An AWS Enterprise Discount Program, or EDP, is a private agreement in which you commit to a total dollar amount of AWS spend over a term, usually one to five years, in exchange for a discount that applies broadly across services. The committed amount sets the tier: commit more and the percentage rises. The discount is attractive, but the commitment is a contractual floor. If your actual spend lands below it, you still owe the shortfall. That single fact is why EDP sizing is a forecasting problem first and a negotiation second.
Here is how the tiers, term, and growth assumptions actually work for a buyer.
How do EDP discount tiers work?
The discount is banded against total committed spend over the term. Larger commitments unlock higher percentage bands, so a buyer is always weighing a bigger discount against a bigger floor they are obligated to hit. The EDP discount typically applies on top of, and broadly across, your bill including most services, which is what distinguishes it from a Savings Plan that only covers eligible compute. Because it is private and negotiated, the exact bands are not published, which makes independent benchmark data the difference between accepting the first offer and knowing where the band should sit for your spend.
How do term and growth assumptions shape the deal?
An EDP is rarely a flat number across the term. It is usually a ramp: a lower commitment in year one rising in later years on an assumed growth curve. That ramp is where buyers get exposed. AWS will model aggressive growth because a higher out year commitment is a bigger floor. You should model the growth you can actually defend, because the out years are where a shortfall bites hardest, when a project is cancelled or a workload moves and the committed number no longer matches reality. Negotiate the ramp against your own forecast, and push for flexibility on the back years rather than the front.
| Year | Committed floor | Risk to the buyer |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | Near current run rate | Low, you already spend this |
| Year 2 | Run rate plus modest growth | Moderate, depends on roadmap |
| Year 3 | Aggressive growth assumed | High, a cancelled project leaves a shortfall |
How does EDP stack with Savings Plans and Reserved Instances?
They operate at different layers and combine. Savings Plans and Reserved Instances discount specific compute in exchange for a usage commitment on that compute. The EDP discount applies more broadly across the bill on top of your committed total spend. Crucially, your Savings Plan and Reserved Instance spend counts toward the EDP commitment, so you are not double committing the same dollars, you are layering a broad discount over a portfolio that already has compute specific discounts inside it. The buyer move is to set commitment coverage with Savings Plans on a risk adjusted basis first, then size the EDP floor around the resulting total, not the other way round.
A scaling fintech was offered an EDP sized on the provider’s growth model, which assumed its AWS spend would nearly double by year three. We rebuilt the forecast from its own roadmap and billing trend, which supported strong but slower growth, and resized the year three floor down by about 30 percent while holding most of the discount band by tightening the term. That avoided a likely out year shortfall and was part of the wider program that left the company 41 percent lighter on cloud spend. Figures are verified against billing data and anonymised.
What gives a buyer leverage in an EDP negotiation?
Four things, and none of them is asking nicely. A credible forecast, so you commit to a floor you will clear without overreaching. Independent benchmark data, so you know what discount band your spend should command rather than guessing. Timing, because quarter and year end give the provider a reason to move. And a real alternative, the demonstrated option of placing new workloads on another cloud, which is what makes the negotiation a negotiation. We keep zero provider commissions, so the forecast we build serves your floor, not a vendor quota. The full method is in the cloud commitment negotiation guide, with sizing detail in commitment size, the only number that matters and the cross cloud view in cross cloud commitment strategy.
Frequently asked questions
Size your EDP on a forecast you can defend
We rebuild the forecast from your own roadmap and billing data, benchmark the discount band independently, and structure the ramp so the out years do not leave you exposed. We take zero provider commissions, so the floor we recommend serves you. Our guarantee: we reduce your cloud spend or we reimburse our service fee.
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