💰 AWS Support Plans Overview
AWS offers four tiers of Support Plans, each designed to meet different levels of business needs — from free community support to enterprise-grade 24/7 assistance.
Knowing these differences is important for the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.
🧩 AWS Support Plan Tiers
| Support Plan | Intended For | Monthly Cost | Key Access |
|---|
| Basic | All AWS accounts (default) | ✅ Free | Self-service resources |
| Developer | Non-production workloads | 💵 Starts at $29/month | Email support during business hours |
| Business | Production workloads | 💵 Starts at $100/month | 24/7 phone, chat, and email support |
| Enterprise / Enterprise On-Ramp | Business-critical workloads | 💵 Starts at $5,500/month | Dedicated TAM, fastest response times |
📘 1. Basic Support Plan
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Cost | Free (included for all AWS users) |
| Support Access | Customer service, documentation, whitepapers, support forums |
| Trusted Advisor | Access to 7 Core Checks only |
| Personal Health Dashboard | ✅ Personalized service health alerts |
| Response Time | — (no technical support) |
🧑💻 2. Developer Support Plan
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Intended For | Developers testing or building on AWS |
| Support Access | Business-hours email support from Cloud Support Associates |
| Unlimited Cases/Contacts | ✅ Yes |
| Response Times | |
| - General Guidance | < 24 business hours |
| - System Impaired | < 12 business hours |
| Trusted Advisor | Core checks only |
🏭 3. Business Support Plan
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Intended For | Production workloads |
| Support Access | 24/7 phone, email, and chat with Cloud Support Engineers |
| Trusted Advisor | ✅ Full set of checks + API access |
| Infrastructure Event Management | Available (additional fee) |
| Response Times | |
| - General Guidance | < 24 hours |
| - System Impaired | < 12 hours |
| - Production System Impaired | < 4 hours |
| - Production System Down | < 1 hour |
🏢 4. Enterprise On-Ramp Support Plan
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Intended For | Production & business-critical workloads |
| Includes | Everything from Business plan |
| Added Features | |
| - Access to a pool of Technical Account Managers (TAMs) | |
| - Concierge Support Team for billing & account guidance | |
| - Operations Reviews & Well-Architected Reviews | |
| - Infrastructure Event Management included | |
| Response Times | |
| - Production Impaired | < 4 hours |
| - Production Down | < 1 hour |
| - Business-Critical System Down | < 30 minutes |
🏆 . Enterprise Support Plan
| Feature | Description |
|---|
| Intended For | Mission-critical workloads |
| Includes | All features from On-Ramp |
| Added Features | |
| - Dedicated Technical Account Manager (TAM) | |
| - AWS Incident Detection and Response (optional, extra cost) | |
| - Concierge Support and Operational Reviews | |
| Response Times | |
| - Production Impaired | < 4 hours |
| - Production Down | < 1 hour |
| - Business-Critical System Down | < 15 minutes |
🧠 Exam Tips
| Topic | Key Fact |
|---|
| Basic Plan | Free; includes documentation, forums, and Personal Health Dashboard |
| Developer Plan | Email support during business hours |
| Business Plan | Full Trusted Advisor + 24/7 phone/chat support |
| Enterprise On-Ramp | Pool of TAMs; 30-minute response for critical issues |
| Enterprise | Dedicated TAM; 15-minute response for critical outages |
| API Access | Only available with Business and Enterprise plans |
✅ 9. Summary
| Plan | Trusted Advisor Access | Support Access | Response Time (Critical) |
|---|
| Basic | 7 Core Checks | Docs & Forums | — |
| Developer | Core Checks | Email (Business Hours) | 12 hrs |
| Business | Full Checks + API | 24/7 Phone/Chat/Email | 1 hr |
| Enterprise On-Ramp | Full Checks + TAM Pool | 24/7 Priority Support | 30 min |
| Enterprise | Full Checks + Dedicated TAM | 24/7 Priority Support | 15 min |