Every AWS account comes with some level of support, but the depth of that support varies dramatically depending on which plan you choose. AWS offers five support tiers designed to match the criticality of your workloads — from a free plan suitable for exploration and learning, to a dedicated-TAM Enterprise plan for mission-critical production environments. Knowing the differences between these plans, including which ones include 24/7 phone support and which ones provide a Technical Account Manager (TAM), is a frequently tested topic on the CLF-C02 exam.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/roxsross/aws-cloud-practitioner-complete-guide/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
All AWS support plans — including the free Basic plan — include access to AWS documentation, whitepapers, re:Post community forums, and the AWS Personal Health Dashboard at no additional cost.
Plan Comparison at a Glance
| Feature | Basic | Developer | Business | Enterprise On-Ramp | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Cost | Free | $29 or 3% of usage | $100 or 10–3% of usage | $5,500 or 10% of usage | $15,000 or 10–3% of usage |
| Best For | Learning / personal | Dev & test | Production workloads | Business-critical scale | Mission-critical |
| Technical Support Cases | ❌ | ✅ (email, biz hours) | ✅ (24/7 phone, chat, email) | ✅ (24/7 phone, chat, email) | ✅ (24/7 phone, chat, email) |
| Trusted Advisor Checks | 7 core checks | 7 core checks | Full suite | Full suite | Full suite |
| Business-Critical Response | — | — | < 1 hour | < 30 minutes | < 15 minutes |
| Technical Account Manager | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | Pool of TAMs | Dedicated TAM |
| Support API Access | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Third-Party Software Support | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Detailed Plan Breakdown
- Basic (Free)
- Developer ($29/mo)
- Business ($100/mo)
- Enterprise On-Ramp ($5,500/mo)
- Enterprise ($15,000/mo)
Basic Support — Included with Every AWS Account
The Basic plan is automatically included with every AWS account at no charge. It provides self-service resources and limited automated insights but no access to human technical support.What’s Included:- Access to AWS documentation, technical guides, whitepapers, and re:Post community forums
- AWS Trusted Advisor: 7 core checks (security-focused — IAM use, MFA on root, public S3 buckets, public EBS/RDS snapshots, unrestricted security group ports, service limits)
- AWS Health Dashboard (Personal Health Dashboard): Personalized alerts about AWS service events that may affect your specific resources
- Billing and account support via the AWS Support Center
- No technical support cases — you cannot open a ticket with a Cloud Support engineer
- No phone, chat, or email access to AWS technical staff
- No architectural guidance or best-practice reviews
AWS Trusted Advisor Deep Dive
Trusted Advisor is available to all plans but the depth of checks differs significantly.7 Core Checks — Basic & Developer Plans
7 Core Checks — Basic & Developer Plans
The 7 core checks are exclusively security-focused and available to all accounts at no cost:
- S3 Bucket Permissions — Flags publicly accessible S3 buckets
- Security Groups — Specific Ports Unrestricted — Identifies overly permissive inbound rules (e.g., 0.0.0.0/0 on port 22 or 3389)
- IAM Use — Checks whether IAM is in active use (vs. using root credentials)
- MFA on Root Account — Flags if multi-factor authentication is not enabled on the root user
- Amazon EBS Public Snapshots — Identifies EBS snapshots marked as public
- Amazon RDS Public Snapshots — Identifies RDS snapshots marked as public
- Service Limits — Checks usage against AWS service quotas for a small subset of critical services
Full Suite — Business, Enterprise On-Ramp & Enterprise Plans
Full Suite — Business, Enterprise On-Ramp & Enterprise Plans
Business and Enterprise plans unlock hundreds of additional checks across five pillars:
- Cost Optimization (~50+ checks): Idle EC2 instances, underutilized EBS volumes, unassociated Elastic IPs, low-utilization RDS instances, RI purchase recommendations
- Performance (~40+ checks): CloudFront content delivery optimization, EC2-to-EBS throughput optimization, high-utilization EC2 instances
- Security (~60+ checks): Exposed access keys, CloudTrail logging status, route table over-permissiveness, weak IAM password policies
- Fault Tolerance (~10+ checks): EBS snapshots not taken recently, RDS not in Multi-AZ, ELB cross-zone load balancing disabled, Auto Scaling group health checks
- Service Limits (100+ checks): Current usage vs. soft limits across nearly all AWS services
AWS Personal Health Dashboard
Available on all support plans, the Personal Health Dashboard provides a personalized view of the health of AWS services and infrastructure that is specifically relevant to your account.Proactive Notifications
Receive alerts about AWS scheduled maintenance, hardware retirements, and service degradations that could affect resources in your specific account and region — not just generic service status.
Remediation Guidance
When an event affects your resources, the dashboard provides recommended remediation steps tailored to your specific configuration, such as which instances to migrate before a hardware retirement.
Event Log
Review a full history of past events that affected your account, useful for post-incident reviews and compliance reporting.
Integration Options
Integrate with Amazon EventBridge to trigger automated runbooks, Lambda functions, or SNS notifications whenever a health event matches your account.
Exam-Focused Quick Reference
The CLF-C02 exam tests support plan knowledge through scenario-based questions. Use these anchors:Key Facts the Exam Tests Most Often
Key Facts the Exam Tests Most Often
- Which plan includes 24/7 phone support? → Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, and Enterprise (Developer is email only, business hours)
- Which plan includes a dedicated TAM? → Enterprise (Enterprise On-Ramp has access to a pool of TAMs, not a dedicated one)
- Which plan is the minimum for full Trusted Advisor? → Business
- Which plan provides the fastest critical response? → Enterprise (< 15 minutes for business/mission-critical)
- What is available on all plans for free? → Documentation, re:Post forums, AWS Health Dashboard, and the 7 core Trusted Advisor checks
- Which plan requires no purchase to access? → Basic (included with every account automatically)
Choosing the Right Plan: Decision Framework
Is the workload in production?
If yes, you need at minimum Business Support for 24/7 multi-channel access and the 1-hour critical response SLA. Developer support’s business-hours-only email coverage is insufficient for production incidents.
Do you need full Trusted Advisor?
If cost optimization checks, performance recommendations, and comprehensive security checks are important, Business is the minimum plan.
Is downtime measured in millions of dollars per hour?
If yes, evaluate Enterprise On-Ramp (30-minute critical response + TAM pool) or Enterprise (15-minute critical response + dedicated TAM) based on the scale and complexity of your environment.