Infrastructure Partner · AWS Activate

AWS Cloud Creditsapplication guide.

Partner-referred tier · email template + application form breakdown + usage strategy — compiled for mainland China-based startups. Information on this page is for reference only; the official AWS terms govern.

🚨
Key warning: do not register an AWS account ID early!Registering an AWS ID before approval can prevent the credits from being issued. Correct order: send the application email → wait for Activate eligibility approval → only register the AWS account after receiving the approval email.
01 — Overview

What is AWS Activate

AWS Activateis Amazon Web Services' startup support programme — cloud credits, 1:1 senior solutions-architect support, and access to a global network of business resources, helping startups move to the cloud cheaply and scale fast. Lifetime cap of up to $100,000 (≈ RM 409,000) across all tiers.

💡
About this tierThis is a partner-referred application channel — total value ¥30,000 / $4,500 (≈ RM 18,000). AWS deliberately starts small and tops up as the company grows; handing out the full lifetime cap up front has proven inefficient.

Exchange rate reference (28 June 2026): 1 USD ≈ RM 4.09 · 1 CNY ≈ RM 0.60 · actual amounts follow the rate on the day.

02 — Tier overview

Four tiers

Base tier
¥3,500+
≈ RM 2,100
$1,000+
≈ RM 4,090
Direct application, no referral
This channel
Partner-referred tier
¥30,000
≈ RM 18,000
$4,500
≈ RM 18,400
Partner-channel referral
VC / incubator tier
≤ ¥175,000
≈ RM 105,000
≤ $25,000
≈ RM 102,250
Funded / in an incubator
Accelerator tier (lifetime cap)
≤ $100,000
≈ RM 409,000
YC / Techstars and other top accelerators
03 — Eligibility

Two sets of conditions — both must be met

📋 AWS official conditions
  1. 1. Private & independent
    Must be an independently operated, unlisted startup — not publicly traded, not acquired.
  2. 2. First-time applicant
    Must never have previously applied for or been approved under AWS Activate.
  3. 3. Minimal prior AWS spend
    Combined China-region + overseas-region historical spend ≤ $1,000 (≈ RM 4,090) or ≤ ¥7,000 (≈ RM 4,200).
🤝 Additional requirements for this channel
  1. A. Company age / funding history
    Registered within the last 1 year, or has raised funding within the last 3 years.
  2. B. Website requirement
    A working, publicly accessible website; the copyright holder must match the applicant company.
  3. C. Website has never used AWS
    Neither the website nor the company entity has previously registered or used AWS.
04 — Email template

Application email template

📋
Sending email requirementMust be sent from a company domain email(yourname@yourcompany.com) — personal addresses (Gmail / QQ / 163, etc.) are not accepted. The email domain must match the application website's domain.
Fromyourname@yourcompany.com (company domain email)
ToKerypeng@amazon.com
Subject[Company Name] AWS Activate Application
Hello,

I am [Your Name], CEO / CTO / COO (pick one) of [Company Name], based in [Mainland China city, e.g. Shenzhen / Shanghai / Beijing].

[Website domain, e.g. www.yourcompany.com] is our [2–3 sentence product/business model/user-base description — must be AI-related]. We would like to apply for AWS Activate. Thank you.
📎 Attachments (all three required)
📄 Business licence🌐 Domain purchase record (website + company email)📋 AWS Activate application form (see section 05)
✍️
Tip for the product descriptionMust be AI-related, e.g.: "We are building a large-model-powered customer service SaaS that helps SMEs automate customer enquiries; we currently have XX paying business customers." Keep it simple and clear, emphasising the technical direction and customer value.
05 — Application form

AWS Activate application form — field by field

📥
Field-by-field guidance for the official "AWS Activate Application Form 2026" document. Required fields cannot be left blank.

Company basics

Company / team nameREQUIRED
The full legal company name as shown on the business licence. New applicants only — accounts that have applied before are auto-rejected.
Unified social credit codeREQUIRED
18-digit unified social credit code (on the business licence). Overseas entities should provide their local registration number.
Website / domainREQUIRED
A working, publicly accessible website URL. Note: the company email domain used to register the AWS account later must match this domain.
Address
A mainland China office address (city + full address).
Date founded
The company's registration date, format: YYYY-MM.
Founder / technical lead
Name, title (CEO/CTO/COO), phone, company email. Email must be a company-domain address matching the website domain.
Product description
Describe the product or business model, customer base, and monetisation, in plain language. Suggested length 150–300 words; must demonstrate AI relevance.
Core team background
List at least 2 co-founders' backgrounds, including education and work experience. Emphasise technical capability and industry experience.

Activate review information

Planned AWS products & use cases
List the specific AWS services you plan to use (e.g. EC2, S3, Bedrock, SageMaker) and the corresponding use case. Reference: aws.amazon.com/cn
Current monthly cloud spend (other providers)
Name the cloud platform(s) you currently use (e.g. Alibaba Cloud / Tencent Cloud), and the monthly spend (CNY or USD) for each of the last three months.
Expected time to reach $1,000/month cloud usage
Single choice: within 1 month (migrating from another cloud) / 1–3 months / 3–6 months / 6–12 months / 12+ months
New account region (single choice)
Register a new AWS China region account (credits issued in RMB), or register a new AWS Global region account (credits issued in USD).
⚠️ Only register the account after approval — do not register early.
Have you previously received AWS credits?
Single choice: Yes / No
Type of Activate support requested (single choice)
Base tier / Higher tier (requires proof of institutional investment)
Have you raised VC funding?
Yes, investor: ___ / No
Referring institution / organisation
A dropdown of recognised Chinese VC/accelerator/incubator names (Sequoia, Hillhouse, ZhenFund, IDG, etc.) plus an "Other" free-text option.
Privacy clause
Consent to share name, phone, email, title, and company information with Amazon for AWS Activate communication purposes.
06 — Process

Full application process, step by step

1
Prepare the three attachments
  • Business licence (clear scan or high-res photo, PDF / JPG)
  • Domain purchase record: proof of registration/ownership for both the website domain and the company email domain (must show the domain belongs to the applicant company)
  • AWS Activate application form (fully completed — see section 05)
2
Send the application email from your company domain email
Following the template in section 04, send from your company domain email to Kerypeng@amazon.com, with all three attachments included.
!
While waiting for review: do not register an AWS account
Review takes roughly 7–10 business days. Do not register any AWS account during this period — doing so can prevent the credits from being issued.
4
Register the AWS account only after approval
Once you receive the approval email from aws-activate@amazon.com:
  • Register using your company domain email, matching the same domain
  • An international credit card is required ($1 pre-authorisation, refunded after verification — UnionPay not supported)
  • Select the "Basic Support — Free" support plan
  • Record the 12-digit account ID and reply to confirm it's been linked
07 — Voucher mechanics

How credits are disbursed

Disbursement 1
¥10,000
$1,500 USD
🎁 No condition — credited on approval
Valid 6 months from the 1st of the credit month
Disbursement 2
¥10,000
$1,500 USD
⚡ Triggered by ¥10,000 in real spend
Credited end of following month · valid 6 months
Disbursement 3
¥10,000
$1,500 USD
⚡ Triggered by another ¥10,000 in real spend
Credited end of following month · valid 6 months
⚠️
Overall deadline: ¥20,000 (≈ RM 12,000) / $3,000 (≈ RM 12,270) in real spend must occur within 1 yearDisbursements 2 and 3 are triggered by real payment— spending the credits themselves doesn't count. The window from disbursement 1 to disbursement 3 cannot exceed 1 year.
🚫 Credits cannot be used for
Reserved InstancesMechanical TurkAWS Support feesMarketplace purchasesAny prepaymentTransfer to another account
08 — Eligible services

Services credits can be applied to

🖥️
Amazon EC2
Elastic compute, 500+ instance types
📦
Amazon S3
Object storage, 11 nines durability
🗄️
Amazon RDS
Managed relational databases
⚡
AWS Lambda
Serverless compute
🐳
ECS / EKS
Containers & Kubernetes
🧠
Amazon Bedrock
Claude / Llama / Mistral foundation models
🔬
SageMaker
ML training & inference
🌐
CloudFront
Global CDN
🔑
DynamoDB
NoSQL (25GB free tier forever)
🔍
OpenSearch
Full-text search & analytics
📊
CloudWatch
Monitoring & logging
⚙️
AWS Glue
Data pipelines & ETL
🤖
Stacking trick: AI chips + always-free tierCredits also apply to AWS Trainium (up to 50% savings) and AWS Inferentia (up to 40% better price-performance). Always-free allowances (Lambda 1M requests/month, DynamoDB 25GB, SNS, etc.) get consumed first — credits only kick in once you exceed those, maximising value.
09 — Usage strategy

How to maximise the credits

StageFocusRecommended action
MVP stageBasic compute & storageLean EC2 / containers — validate product-market fit
Beta launchAnalytics & A/B testingOnly enable elastic scaling during test traffic peaks
AI explorationSageMaker / BedrockUse credits to trial GenAI, full-text search and other expensive services for free
Pre-scaleInfrastructure hardeningCloudFront CDN, ElastiCache — harden architecture before traffic arrives
2 months before expiryCost optimisationUse Compute Optimizer to find over-provisioned instances and lower the post-credit bill
🏗️
Advanced: consolidated billing + IaCUse AWS Organizationsto consolidate billing across multiple accounts (dev/test/prod) — the master account's credits can cover all linked accounts. Pair this with Terraform / CloudFormation for infrastructure-as-code, making it easier to scale down cleanly once credits expire.
10 — Common pitfalls

Common pitfalls & things to watch for

🚨
Pitfall 0 (most important): registering an AWS account too early
Apply and get approved first, then register the AWS account. Registering early can prevent the credits from being issued. Send the email first — register the account only after approval.
📧
Pitfall 1: applying from a personal email
The application email must come from a company domain (@yourcompany.com) matching the website domain. Gmail / QQ / 163, etc. are not accepted.
🌍
Pitfall 2: forgetting to shut down resources in other regions
AWS accounts span every global region. Periodically check all regions with AWS Config and shut down anything unused.
💸
Pitfall 3: no billing alerts set up
Set a budget in AWS Budgets with an alert at 80% spend, paired with a CloudWatch $0-spend alarm for real-time visibility into billing activity.
🔔
Pitfall 4: Business Support trial auto-charging after expiry
Approved accounts are auto-enrolled in a Business Support trial. Downgrade to "Basic Support — Free" before it expires; the expiry date is in the welcome email.
⏰
Pitfall 5: slow usage growth missing disbursements 2 & 3
Disbursements 2 and 3 require real payment to trigger — spending the credits themselves doesn't count. ¥20,000 in real spend is required within 1 year. Plan usage milestones early if growth is slow.
🌐
Pitfall 6: idle Elastic IP charges
Elastic IPs are free while attached to a running instance, but billed when idle/unattached — release them when done.
11 — Architect support

1:1 solutions architect support

🗺️
Cloud migration planning
Where to migrate from, how, and which pitfalls to avoid — a full migration path
🏛️
Well-Architected review
Systematic review against AWS's five pillars (reliability/security/performance/cost/operational excellence)
💰
Cost optimisation
Identify over-provisioned instances, recommend Savings Plans, lower the bill
📅
Ongoing follow-up support
Tracks business progress, gives targeted technical advice, answers architecture questions any time
💡
Tip for your first sessionBring a current architecture diagram (a sketch is fine) and your main pain points (latency / cost / scalability) — specific questions get more useful answers from the architect.
12 — Post-approval checklist

Action checklist after approval

🔒
Enable root account MFA
IAM console → root user → MFA, using Google Authenticator or Authy
📊
Set up billing alerts
AWS Budgets → create a budget → email alert at 80% threshold
📈
Check Cost Explorer's daily spend trend
See which services are consuming the most — catch issues early
🌍
Close down regions you don't need
Account settings → keep only the regions your business needs, to avoid accidental resource sprawl
🔔
Cancel the Business Support trial (before it expires)
Check the expiry date in the welcome email, downgrade to Basic Support (free) ahead of time
🤝
Book your first 1:1 architect session
Bring an architecture diagram + key pain points to get the most out of this free expert resource
🗓️
Plan your credit-usage milestones
Make sure you hit ¥20,000 in real spend within 1 year to unlock all 3 disbursements
🔍
Turn on free-tier usage alerts
Billing console → preferences → enable "Receive free tier usage alerts"
13 — Contact

Contact details & official resources

📧
Send applications to
Kerypeng@amazon.com
📬
Review decisions come from
aws-activate@amazon.com
📞
AWS official hotline
1010 0766
📧
Partner programme mailbox
activate-aws@amazon.cn
🌐
Official application page
aws.amazon.com/cn/campaigns/activate
// Document: AWS Activate Guide 2026
Source: official AWS materials & application template
Infrastructure partner: Amazon Web Services
// Last reviewed: 2026-06-28
Rates: 1 USD ≈ RM 4.09 · 1 CNY ≈ RM 0.60
Contact: support@maicnexus.com
Questions about AWS credits? support@maicnexus.com

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