Free Tier Eligible badge not visible in EC2 console for IAM user

This appears to be a known visual discrepancy in the AWS console where Free Tier indicators may not display consistently for IAM users compared to the root account.

The absence of "Free Tier eligible" badges in the EC2 console for your IAM user doesn't necessarily mean you won't get Free Tier benefits. The Free Tier eligibility is determined by your AWS account status and usage, not by which user (root or IAM) launches the resources.

Here are some important points to consider:

1. Free Tier benefits are applied at the account level, not the user level. If your AWS account is within the 12-month Free Tier period, you'll still receive the benefits regardless of which user creates the resources.

2. Even without the visual indicators, t2.micro or t3.micro instances (depending on the region) will still be Free Tier eligible if your account qualifies.

3. The visual inconsistency between root and IAM users is a UI limitation and doesn't affect the actual Free Tier benefits applied to your account.

4. You can always verify your Free Tier usage and remaining benefits in the Billing and Cost Management dashboard, though you may need to use the root account to access complete billing information depending on your IAM permissions configuration.

If you want to ensure you're selecting Free Tier eligible resources, you can reference the instance types that are known to be Free Tier eligible (t2.micro or t3.micro in most regions) even if they're not explicitly labeled as such in the IAM user interface.
Sources
problem in creating Amazon EC2 instance | AWS re:Post
Free tier t4g small instance in 2025 | AWS re:Post