Contents
Key takeawaysEDP discount rangeStacking with Savings PlansMarketplace spendSizing the commitmentWhat we have seenAccount team linesContract termsChecking your positionWhat to do nextFAQAWS publishes no EDP tiers, and the discount you reach depends more on the commitment size, the ramp shape and which spend counts toward retirement than on the headline percentage.
- The tiers are unpublished. Benchmarks from comparable signed deals are the only reference you have against the account team's first offer.
- The EDP stacks on Savings Plans and RIs. Model the discount against your post optimization effective rate, because an on demand model counts savings you already have.
- Size to the floor you can prove. Twelve months of actual spend, minus known migrations and decommissions, beats the AWS growth forecast as a basis for the commitment.
- Ask for a back loaded ramp. Small early years and larger later years keep the same total commitment while taking most of the shortfall risk out of year one.
- Marketplace inclusion adds real retirement. Writing Marketplace into the qualifying spend definition turns third party software you already buy into progress against the commitment.
- Chasing the top band often backfires. Shortfall on spend you never reach costs more than the extra discount points on the spend you do.
An AWS Enterprise Discount Program (EDP) gives you a percentage off most of your AWS bill in return for a minimum annual spend across a multi year term. AWS publishes neither the discount tiers nor the standard terms. Everything you know about the offer comes from your account team, unless you bring evidence from comparable deals.
The headline percentage decides less than most buyers expect. Three things matter more: how large the commitment is, how it ramps across the years, and which spend counts toward it. Each gets worked numbers below. For the rest of our AWS coverage, start at the AWS knowledge hub.
What discount does an AWS EDP give in 2026?
Across the deals we benchmark, EDP discounts run from 5 to 20 percent off most AWS spend. The percentage scales with the size of the annual commitment and the length of the term.
AWS's Marketplace documentation refers to this committed spend as EDP/PPA, and many current agreements are written as a private pricing addendum. The mechanics on this page apply to both.
Because AWS publishes nothing, the first offer sets the terms of the conversation. The account team knows what comparable customers signed. You usually do not, and that gap in information is AWS's first advantage at the table.
What decides where you land in the range?
Where you land depends on how the commitment is built more than on how hard the talks feel. The table sets out each part of the agreement and what to check in it.
| Element | How it behaves | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| The commitment | A minimum annual spend, set year by year across a multi year term | Size it to the spend you can prove, never to the AWS growth model |
| The discount | A percentage off most AWS spend, higher for larger commitments and longer terms | It applies on top of Savings Plans and RIs, so model it against your post optimization rate |
| The ramp | Annual commitments can step up across the term | A back loaded ramp matches real growth and removes early shortfall risk |
| The shortfall | A missed annual commitment is typically billed anyway | This asymmetry makes over commitment the expensive direction |
| Marketplace scope | Third party purchases may or may not retire commitment | Negotiate it into the definition of qualifying spend, and ask whether any cap applies |
For how the bands tend to step with spend, see our note on private pricing discount bands by spend tier.
Negotiating AWS 5: Know What Good Looks Like
Does the EDP discount stack with Savings Plans and Reserved Instances?
Yes. The EDP discount applies on top of Savings Plans and Reserved Instances, so the correct baseline for any EDP model is your effective rate after Savings Plans and RIs. The on demand price list is the wrong starting point.
AWS states that Savings Plans save up to 72 percent against on demand prices, on 1 or 3 year terms. With high Savings Plans and RI coverage, most of your bill is already priced well below on demand. A model built on on demand rates takes credit for that earlier work, a double count every commitment deal invites.
A worked example of the baseline error
Say your AWS usage would cost $12,000,000 a year at on demand rates, and your Savings Plans and RIs bring the actual bill to $9,000,000. The account team presents a 10 percent EDP.
| Model | Spend the discount is applied to | Annual saving shown |
|---|---|---|
| Against on demand pricing | $12,000,000 | $1,200,000 |
| Against the post Savings Plan and RI rate | $9,000,000 | $900,000 |
| Overstatement | $3,000,000 already saved by your commitments | $300,000 a year |
The $300,000 gap comes entirely from optimization already on your books. Over a three year term that is $900,000 of saving that appears in the proposal and never on your invoice. Our note on the effective rate after Savings Plans works through more cases.
AWS EDP negotiation guide
Sizing worksheet, ramp structures, Marketplace wording and benchmark bands by commitment size and term.
Get the white paper →Does AWS Marketplace spend count toward the EDP commitment?
It counts only if your agreement's definition of qualifying spend includes it. AWS's buyer documentation says Marketplace products can draw down EDP/PPA committed spend when they are eligible, that products deployed on AWS typically qualify, and that eligibility is decided product by product. Both the contract and the product have to qualify.
Marketplace inclusion turns third party software you already buy into commitment progress: the Databricks, Confluent and security tooling bills you pay either way. In our negotiations, getting marketplace spend included raised commitment retirement by 10 to 25 percent. That either shrinks the organic AWS growth the commitment needs, or supports a larger commitment at the same risk.
Which third party purchases are worth routing through Marketplace?
- Large platform subscriptions. Data, streaming and analytics platforms that run on AWS and renew annually add the most retirement per purchase.
- Security tooling. Endpoint, cloud security and identity products are often sold on Marketplace and bought every year anyway.
- Renewals falling inside the EDP term. A contract that renews after the EDP ends does nothing for this commitment.
- Products you have checked for eligibility. Confirm drawdown eligibility for each product before you rely on it in the sizing model.
Routing changes the software negotiation too. Buying through Marketplace can change whose discount applies to the software, as our Confluent commit guide shows from the vendor side. Put the EDP and the major software renewals in one model. More detail is in our guide to EDP Marketplace eligibility.
How should you size an AWS EDP commitment?
Size it from twelve months of actual spend at the post Savings Plan effective rate. Subtract known migrations off AWS and planned decommissions, and set the commitment at the floor you can prove. AWS will bring its own growth forecast, and that forecast is not yours to underwrite.
- Twelve months of billed spend, split by account and workload.
- The effective rate after Savings Plans and RIs, never on demand.
- Known migrations, decommissions and contract exits subtracted.
- Eligible Marketplace renewals listed with dates and amounts.
- The commitment set at the floor, with growth handled by the ramp.
What does a back loaded ramp look like?
A ramp allows the annual commitment to step up across the term. The early years match what you run today, while the discount is priced against the full term commitment. Take a hypothetical commitment of $27,000,000 over three years, with actual spend coming in at $7,400,000, $9,200,000 and $11,100,000.
| Year | Actual spend | Flat commitment | Flat shortfall | Back loaded commitment | Back loaded shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $7,400,000 | $9,000,000 | $1,600,000 | $7,000,000 | $0 |
| Year 2 | $9,200,000 | $9,000,000 | $0 | $9,000,000 | $0 |
| Year 3 | $11,100,000 | $9,000,000 | $0 | $11,000,000 | $0 |
Both schedules commit the same $27,000,000 total, so both should price at the same discount. Only the flat schedule produces a shortfall invoice, $1,600,000 in year one. In most of our engagements a back loaded ramp cut early year shortfall risk to near zero, and it cost nothing except asking for it during structuring.
What happens when you miss a year's commitment?
A missed annual commitment is usually billed as shortfall. You pay the committed amount whether or not you consumed it. Underspending costs you the full gap, while overspending costs you nothing extra, so the risk sits almost entirely on the side of committing too much. Our guide to EDP shortfall risk covers the contract remedies.
What have we seen in recent AWS EDP negotiations?
We benchmarked roughly 20 to 25 AWS EDP negotiations between 2024 and 2026. The customers who chased the highest discount band were the ones most likely to over commit. In that group, 2 of 5 ended up paying shortfall or carrying unused commitment that erased the extra points they had chased.
The deals that held up looked unremarkable on paper: right sized commitments on back loaded ramps, Marketplace spend in the qualifying definition, and renewals set from measured consumption rather than a new growth forecast. The same floor discipline applies to Google Cloud committed use discounts, because the shortfall asymmetry is the same whichever hyperscaler writes the contract.
On a program with no published price list, the benchmark from comparable deals is the only market data you have, and it shapes every number that follows.
Why we advise against stretching for the next discount band
The usual advice is to push the commitment up to the next tier for the higher percentage. We disagree. Stretching swaps a certain liability for a conditional saving, and in our file the stretchers were the ones paying shortfall. Size to the floor and ask for the better band through term length or ramp shape instead.
In a hypothetical case, your provable floor is $8,000,000 a year, you actually spend $8,500,000, and AWS offers 2 more points for committing $10,000,000. The extra discount is worth $170,000 on the spend you achieve. The shortfall bills $1,500,000 for spend you never reach.
Even five extra points would add only $425,000 on that spend, well short of the shortfall bill. Run this comparison for every tier offer before you sign, while the commitment can still change.
What will the AWS account team say, and how should you answer?
Expect the conversation to push toward a larger number. These are lines we hear in EDP talks, with replies that keep the discussion on your data.
- "This is the standard discount at your spend level." There is no published standard. Ask which commitment and term the offer assumes, then compare it with comparable signed deals.
- "Commit a little more and you reach the next tier." Show the shortfall cost against the extra discount, year by year, and ask what the higher band costs with a longer term or a back loaded ramp instead.
- "Our forecast shows your spend growing every year." Agree to revisit at renewal. Commit from twelve months of measured consumption, and let the ramp carry the growth you are confident in.
- "Marketplace inclusion is not part of the standard terms." AWS's own buyer documentation describes committed spend drawdown for eligible products. Ask for it in the qualifying spend definition by name.
- "Ramps are for migration customers." Ask for the ramp anyway. It keeps the total commitment and the discount intact.
Which terms should you ask for in the EDP contract?
Ask for the terms that control shortfall and scope, because the percentage is only one line of the agreement. Each of these belongs in the signed agreement itself.
- A qualifying spend definition that names Marketplace. Without it, third party purchases may not retire any commitment. If AWS proposes a cap on how much Marketplace spend counts, get the cap written as an amount you can model.
- A year by year commitment schedule. The ramp should be written as annual amounts, so there is no dispute over which year a shortfall falls in.
- Shortfall treatment. Ask whether a shortfall can roll into the next year or be credited at renewal before it is invoiced.
- The discount scope. List which services and charges the percentage applies to, and which are excluded.
- Renewal on measured consumption. Tie the next commitment to actual spend in the final year of the current term.
- Term alignment. Check how the EDP term lines up with your Savings Plans expiry dates.
Our page on EDP flexibility provisions covers these terms in more detail.
How do you check your own position before the negotiation?
Start from AWS's own billing data, which gives you the same numbers the account team uses. The tools already in your AWS console are enough for the sizing model.
- AWS Cost Explorer. Use the amortized cost view to see spend net of Savings Plans and RIs, grouped by linked account and service, for the last twelve months.
- Savings Plans and RI coverage reports. These show how much of your usage is already discounted. The matching Savings Plans and RI usage reports in Cost Explorer show how much purchased commitment sits idle.
- The Cost and Usage Report. Export it through AWS Data Exports for line item detail you can model by workload.
- Marketplace billing. Pull Marketplace charges by seller and renewal date, and note which products are eligible for drawdown.
- Your current agreement. Read the qualifying spend definition, the shortfall clause and the remaining term before any renewal talk starts.
When should each step happen before renewal?
| Months before renewal | What to do |
|---|---|
| 12 | Pull twelve months of amortized spend, list migrations and decommissions, and map Marketplace renewals. |
| 6 | Build the floor and the ramp, gather benchmarks from comparable deals, and draft the terms you want. |
| 3 | Receive the AWS offer, test it against the post Savings Plan baseline, and negotiate scope and shortfall terms. |
| 1 | Confirm the annual schedule, the qualifying spend definition and the discount scope in the final paper. |
If you want to test a commitment number quickly, the EDP commitment calculator runs the shortfall scenarios for you.
What to do next
- Baseline the post optimization rate. Take spend after Savings Plans and RIs, by workload, over twelve months. Model the EDP against this, never against on demand.
- Commit to the floor you can prove. Subtract known changes and turn down the tier stretch, because shortfall risk costs more than the extra discount points.
- Ask for a back loaded ramp. Keep the early years small and put growth late, so the commitment meets reality on its way up.
- Write Marketplace into the qualifying spend definition. Then route the eligible third party purchases through it deliberately.
- Bring benchmarks to an unpublished program. Comparable commitments and their signed bands are the only market data that exists. Our AWS practice brings them to the table on your behalf.
Frequently asked questions
What discount does an AWS EDP give?
Observed discounts run from around 5 percent to around 20 percent off most AWS spend, in exchange for a minimum annual spend commitment over a multi year term. Larger commitments and longer terms reach the higher end. AWS publishes no tier table, so the only reference is what comparable customers actually signed.
Does the EDP replace Savings Plans and Reserved Instances?
No. You keep buying Savings Plans and RIs, and the EDP percentage is applied to the already reduced charges. That is why an honest business case starts from your post Savings Plan effective rate. A case built on on demand prices overstates the EDP by the savings your existing commitments already deliver.
What happens if we miss our EDP commitment?
The unmet part of that year's commitment is usually invoiced as shortfall, so you pay for consumption that never happened. Spending above the commitment carries no penalty. That imbalance is why right sizing to a provable floor consistently beat chasing the top discount band in our negotiations.
Does AWS Marketplace spend count toward the EDP?
Only when your agreement's qualifying spend definition includes it and the product is eligible for committed spend drawdown. Treat it as a negotiated term. In our file, adding Marketplace purchases raised commitment retirement by 10 to 25 percent, turning software bills you pay anyway into progress against the commitment.
Should we increase the commitment to reach a higher discount band?
Rarely. In our file, 2 of 5 customers who stretched for the top band over committed and lost the extra points to shortfall or unused commitment. If you want the higher band, ask what it costs with a longer term or a ramp before you raise the annual number.
What is a back loaded EDP ramp and why ask for one?
It is a schedule where the annual commitment starts small and steps up across the term, following real growth instead of averaging it. In most of our engagements it cut early year shortfall risk to near zero. Ask during structuring, because changing the schedule after signature is far harder.
Is an AWS EDP the same as a private pricing addendum?
In practice, yes. AWS Marketplace documentation refers to committed spend as EDP/PPA, and many current agreements are written as a private pricing addendum. The commitment, discount, ramp, shortfall and qualifying spend terms work the same way, so the sizing approach on this page applies to either label.