AWS MAP funding: how credits work and how to qualify
AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) funding is money AWS invests in qualifying migrations, paid as AWS Promotional Credits or cash, usually through an AWS Migration Competency Partner. It is tied to the three MAP phases (Assess, Mobilize, Migrate & Modernize) and to tracked spend on migrated workloads tagged with the map-migrated key.
Key takeaways
- The money comes as AWS Promotional Credits or cash, and it can be applied at each phase of the migration.
- AWS does not publish fixed funding amounts or tiers; the offer is set per project in a migration plan.
- Credits are calculated from the spend of migrated resources tagged
map-migratedwith your MPE ID. Untagged resources earn nothing. - You need the MPE ID (project number), access to the payer account, Cost Explorer enabled and IAM rights to tag.
- Most customers access MAP through an AWS Migration Competency Partner, who builds the business case and migration plan.
What is AWS MAP funding?
AWS Migration Acceleration Program funding is the financial part of MAP, which AWS describes as a migration programme built on thousands of enterprise migrations. MAP combines a method, tools, training, partner expertise and "financial investments" to offset the initial cost of moving.
The money is meant for the period when migration costs most: running old and new environments in parallel, paying for discovery and planning, and building a landing zone before any workload moves. AWS's partner funding page says MAP funds support migrations or modernisations "of any size or workload", at each phase, as cash or AWS promotional credits.
For the overall programme (methodology, phases and what each one delivers) see our AWS MAP guide. This article focuses on the money: how it is earned, tracked and spent.
How does the funding work across the three MAP phases?
Funding follows the phase you are in. Early phases usually fund assessment and planning work; the largest share comes during Migrate & Modernize, when credits track your migrated spend.
| Phase | What happens | What funding typically supports |
|---|---|---|
| Assess | Readiness check across the six perspectives of the AWS Cloud Adoption Framework (business, people, governance, platform, security, operations) and a TCO model | Discovery, portfolio analysis and the business case, often partner-delivered |
| Mobilize | Close the gaps found in Assess: landing zone, security baseline, operating model, pilot migrations and wave plan | Partner services, training and early migration work |
| Migrate & Modernize | Move and modernise workloads wave by wave | Credits based on tagged spend of migrated workloads, plus partner services |
The exact split, the amount and any cash component are written into your migration plan. Treat any public figure you see for "MAP tiers" or a fixed percentage of savings with caution: AWS does not publish a tier table, and the offer depends on scope, workload type and expected AWS spend.
Who is eligible for MAP funding?
Organisations planning a migration or modernisation onto AWS with a defined scope and expected AWS spend. AWS decides eligibility per project, usually after the partner submits the opportunity and the assessment.
In practice, the projects that qualify share four traits:
- Workloads that move to AWS. Existing on-premises systems, workloads from another cloud, or older AWS workloads being modernised. MAP has dedicated tracks for Microsoft, VMware, SAP and mainframe workloads.
- A measurable scope. A list of applications, servers and databases with an estimated AWS run rate after migration.
- A business case. Why you are moving, what it costs now and what it will cost on AWS.
- Commitment to a plan. Timelines, owners and migration waves agreed with AWS and the partner.
We cover the qualification criteria in more depth in AWS MAP eligibility requirements.
How do you apply for MAP funding?
You do not fill in a public form. The usual route runs through an AWS Migration Competency Partner or your AWS account team, in five steps.
- Discovery. Inventory servers, applications and dependencies. Tools such as Migration Evaluator collect utilisation data and project the AWS cost.
- Business case and assessment. The partner builds the TCO comparison and a migration readiness assessment.
- Opportunity registration. The partner registers the opportunity with AWS and proposes the funding for the relevant phase.
- Migration plan. AWS issues a migration plan that includes your project number, the MPE ID.
- Tagging and tracking. As workloads land on AWS, they are tagged so that spend is counted and credits are calculated.
Expect the early steps to take weeks rather than days. Good inventory data is the most common thing that speeds them up.
How does MAP 2.0 tagging affect your credits?
Tagging decides how much of your migrated spend counts. AWS's MAP 2.0 user guide is direct about it: MAP cannot provide incentives if you do not activate cost allocation tags or tag the migrated resources.
What you need before tagging
- Your MPE ID from the migration plan: either 5 digits (short) or 10 upper-case alphanumeric characters (long).
- Access to the management (payer) accounts listed in the plan.
- Cost Explorer enabled.
- IAM permissions to tag the migrated resources.
How the tag is built
The key is always map-migrated, exactly as written: it is case sensitive. AWS now activates this key as a cost allocation tag automatically, so older advice about activating it yourself and waiting 24 hours is outdated. The value combines a lower-case prefix with your MPE ID, for example mig12345 for general services, sap12345 for SAP or oracle12345 for Oracle workloads. Database and analytics services have their own values.
How to tag at scale
- Add the tag to your CloudFormation or Terraform templates so every resource is born tagged.
- Use AWS Tag Editor to bulk-tag resources created in the console.
- Enforce the tag with tag policies or AWS Config rules, and report untagged spend weekly in Cost Explorer.
- Tag replacement resources too: new volumes, snapshots and load balancers created after cutover.
Our MAP 2.0 tagging guide walks through the decision tree for picking the right tag value.
What can the funds be used for?
Funds offset migration costs rather than paying for your AWS bill forever. Typical uses:
- Partner services for assessment, planning, landing zone and migration waves.
- Double-running costs while old and new environments operate in parallel.
- Training so your team can operate the new environment.
- Migration tooling, such as AWS Application Migration Service for rehosting servers.
Credits expire and come with terms set in your plan. Read them before you schedule waves, because a delayed wave can mean credits you never use. Our page on MAP credits explains how credits are issued and applied.
What do real MAP migrations look like?
AWS publishes MAP customer stories. One Nordic example: taxi company Cabonline Group migrated 300 applications and 200 virtual machines to AWS using MAP, working with an AWS Partner, and AWS reports a 35% reduction in operational and infrastructure costs (AWS case study). AWS also states on its MAP page that customers migrating legacy applications achieve an average of 31% infrastructure savings. Those are AWS-reported figures, not a guarantee for your project.
Common mistakes that cost you funding
| Mistake | Effect | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Tagging after migration instead of at creation | Spend before the tag was applied is not counted | Put the tag in IaC templates and migration tool settings |
| Wrong tag value or case | Spend is not linked to your MPE ID | Copy the key exactly; use upper case for long MPE IDs |
| Thin inventory data | Weak business case, slower approval | Run discovery tooling for a few weeks before the business case |
| Unrealistic wave plan | Credits expire unused | Plan waves on team capacity, not on the funding calendar |
| Treating MAP as only a discount | Workloads lifted with old inefficiencies | Use the funding to right-size and modernise where it pays off |
How Opsio helps
Opsio is an AWS Advanced Tier partner with the AWS Migration Competency, which is the partner route into MAP. We run the assessment, business case, landing zone and migration waves, and set up tagging so migrated spend is counted from day one. See our AWS migration service for scope.
For SilverRail Technologies, Opsio migrated the company's Nordic branch and merged it with the global organisation onto AWS. The work followed Opsio's three-phase method with AWS guidance: an assessment with business case and ROI calculations, a mobilize phase with pilot test migrations, and a migrate phase with PostgreSQL data migration, AWS Control Tower and Systems Manager, and cutovers in tight service windows. After migration, our AWS managed services can run the environment 24/7.
Frequently asked questions
How much funding does AWS MAP provide?
AWS does not publish a fixed amount or percentage. The funding is set per project in the migration plan and depends on scope, workload type and expected AWS spend after migration. Your partner proposes it and AWS approves it.
Is MAP money paid as cash or credits?
Both exist. AWS states that MAP funds can be received as cash or AWS Promotional Credits. Migrate-phase incentives are usually credits calculated from the spend of tagged migrated workloads.
Do I need an AWS partner to get MAP funding?
Not strictly, as AWS can engage directly, but most MAP projects run through an AWS Migration Competency Partner who builds the assessment and business case and registers the opportunity with AWS.
What happens if I forget to tag migrated resources?
Their spend does not count towards your incentives. AWS's MAP guide states that it cannot provide incentives without the map-migrated tag on migrated resources, so tag at creation and audit regularly.
Is MAP only for large enterprises?
No. MAP has its roots in enterprise migrations, but AWS says funding supports migrations of any size. Smaller projects still need a clear scope, a business case and a credible plan.
Related reading: AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) Explained.
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