It turns out quite easy to get free $1000 for whatever personal project you build in AWS.
AWS Activate is a startup program that gives $1000 to everyone or up to $100,000 if the startup is “official” - it requires a referral code from a startup accelerator.
Though the program is for startups, everyone can apply - no rigid checks. The only caveat is that there is a field for a startup website. I created mine quickly using Notion and a custom domain.
The credits expire within 2 years, but if you do not use Infrastructure-as-a-Code to create resources on Demand they burn out very fast 1-4 months.
