Explanation
Why the waste happens and who it affects.
This lack of transparency makes it difficult to identify which Marketplace spend is eligible to count toward the EDP cap. As a result, teams may either overspend on direct AWS services to fulfill their commitment unnecessarily or miss the opportunity to right-size new commitments based on existing Marketplace purchases. In both cases, the absence of vendor-level detail hinders optimization.
Billing model
The pricing dimensions that drive this cost.
Marketplace spend is billed via AWS and may count toward EDP commitments - but only specific vendors and SKUs qualify. Since the May 1, 2025 Marketplace policy change, SaaS products generally need the "Deployed on AWS" designation, meaning the application and control planes run entirely on AWS, to count toward EDP/PPA drawdown. Additionally, EDP/PPA agreements typically cap how much eligible Marketplace spend can count toward the commitment; the cap is set in each contract (25% is a commonly cited figure, but AWS does not publish it as a fixed rule), so confirm the limit in your own agreement. Without detailed billing data, it's difficult to determine how much of the spend is eligible, leading to inaccurate forecasting and underutilized discounts.
How to detect
4 checks to find it in your estate.
- Review EDP commitment utilization and assess if it's lower than expected despite high Marketplace usage
- Analyze whether large Marketplace purchases are being made without contributing to EDP drawdown
- Check if cost reporting lacks vendor-level granularity for Marketplace spend
- Evaluate whether new commitments are being sized without factoring in eligible Marketplace spend
How to fix
4 ways to remove the waste.
- Enable detailed cost allocation and tagging to isolate Marketplace spend by vendor
- Cross-reference vendor eligibility with AWS to determine which purchases count toward the Marketplace cap in your EDP/PPA agreement
- Update forecasting and commitment planning to include both direct AWS and eligible Marketplace purchases
- Rebalance future commitments to maximize EDP drawdown across both purchase types
Documentation
Vendor references for pricing and configuration.