Check if a Premium Support Plan is Subscribed
Overview
This check verifies whether your AWS account has an AWS Premium Support plan (Business or Enterprise level). Premium Support provides faster response times, access to AWS technical experts, and full Trusted Advisor checks that help you maintain secure, well-architected environments.
Risk
Without Premium Support:
- Slower incident response: Critical production issues may take longer to resolve without 24/7 access to AWS engineers
- Limited Trusted Advisor: Basic Support only includes a subset of Trusted Advisor checks, meaning security misconfigurations may go undetected
- No architectural guidance: You lose access to AWS Solutions Architects who can help optimize your infrastructure
- Security gaps: Restricted support during security events can delay containment and increase exposure
For production workloads, the operational risk of not having expert AWS support available can outweigh the cost of a Premium Support plan.
Remediation Steps
Prerequisites
- Root user access or IAM permissions to modify the AWS Support plan
- Authority to make billing/subscription changes for the AWS account
AWS Console Method
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Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the root user (support plan changes require root access)
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Go to the AWS Support Plans page
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Review your current support plan displayed at the top of the page
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Click Change plan
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Select either:
- Business Support - Recommended for production workloads; includes 24/7 phone/chat support and full Trusted Advisor
- Enterprise On-Ramp - For business-critical workloads; adds a pool of Technical Account Managers
- Enterprise Support - For mission-critical workloads; includes a designated Technical Account Manager
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Review the pricing details and click Confirm
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The plan change takes effect immediately
Understanding Support Plan Tiers
| Feature | Basic (Free) | Developer | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trusted Advisor Checks | 7 core checks | 7 core checks | All checks | All checks |
| Response Time (Critical) | None | 12 hours | 1 hour | 15 minutes |
| 24/7 Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Phone Support | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Technical Account Manager | No | No | No | Yes |
Cost considerations:
- Developer: Starting at $29/month
- Business: Greater of $100/month or 3-10% of monthly AWS usage
- Enterprise On-Ramp: Greater of $5,500/month or percentage of usage
- Enterprise: Greater of $15,000/month or percentage of usage
For current pricing, see the AWS Support Plans pricing page.
Alternative: Document an Action Plan (if not subscribing)
If budget constraints prevent subscribing to Premium Support, you should document an alternative action plan:
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Identify internal expertise: Designate team members with deep AWS knowledge as internal escalation points
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Establish monitoring: Implement comprehensive monitoring using CloudWatch, AWS Config, and third-party tools to catch issues early
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Partner support: Consider working with an AWS Partner who can provide support services
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Community resources: Bookmark AWS re:Post, Stack Overflow, and AWS documentation for self-service troubleshooting
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Document escalation procedures: Create runbooks for common failure scenarios
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Regular reviews: Schedule periodic architecture reviews to proactively identify issues
Important: This approach carries more risk for production workloads. Evaluate carefully whether the cost savings justify the operational risk.
Verification
After changing your support plan:
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Return to the AWS Support Plans page
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Confirm your new plan is displayed (Business, Enterprise On-Ramp, or Enterprise)
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Visit the Trusted Advisor console and verify you now have access to all check categories (not just the 7 core checks)
Verify with Prowler
Re-run the Prowler check to confirm remediation:
prowler aws --checks trustedadvisor_premium_support_plan_subscribed --region us-east-1
The check should now return a PASS status.
Additional Resources
- AWS Support Plans Overview
- AWS Support Plans Pricing
- AWS Trusted Advisor
- Comparing AWS Support Plans
Notes
- Root user required: Changing the support plan requires signing in as the root user; IAM users cannot modify support plans
- Immediate effect: Plan changes take effect immediately, but billing is prorated
- Per-account basis: Support plans are set per AWS account. In AWS Organizations, each account can have its own support level, or you can use consolidated billing with Enterprise Support
- No downgrade delay: You can downgrade at any time, but consider the operational implications before doing so