AWS Lambda
Event-driven serverless compute that runs your code on demand without provisioning or managing servers, billed per request and per millisecond of compute.
- Card required
- Yes
AWS Lambda scores 6.2/10 for free value in Functions. The main constraint: 1,000,000 requests and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute per month, free forever (shared across x86 and Graviton2/Arm), plus 100 GiB of HTTP response streaming per month.
Free value score
6.2 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
What you get
Perpetual always-free tier: 1M requests + 400K GB-seconds every month, never expires
Works on both x86 and Graviton2/Arm processors against the same aggregate quota
Includes 100 GiB/month of HTTP response streaming (first 6 MB per request always free)
Per-millisecond billing once over quota; pay only for actual compute used
Gotchas
- Monthly free quota
1,000,000 requests and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute per month, resetting each calendar month. Usage beyond this bills at standard pay-as-you-go rates.
- Payment method required at signup
Creating an AWS account requires a valid credit/debit card on file, even when staying entirely within the free tier.
- Provisioned Concurrency excluded
The free tier does not apply to functions with Provisioned Concurrency enabled; those are billed for Requests and Duration from the first unit.
- 15-minute invocation timeout
A single invocation can run for at most 900 seconds (15 minutes); longer-running work is terminated with a timeout.
- Memory cap per function
Function memory is configurable from 128 MB up to 10,240 MB (with proportional vCPU); the same allocation also caps available CPU.
- Default concurrency limit
Accounts start with a default soft limit of 1,000 concurrent executions per region; requests beyond this are throttled until a quota increase is granted.
- Response streaming cap
100 GiB of HTTP response streaming per month is included free (beyond the first 6 MB per request, which is always free); excess streamed bytes are billed at $0.008/GB.
- Cold starts on idle functions
Without (paid) Provisioned Concurrency, infrequently invoked functions incur cold-start latency while a new execution environment is initialized.
Sources
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"The AWS Lambda free tier includes one million free requests per month and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time per month, usable for functions powered by both x86, and Graviton2 processors, in aggregate. Additionally, the free tier includes 100GiB of HTTP response streaming per month, beyond the first 6MB per request, which are free."
https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/pricing/ -
"New AWS customers can get started at no cost with the AWS Free Tier. Gain $100 USD credits at sign-up and up to $100 USD more to earn as you explore key AWS services. Test drive AWS services with the Free Plan for up to 6 months."
https://aws.amazon.com/free/ -
"The free account plan expires after 6 months or when you exhaust your credits, whichever comes first... Legacy Free Tier - If your AWS account was created before July 15, 2025, you'll continue to be in the legacy Free Tier program... The always-free tier is available under both the new Free Tier program and the legacy Free Tier program."
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-free-tier-update-new-customers-can-get-started-and-explore-aws-with-up-to-200-in-credits/ -
"Survey by Datadog shows ongoing prevalence for Amazon's Lambda service as organizations scale up their use of serverless architecture."
https://www.informationweek.com/it-infrastructure/report-aws-lambda-dominates-as-serverless-adoption-grows
