DynamoDB Free Tier: Limits, Credits and Costs

DynamoDB's always-free tier includes 25 GB of Standard-class storage, 25 provisioned write capacity units and 25 provisioned read capacity units, each month per Region per payer account. It also includes 2.5 million DynamoDB Streams read requests and an eligible provisioned global-table allowance. These benefits do not expire after 12 months, but they are separate from the time-limited AWS Free account plan and promotional credits introduced on July 15, 2025.

What the DynamoDB free tier includes

The DynamoDB pricing page lists these monthly allowances. They are shared across eligible usage within a payer account and Region, not granted separately to every table or index.

Standard-IA tables do not receive the Standard-class storage or provisioned-capacity allowances. Backups, point-in-time recovery, exports, imports and DAX are not included in these DynamoDB always-free amounts.

A table in on-demand mode can use the free 25 GB storage allowance while still generating read and write charges. The free 25 RCU and 25 WCU are provisioned capacity, not a pool of free on-demand requests. Compare the two billing models in the capacity modes guide.

How much traffic do 25 RCU and 25 WCU support?

For ordinary operations, 25 WCU supports 25 writes per second of items up to 1 KB. Twenty-five RCU supports 25 strongly consistent reads per second of items up to 4 KB, or 50 eventually consistent reads per second. Larger items use more units, and transactional operations require twice the ordinary write or strongly consistent read units.

AWS describes the allowance as enough for roughly 200 million requests per month, depending on item size. It is not a guaranteed monthly request budget: throughput must fit the configured per-second capacity and the data model must avoid hot keys. Free unused capacity from yesterday cannot serve an unlimited burst today.

Use the item size and capacity calculator to estimate your actual item sizes and operation mix. Include GSIs, since their writes and reads also consume the shared allowance.

What changed in the AWS Free Tier on July 15, 2025?

AWS changed how new accounts start using its services. The underlying DynamoDB always-free amounts remain available under both the legacy and new programs. The difference is the account plan and how promotional credits work.

Accounts created before July 15, 2025

These stay in the legacy Free Tier program, which contains always-free benefits, short-term trials and 12-month offers for different services. DynamoDB's amounts are in the always-free category. An old account does not lose those amounts merely because its first year ends.

On a billable account, usage beyond the allowance is charged at normal rates. Exceeding one allowance does not cancel all the others: additional storage can be billed while eligible provisioned throughput remains within its free allocation.

Accounts created on or after July 15, 2025

New customers choose a Free plan or Paid plan. Both receive $100 in signup credits and can earn up to $100 more through five activities worth $20 each. DynamoDB's always-free amounts apply on both plans, and eligible usage beyond them can consume promotional credits.

When the Free plan ends, the account closes and access to resources is lost. AWS retains the content for 90 days during which you can upgrade, after which the account and resources are deleted. To keep using DynamoDB, upgrade to Paid before the Free plan ends. That preserves access to the always-free amounts; it does not make paid usage unlimited.

Credits expire 12 months after signup. The six-month Free-plan lifetime and the credit-expiration date are separate clocks. Some actions, including joining AWS Organizations, automatically upgrade the account to Paid. Review AWS's plan rules and Free Tier announcement for eligibility. The new credit program is not available in AWS GovCloud or China Regions.

Setting up a table within the allowance

There is no separate DynamoDB free-tier subscription or reduced-feature database to install. Create a normal table in the intended account and Region, then select settings that fit your shared allowance.

1. Check whether your account is on the Free or Paid plan, and inspect remaining credits and existing free-tier usage.
2. Open DynamoDB and create a table with an appropriate partition key and optional sort key.
3. Choose the Standard table class. If using the free throughput allowance is your priority, choose provisioned capacity.
4. Set read/write capacity with room for your other tables and GSIs inside the shared 25 RCU and 25 WCU amounts. Review any auto scaling maximums.
5. Monitor storage, provisioned capacity, billing and enabled features as you test.

On-demand can be convenient for intermittent development, but its requests are billed. It may still be inexpensive, or covered by promotional credits, without being part of the always-free request allowance. For offline development, DynamoDB Local avoids managed-service usage charges but does not reproduce every production feature.

DynamoDB Streams free tier and pricing example

Streams reads are separate from table RCUs or RRUs. Each GetRecords call counts as a Streams read request, including a call that returns no records. At us-east-1 rates, billable reads cost $0.02 per 100,000 requests after the 2.5 million monthly allowance.

For a custom consumer making 1,000,000 billable GetRecords calls per day over a 30-day month:

Total requests:       1,000,000 × 30 = 30,000,000
Minus free allowance: 30,000,000 - 2,500,000 = 27,500,000
Streams charge:       27,500,000 / 100,000 × $0.02 = $5.50
Total requests:       1,000,000 × 30 = 30,000,000
Minus free allowance: 30,000,000 - 2,500,000 = 27,500,000
Streams charge:       27,500,000 / 100,000 × $0.02 = $5.50

Ordinary Lambda triggers and global-table replication do not incur DynamoDB Streams read charges. Lambda functions running on Lambda Managed Instances are an exception and pay the normal Streams read rates. Lambda compute and other downstream services have their own charges. The Streams guide explains consumer choices and retention.

Pricing example with provisioned capacity and the free tier

Consider one Standard table in us-east-1 with auto scaling targeting 70% utilization, minimum 100 RCU/100 WCU and maximum 400 RCU/400 WCU. Each interaction makes an ordinary write of up to 1 KB and a strongly consistent read of up to 1 KB. Assume the following provisioned allocations for three ten-day periods in a 30-day month.

These are illustrative steady allocations, rounded up to whole units. Real scaling delays and the timing of capacity changes affect actual billing.

Each row uses $0.00065 per WCU-hour and $0.00013 per RCU-hour. For example, 143 WCU costs $0.09295/hour and 143 RCU costs $0.01859/hour, totaling $0.11154/hour.

If no other usage has consumed the shared allowance, the 25 WCU and 25 RCU free amounts reduce the 30-day bill by:

Writes: 25 × $0.00065 × 720 hours = $11.70
Reads:  25 × $0.00013 × 720 hours =  $2.34
Total free throughput value:       $14.04
Net throughput: $67.0176 - $14.04 = $52.9776, approximately $52.98
Writes: 25 × $0.00065 × 720 hours = $11.70
Reads:  25 × $0.00013 × 720 hours =  $2.34
Total free throughput value:       $14.04
Net throughput: $67.0176 - $14.04 = $52.9776, approximately $52.98

Storage and other features are additional. Keeping the table below 25 GB does not make the excess provisioned throughput free. Likewise, low actual consumption does not remove the charge for the configured 100-unit minimum. Use the pricing calculator for your workload and Region.

Common sources of unexpected charges

Auto scaling above the allowance. Scaling is useful for availability, but a maximum above the free tier permits billable capacity. Review the total across tables and GSIs rather than only the table you just created.

Secondary indexes and replicas. Index storage counts toward the storage allowance, and provisioned GSIs consume their own capacity. Global replicas add regional storage, replicated writes and potentially cross-Region data transfer.

Backups and caches. Enabling PITR, keeping on-demand backups or running DAX can create charges even if the table's storage and throughput fit the free tier. Promotional credits may offset eligible charges temporarily; they do not change the feature's price.

Data transfer. The current general internet transfer-out allowance is 100 GB/month aggregated across AWS services and Regions, excluding China and GovCloud. It is not an additional DynamoDB-only allowance. The DynamoDB pricing page still contains an older 1 GB/15 GB free-tier line; use its current data-transfer section when estimating transfer costs.

Best practices for staying within the allowance

Monitor billing alongside CloudWatch usage. On a Paid plan, budget alerts notify you about spend; they do not stop all billable activity. Keep a record of your account-plan end date and credit-expiration date if using the new program.

Use compact items, targeted key-based queries and eventual consistency where the application permits it. Avoid repeatedly scanning a table for a small result. Delete unused tables and indexes after testing, and separately review retained backups or other resources.

Choose capacity mode for the workload rather than only for the word “free.” Provisioned capacity can fit a small stable service inside the allowance; on-demand can fit an unpredictable experiment with little management. A production application also needs suitable recovery, monitoring and capacity, even when its normal traffic is small enough to qualify for free usage.