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Setting Up Kiro Enterprise with AWS Promotional Credits: What Nobody Tells You

A practical walkthrough for teams trying to use AWS Promotional Credits with Kiro Enterprise — covering the credits confusion (AWS dollars vs. Kiro usage credits), the IAM Identity Center setup, the tricky sign-in flow, and how billing actually works.

Perry, Jason

Getting Started with Kiro Using AWS Promotional Credits

A practical guide for partners setting up Kiro Enterprise on an AWS account with pre-loaded credits

Overview

You've received AWS Promotional Credits on your AWS account — great! This guide walks you through how to set up Kiro (AWS's agentic AI-powered IDE) so that your subscription is billed against those credits. Along the way, we'll clear up common points of confusion around credits, authentication, and billing.

1. Understanding the Two Types of "Credits"

This is the #1 source of confusion. Kiro uses the word "credits" in two completely different contexts:

AWS Promotional Credits (💰 = Real Money)

These are the dollar-denominated credits loaded into your AWS account (e.g., $2,600). They offset charges for eligible AWS services on your monthly bill — including Kiro subscriptions. Think of these as a "gift card" balance on your AWS account.
  • Visible in: AWS Billing & Cost Management Console → Credits
  • Denomination: US Dollars
  • Applied automatically to eligible charges each billing cycle

Kiro Usage Credits (🔢 = Token Consumption)

These are plan-level usage units that determine how much you can interact with AI models within Kiro each month. Every prompt, spec task, and agent action consumes Kiro credits. Think of these as your monthly "fuel" for using the IDE's AI features.
  • Visible in: Kiro IDE → Subscription Dashboard
  • Denomination: Credits (not dollars)
  • Reset monthly; unused credits do not roll over

Kiro Plans & Credit Allocations

PlanMonthly Cost (billed to AWS)Kiro Usage CreditsAdd-on Rate
Pro$20/user/mo1,000$0.04/credit
Pro+$40/user/mo2,000$0.04/credit
Pro Max$100/user/mo5,000$0.04/credit
Power$200/user/mo10,000$0.04/credit
Example: If you subscribe 1 user to the Power plan at $200/month and you have $2,600 in AWS Promotional Credits, those credits will cover ~13 months of the subscription fee. Within each month, you get 10,000 Kiro usage credits to use across AI interactions.

How Models Consume Kiro Credits

Kiro's Auto mode intelligently routes your prompts through a mix of frontier and specialized models optimized for quality, latency, and cost. This is the most efficient option and consumes credits at a 1x rate.
If you manually select a specific premium model (e.g., Claude Opus 5, Sonnet 5), the credit consumption rate increases — a task that costs X credits on Auto might cost 1.3x or more on a manually selected model.
💡 Recommendation: Use Auto mode unless you have a specific reason to select a model. Auto gives you the best balance of quality and credit efficiency.

2. Setting Up Kiro Enterprise (Step-by-Step)

This is where most partners hit friction. Kiro Enterprise does not work like a simple SaaS sign-up — it requires linking through AWS IAM Identity Center. Here's the correct sequence:

Prerequisites

  • ✅ AWS account with promotional credits applied
  • ✅ Admin access to that AWS account
  • ✅ Email addresses for all team members who will use Kiro

Step 1: Enable IAM Identity Center

  1. Sign into the AWS Management Console using the account where your credits are loaded.
  2. Search for "IAM Identity Center" in the top search bar and select it.
  3. If this is your first time, follow the setup wizard to create an Identity Center instance.
    • Recommended: Use AWS Organizations for centralized identity management.
  4. Add users to the Identity Center directory (or connect to your existing IdP like Okta or Microsoft Entra ID).
📖 Detailed instructions: Connecting your identity provider to Kiro 

Step 2: Create a Kiro Profile & Subscribe Users

  1. In the AWS Console, navigate to the Kiro console.
    • If you don't see it, check that you're in a supported AWS Region (e.g., us-east-1).
  2. Create a Kiro profile — this connects your user identities with Kiro subscriptions.
  3. Add users from your Identity Center directory and assign a plan (e.g., Power).
  4. The subscription cost will appear on your AWS bill and be automatically offset by your promotional credits.
📖 Full walkthrough: Kiro Enterprise Onboarding Quickstart 

Step 3: Note Your Start URL and Region

After setup, locate two critical pieces of information from the Kiro console / IAM Identity Center:
  • Start URL: Something like https://d-xxxxxxxxxx.awsapps.com/start
  • AWS Region: The region where your Kiro profile lives (e.g., us-east-1)
⚠️ Important: The region must match where Kiro is configured — not necessarily the region closest to you geographically.
Share both with every team member. They'll need them to sign in.

3. Signing In to Kiro (The Tricky Part)

This is where most users get stuck — especially if they previously created a free Kiro account with the same email. The authentication flow has a few steps that are easy to miss.

⚠️ If You Have an Existing Free/Individual Account

You must disconnect from your individual account first:
  1. Cancel any existing paid individual Kiro subscription (if applicable).
  2. Sign out of Kiro completely on all devices.
  3. Follow the enterprise sign-in flow below.
If you skip this step, you may continue to be billed individually instead of using your organization's credits.

Enterprise Sign-In Flow

  1. Open Kiro IDE (or visit app.kiro.dev ).
  2. On the sign-in screen, look for the option to choose your authentication provider.
  3. Do not sign in with GitHub, Google, or Builder ID — these create/reconnect individual accounts.
  4. Click "Show all options" (this is a small link — easy to miss!).
  5. Select "Your organization" or "AWS IAM Identity Center".
  6. When prompted:
    • Enter the Start URL provided by your admin (not your work email).
    • Enter the AWS Region where Kiro is configured (e.g., us-east-1).
  7. Complete authentication in the browser. You'll be redirected back to Kiro, signed in under your organization's plan.

Verify You're on the Right Plan

After signing in, check your subscription dashboard in Kiro:
  • You should see your organization's plan (e.g., Power — 10,000 credits)
  • If you see "Free" or an individual plan, you're signed into the wrong account — sign out and repeat the steps above

4. How Billing Works With Your AWS Credits

Here's the full picture of how the money flows:
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AWS Promotional Credits ($2,600)
│
▼
AWS Monthly Bill
│
├── Kiro Power subscription: $200/user/month
│ (automatically deducted from credits)
│
├── Other eligible AWS services
│ (also deducted from credits)
│
└── Ineligible services (if any)
(charged to your credit card)
Key points:
  • Kiro subscriptions are billed monthly through your AWS account.
  • AWS Promotional Credits are applied automatically — no action needed.
  • You can track Kiro charges in the AWS Billing Console under "Charges by service" → Kiro.
  • If a user is subscribed in multiple regions, you will be charged for each region separately.
  • Mid-month subscription changes are prorated.
📖 More details: Kiro Enterprise Billing 

5. Quick Reference: Common Gotchas

IssueCauseFix
"I signed in but I'm on the Free plan"Signed in with GitHub/Google/Builder ID instead of org identitySign out, use "Show all options" → "Your organization" with Start URL
"I can't find the Kiro console in AWS"Wrong AWS Region selectedSwitch to the region where your Kiro profile was created (e.g., us-east-1)
"My credits aren't being applied"Kiro subscription not connected to the AWS account with creditsVerify the Kiro profile is in the same AWS account where credits are loaded
"I'm being billed individually AND through my org"Didn't cancel individual plan before switchingCancel the individual subscription, sign out, then sign in with org identity
"I ran out of Kiro credits mid-month"Used up the plan's monthly usage allocationWait for next billing cycle reset, or ask your admin to enable overages ($0.04/credit)
"I entered my region but Kiro says it's not supported"Entered the closest region, not the region where Kiro is configuredUse the region from your Kiro profile setup (check with your admin)

6. Helpful Resources

Last updated: September 2026
# kiro# aws-credits# getting-started
Any opinions in this article are those of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of AWS.
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