| AWS POC funding at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Who submits | An AWS Partner at Select tier or above, or your AWS account team |
| Amount | Not published by AWS; sized to what the test needs to run |
| Timeline | Weeks, not months, with a fixed end date; approved before work starts |
| What qualifies | One workload, measurable success criteria and a credible path to production |
| Paid as | AWS promotional credits, or cash to the partner running it |
AWS proof-of-concept (POC) funding, which people often call the AWS proof of concept program or the AWS POC program, pays for part of a short, scoped trial of a workload on AWS, so you can test it before committing to a full migration or a new architecture. It is one of the most searched-for AWS programmes and one of the least understood, mostly because there is no public form for it. The request is submitted on your behalf, against a defined test, and approved before any work starts.
This guide covers what POC funding is, who can submit a request, what AWS weighs when it decides, how it compares with migration credits and Activate, and how to prepare a POC that is worth funding.
How the AWS proof of concept program works
POC funding sits inside AWS's partner funding programmes. AWS currently lists it under Partner Opportunity Acceleration (POA) funding for POC and migrations, which is paid either as AWS promotional credits or as cash reimbursement to the partner running the work. When people say "POC credits", they usually mean the promotional-credit form: credits applied to the AWS account where the trial runs, which offset the cost of the services used during the test.
The purpose is narrow. POC funding is meant for small, time-boxed projects that prove whether a specific workload works on AWS: for organisations that have not yet committed to AWS, and for existing customers trying a new service or workload they do not run today. It is not a general discount on your AWS bill, and it is not meant to fund production.
Who submits the request
You cannot apply for POC funding yourself through a public page. There are two routes:
- Through an AWS Partner. The partner registers the opportunity in AWS Partner Central and submits the funding request against it. AWS lists POA funding as a benefit for Services Partners at Select tier and above (how AWS partner tiers work), so the partner's tier decides whether it can submit at all.
- Through your AWS account team. If you already have an AWS account manager, they can sponsor a trial or bring in a partner who can.
AWS also notes that partner benefits are reviewed yearly and "may not be available in all geographies". Whether a POC can be funded for a company in Egypt, Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in MENA depends on the current terms for that market, which the submitting partner checks in Partner Central.
What AWS looks for
AWS does not publish a scoring checklist for POC requests, and nobody outside AWS knows exactly how each factor is weighed. The requests that move forward tend to have the same things in common:
- One workload and one decision. "Will our transaction service hit its latency target on Aurora?" is fundable. "Try AWS" is not.
- Written, measurable success criteria. Response times, throughput, cost per transaction, recovery time: numbers that let both sides say whether the test passed.
- A short, fixed timeline. Weeks, not months, with an end date and a results write-up.
- A credible path to production. An honest estimate of what the workload would spend on AWS if the POC succeeds. Funding is weighed against that potential, which is why it is sized to the test rather than to a wish list.
- Named owners. Someone on your side who can grant access, answer questions and accept the result.
How much funding to expect
AWS does not publish a fixed public amount for POC funding. The terms sit in Partner Central, change from year to year and can differ by market. Partners commonly describe POC funding as a share of the workload's expected first-year AWS spend, with a cap per opportunity in the low tens of thousands of dollars, but treat any number you read online, including this one, as indicative.
The practical rule is simpler: the request should cover what the test genuinely needs to run for its timeline, and no more. Oversized requests for a vague test are the ones that stall.
AWS POC vs MAP: which one do you need?
The short version: POC funding answers whether one workload belongs on AWS, and MAP pays towards moving workloads once you have decided. If you are still deciding, start with a POC; if you have a plan and a timeline, look at MAP. Activate is a third programme, for startups, that often gets confused with both:
| POC funding | Migration credits (MAP) | AWS Activate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Proving one workload on AWS before committing | Offsetting the cost of a committed migration to AWS | Helping early-stage startups build on AWS |
| When it applies | Before a commitment, during evaluation | Once a migration is planned and assessed | Early stage, usually tied to funding and stage |
| Who requests it | An eligible AWS Partner or your AWS account team | An AWS Partner or your AWS account team, through the programme's phases | The startup itself, or through an Activate provider such as an accelerator or investor |
| What it is sized to | The test | The migration's scope and projected spend | The startup's stage and eligibility |
The programmes can follow one another. A POC that proves a workload can become the first step of a larger migration, and the evidence it produces strengthens the migration case; our guide to AWS POC vs MAP funding covers that sequence, and MAP for companies in Egypt and Saudi Arabia explains the migration side. Startups should also read the AWS Activate guide. You can compare AWS funding programmes side by side, including when partner migration funding applies instead of MAP.
How to prepare a POC worth funding
- Pick one workload with a real decision behind it. The POC should answer a question you will act on, such as whether to migrate this service, adopt this database or move this pipeline.
- Write the success criteria as numbers. Agree targets for performance, cost and reliability before anyone builds anything.
- Estimate production spend honestly. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator for the workload at full scale. An inflated estimate gets found out; an honest one makes the request easier to approve.
- Fix the timeline and the scope. List what is in the test and what is not, with an end date.
- Name the owners and sort out access. Decide who provides data, environments and sign-off.
- Get the funding approved before you build. POC funding is not applied retroactively. Work done before approval is normally not covered.
- Write up the results. Whether the POC passes or fails, a short report against the success criteria is what turns a trial into a decision, and into the next step.
Why POC requests stall
- The scope keeps growing until the "test" is a small migration.
- There are no success criteria, so nobody can say whether it worked.
- There is no realistic production path behind it.
- Work started before approval, so the costs fall outside the funding.
- The request comes from a route that cannot submit it, such as a partner without the required tier.
Next steps
If you have a workload you want to test on AWS, start with the decision it should inform and the numbers that would settle it. Our free credit eligibility check takes a few minutes. We come back with the programmes that could realistically apply, POC funding included, and what each one would need from you. Nothing in this article is a promise of funding: AWS decides every request.