AWS has programs such as Activate and partnerships with VC firms & companies like Brex to provides startups with credits to consume AWS. 

AWS Credits cannot be applied toward the upfront cost of Reserved Instance (RI) & Savings Plan purchases. However, AWS does permits credits to be used for No Upfront RIs and Savings Plans. 

Purchasing No Upfront RIs and Savings Plans significantly reduces the monthly cost of the running AWS resources covered by these credits and hence burn rate of the credits.

Archera's platform is always free to use for any companies, whether they are on credits or not, and it includes scenario modeling tools to help customers on credits project when they will run out & what the costs will be.

Additionally customer's on AWS credits can take advantage of Archera GRIs and defer any non-credit eligible AWS Marketplace charges until their credits run, to increase their credit runway without taking on undue commitment risk or paying anything out of pocket. Learn more here
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