RDS Free Tier: 750 Hours of Db.t3.micro – What Is Free
AWS RDS Free Tier offers 750 hours per month of db.t3.micro instances for MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and SQL Server Express, along with 20 GB of storage and automated backups. The tier is designed for learning, development, and low-traffic applications, but exceeding usage limits incurs standard costs.
Background
- Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is AWS's managed database service — you pay for compute, storage, and data transfer, and AWS handles backups, patching, and replication.
- The **Free Tier** for RDS runs **750 hours/month** of a **db.t3.micro** instance (1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM) on either MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or Oracle; this is enough for one instance running around the clock, or two instances running half-time.
- "t3.micro" refers to a "burstable" instance type: it can briefly spike above its baseline CPU (20% of a vCPU for t3.micro) using earned "CPU credits"; once credits are exhausted, performance is throttled.
- The free tier **stops at 750 hours** — in months with fewer days, the same 24/7 instance still uses 730-744 hours, so it fits. The free tier also includes **20 GB of general-purpose (gp2) SSD storage** and **20 GB of automated backups**; anything beyond that (extra storage, data transfer out, or using Multi-AZ) costs money.
- Top gotchas: the free tier is available only on new AWS accounts for the first 12 months, and **stopping an instance does not stop the hourly clock** (stopped instances still incur storage costs).