Aurora and there is no free tier at all.

This guide documents every component of the AWS RDS free tier precisely: what is included, what is not, what happens after 12 months, and the three billing traps that catch most new users.

What Exactly Does the AWS RDS Free Tier Include?

Here is the complete inventory of what the amazon rds free tier provides, per month, for the first 12 months after AWS account creation (verify at aws.amazon.com/free — offer terms change).

Free Tier Component<br>Quantity<br>Details<br>Engines Eligible<br>Catch

db.t3.micro instance hours<br>750 hours/month<br>Single-AZ only. Shared across all RDS instances in the account globally.<br>MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server Express<br>Pool depletes 2x faster with two simultaneous instances

db.t2.micro instance hours<br>750 hours/month<br>Legacy option where t3.micro is not available<br>Same engines as t3.micro<br>t3.micro is preferred in most regions

db.t4g.micro instance hours<br>750 hours/month<br>Graviton2 variant, eligible in supported regions<br>MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL<br>Not available in all regions; SQL Server Express excluded

Database storage (General Purpose SSD)<br>20 GB/month<br>gp2 or gp3 storage. The 20 GB is for the primary volume only.<br>All free tier eligible engines<br>Exceeding 20 GB billed at $0.115/GB-month (gp3) or $0.115/GB-month (gp2)

Backup storage (automated backups + snapshots)<br>20 GB/month<br>Separate from the database storage allocation. Includes automated backups.<br>All free tier eligible engines<br>Any backup storage above 20 GB charged at $0.095/GB-month

Duration<br>12 months<br>From initial AWS account creation date, not from first RDS instance launch.<br>All<br>No grace period after 12 months. Billing starts immediately.

Also read: RDS Reserved Instances: Engine-by-Engine Pricing and Commitment Guide

What Is NOT Included in the AWS RDS Free Tier?

The list of exclusions is where most unexpected charges come from. Every item below bills at standard on-demand rates from the first hour of usage.

Not Free<br>Rate if Used<br>Common Mistake<br>Free Alternative<br>Source

Multi-AZ deployment<br>2x instance rate (~$0.032/hr for t3.micro Multi-AZ)<br>Checking Multi-AZ in the console during setup<br>Single-AZ only<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing

Aurora (MySQL or PostgreSQL compatible)<br>From $0.073/hr for db.t4g.medium Aurora<br>Choosing Aurora engine thinking it is RDS<br>RDS MySQL or PostgreSQL<br>No Aurora free tier exists

RDS Proxy<br>$0.015/hr per vCPU of the proxied database<br>Adding Proxy to improve connection pooling on dev database<br>Connect directly to RDS endpoint<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/proxy/pricing

Oracle (any edition)<br>From $0.025/hr (t3.micro BYOL) to $0.462/hr (SE2 LI)<br>Assuming Oracle has a free tier like MySQL<br>No free Oracle — use MySQL or PostgreSQL<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/oracle/pricing

SQL Server Standard or Enterprise<br>From $0.178/hr (t3.small SE2 LI)<br>SQL Server Standard thinking ‘Express is too limited’<br>SQL Server Express Edition only in free tier<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/sqlserver/pricing

Provisioned IOPS (io1/io2) storage<br>$0.125/GB-month + $0.10/IOPS-month<br>Selecting io1 storage for higher IOPS<br>gp2 or gp3 (General Purpose SSD)<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing

db.t3.micro CPU credits when bursting above baseline<br>$0.075/vCPU-hour for credits consumed above baseline<br>Running sustained CPU-heavy workloads on t3.micro<br>Limit CPU or use non-burstable instance<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing

Data transfer out to internet<br>First 100 GB/month free; $0.09/GB after<br>Application outside AWS querying the free tier database<br>Keep application in same region<br>aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand

Read replicas<br>Same rate as primary instance ($0.016/hr for t3.micro)<br>Adding a read replica for testing<br>No replicas in free tier<br>aws.amazon.com/rds/pricing

How Does the 750-Hour RDS Free Tier Pool Actually Work?

The 750 hours is a monthly pool that is shared across all db.t3.micro (and equivalent) RDS instances in your AWS account, regardless of region. It is not 750 hours per instance.

A single db.t3.micro running continuously for a 31-day month uses: 31 days x 24...