AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
AWS Support Plans
Compare the AWS Support plans, from free Basic Support to Enterprise, and learn what each one includes: response times, contact methods, Technical Account Managers, and Concierge support.
- Explain what every AWS account gets for free with Basic Support
- Compare the Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise plans
- Match a support need to the plan that meets it, including response times and contact methods
- Identify which plans include a Technical Account Manager and Concierge support
- Describe how AWS Support is priced
Why support plans matter
When something breaks at 2 a.m. or a bill looks wrong, the help you get depends on the AWS Support plan you chose. AWS sells support as tiered plans, and each higher tier adds faster response times, more ways to reach a human, and deeper account guidance. The exam tests whether you can match a business need to the right plan, so the goal here is to know what each plan includes and where the lines between them fall.
Every AWS account already has a plan: Basic Support, which is free. The other plans add technical support and pay for themselves on bigger or more critical workloads.
How AWS Support is priced
Basic Support costs nothing and is included with every account. The paid plans (Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise) are billed monthly. There is no long-term contract, so you can move up or down as your needs change.
The monthly charge for a paid plan is the greater of two numbers: a fixed minimum for that plan, or a percentage of your monthly AWS usage. The percentage is tiered, so it drops as your spend grows. The practical effect is that support cost scales with the size of your AWS footprint, which fits the same pay-as-you-go logic as the rest of AWS.
Basic Support
Basic Support is the free plan on every account. It covers the essentials and nothing more:
- One-on-one help with account and billing questions
- Service quota (limit) increase requests
- Access to documentation, technical papers, and the support forums
- A core set of AWS Trusted Advisor checks and AWS service health checks
What Basic does not include is technical support cases. If you need an engineer to help debug your architecture, you need a paid plan.
Developer Support
Developer Support is aimed at people building and testing on AWS, not running production yet. It adds technical support, but on a lighter footing:
- Email access (web cases) to a Cloud Support Associate during business hours
- One primary contact who can open an unlimited number of cases
- Response times of under 24 hours for general guidance and under 12 hours when your system is impaired
Developer is a good fit for early development and experimentation where a few hours of wait is acceptable and there is no production system at risk.
Business Support
Business Support is the first plan built for running production workloads, and it is the most common paid plan. It opens up full access:
- 24/7 access to Cloud Support Engineers by phone, chat, and email
- Any IAM user can open cases (not just one named contact)
- The full set of AWS Trusted Advisor checks across all categories
- The AWS Support API, so you can automate case management and Trusted Advisor
- Faster response times that now cover production: under 4 hours for a production system impaired and under 1 hour for a production system down
Business is the entry point for the response times and round-the-clock contact that production systems need. It has no Technical Account Manager, but it covers the core operational needs of most companies.
Enterprise On-Ramp
Enterprise On-Ramp sits between Business and Enterprise for companies that need more than Business but are not ready for full Enterprise. It includes everything in Business, plus:
- A pool of Technical Account Managers you can draw on (not one assigned to you)
- The AWS Concierge support team for billing and account help
- Under 30 minutes response time for a business-critical system down
- A yearly architectural or operational review and AWS Infrastructure Event Management
Enterprise On-Ramp suits workloads that are important but not yet at the scale that justifies a dedicated TAM.
Enterprise Support
Enterprise Support is the top plan, for organizations running large or business-critical workloads. It includes everything in Enterprise On-Ramp, plus the highest level of access:
- A designated Technical Account Manager (TAM) who knows your account and acts as your main technical contact
- The fastest response time: under 15 minutes for a business-critical system down
- The AWS Concierge support team
- AWS Infrastructure Event Management, Well-Architected reviews, and proactive guidance
The designated TAM is the headline difference. They provide ongoing, proactive guidance, coordinate access to AWS experts, and help you plan for big events, rather than just answering cases after something breaks.
Response times at a glance
Response time is the clearest way to tell the plans apart. The targets get faster as the severity of the case rises and as you move up the plans.
| Case severity | Developer | Business | Enterprise On-Ramp | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General guidance | < 24 hours | < 24 hours | < 24 hours | < 24 hours |
| System impaired | < 12 hours | < 12 hours | < 12 hours | < 12 hours |
| Production system impaired | not covered | < 4 hours | < 4 hours | < 4 hours |
| Production system down | not covered | < 1 hour | < 1 hour | < 1 hour |
| Business-critical system down | not covered | not covered | < 30 minutes | < 15 minutes |
Basic Support is not in this table because it does not include technical support cases.
Comparing the plans
| Feature | Basic | Developer | Business | Enterprise On-Ramp | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Paid | Paid | Paid | Paid |
| Technical support | No | Email, business hours | 24/7 phone, chat, email | 24/7 phone, chat, email | 24/7 phone, chat, email |
| Trusted Advisor | Core checks | Core checks | Full checks | Full checks | Full checks |
| Technical Account Manager | No | No | No | Pool of TAMs | Designated TAM |
| Concierge support | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Fastest response | n/a | < 12 hours | < 1 hour | < 30 minutes | < 15 minutes |
A note on recent changes
AWS has announced changes to its support plan lineup. Developer and Business Support are being replaced by a plan called Business Support+, and Enterprise On-Ramp customers are being moved into Enterprise Support, with these changes taking full effect on January 1, 2027. The current CLF-C02 exam still uses the classic five plans covered above (Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise), so study those names and features for the exam. It is just worth knowing that the live AWS console may show newer plan names.
Exam tips
- Basic Support is free, on every account, and covers account, billing, and quota increases but no technical support cases.
- Developer Support adds email (business hours) technical support for building and testing.
- Business Support is the first plan with 24/7 phone, chat, and email, the full Trusted Advisor check set, the Support API, and production response times (under 1 hour for a production system down).
- A designated Technical Account Manager (TAM) is the headline benefit of Enterprise Support. Enterprise On-Ramp gives a pool of TAMs.
- The Concierge support team comes with Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise only.
- Response times for business-critical down: under 30 minutes (Enterprise On-Ramp) and under 15 minutes (Enterprise).
- Support is priced monthly as the greater of a minimum or a percentage of your AWS usage, with no long-term contract.
- Watch for keywords: "designated TAM" points to Enterprise, "pool of TAMs" to Enterprise On-Ramp, and "24/7 phone support" or "production system down in 1 hour" to Business.