How do I launch an Amazon RDS database instance that's covered by the AWS Free Tier?

Short description

The Amazon RDS Free Tier allows you to experiment with Amazon RDS for free.

Important: To avoid unnecessary charges, read the Amazon RDS Free Tier offering before launching any Amazon RDS resources.

Resolution

1. Open the Amazon RDS console.
2. In the navigation bar, select your Region from the Region selector.
3. In the Create database section, choose Create database.
4. For the Choose a database creation method section, choose Standard create.
5. In the Engine options section, select one of the following engine types: MySQL or MariaDB or PostgreSQL.
   Important: The Free Tier doesn't cover RDS DB instances launched with Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server, or Oracle database engines.
6. For Templates, select Free tier.
7. In the Settings section, enter the DB instance identifier, Master username, and Master password.
8. For DB instance class, Storage, Connectivity, and Database authentication, select the options that are best for your use case, or leave the default configurations.
   Note: Database authentication options are available only if you select MySQL.
   Important: In the Storage section, clear Enable storage autoscaling to avoid incurring charges.
9. In the Additional configuration section, for Initial database name, enter a name for your database. For all other configuration details, choose the options that are best for your use case, or leave the default settings.
   Important: For Backup, clear Enable automatic backups to avoid incurring storage fees for retaining backups of your Amazon RDS instance.
10. Review the Estimated monthly costs, and then choose Create database.

Related information

Amazon RDS FAQs

Amazon RDS

AWS Free Usage Tier FAQs