Not Able to Provision EKS Cluster with node Group with Free 100$ credits

When creating an Amazon EKS cluster with node groups, it's important to understand that EKS is not included in the AWS Free Tier offerings. Even though you have $100 in credits, EKS itself incurs charges that will be applied against those credits.

The error you're encountering is likely because you're trying to use an EC2 instance type that's not eligible for the Free Tier. While your $100 credit can be used for any AWS service (including EKS), if you want to maximize your credits, you might want to select smaller, less expensive instance types for your worker nodes.

For your EKS node group, consider using:

• t3.small or t3.micro instances which are more cost-effective
• Limiting the number of nodes in your node group
• Setting up proper auto-scaling to avoid unnecessary running instances

When configuring your Terraform code for EKS, make sure to specify these smaller instance types. For example:

resource "aws_eks_node_group" "example" {
cluster_name    = aws_eks_cluster.example.name
node_group_name = "example"
node_role_arn   = aws_iam_role.example.arn
subnet_ids      = aws_subnet.example[*].id
instance_types  = ["t3.small"]  # More cost-effective instance type

scaling_config {
desired_size = 1  # Start with minimal nodes
max_size     = 2
min_size     = 1
}
}

Also, be aware that with EKS, you're charged for:

1. The EKS control plane ($0.10 per hour per cluster)
2. The EC2 instances that serve as worker nodes
3. Any associated resources like EBS volumes, load balancers, etc.

To monitor your spending, set up AWS Budgets to alert you when your usage approaches your credit limit. This will help you avoid unexpected charges once your credits are depleted.
Sources
Aws free tier - Unexpected Charges for EKS Usage - Request for Assistance | AWS re:Post