Frequently Asked Questions
How does AWS IQ work?
Describe your needs, get responses from experts and consulting firms, and choose the expert(s) or consulting firm(s) with the skills and experience you need. Then agree to a proposal and payment type with the expert or consulting firm and a budget. For upfront or scheduled payments, you will agree to the payments when accepting the proposal. For milestone payments, your expert or consulting firm will send you payment requests as agreed to in the proposal, or when milestones are met. All payments and the associated charges will be charged to the payment method in your AWS bill.
Why and when would I use AWS IQ?
AWS IQ enables you to find and engage experts on AWS quickly and easily. All experts on AWS IQ who respond to custom requests are AWS Certified, and must maintain a high success rate. There is no cost to post a request. You pay for work as outlined in your proposal – either upfront, on a schedule, or in milestones. You should consider using AWS IQ when you need help getting started with AWS, kick starting a new project, or completing an existing project. If you know who you’d like to work with, you can also directly message any expert with a public profile.
What can AWS IQ be used for?
AWS IQ can be used to implement a broad range of projects such as deploying business and web applications, setting up cloud storage solutions, migrating databases, and developing machine learning applications. You can use AWS IQ to undertake projects from end to end or to supplement the skills and people in your organization today.
Who is AWS IQ available to?
AWS IQ is available to AWS customers worldwide (except for China). Independent consultants and companies located in an eligible jurisdiction supported by AWS Marketplace are eligible to provide services on AWS IQ. We are working on allowing experts from other regions and will update the AWS What’s New blog when ready.
Who are the experts participating in AWS IQ?
Experts include freelancers and consulting firms. All experts have an individual or company profile showing their expertise, AWS Certifications, ratings, and reviews. They must maintain a high rate of successful projects. To respond to your requests, at least one expert in their account must have a valid AWS Certification (Associate, Professional, Specialty). Learn more about AWS Certifications at http://aws.amazon.com/certification.
How do I access AWS IQ?
To log in to AWS IQ, please visit: https://iq.aws.amazon.com. Since AWS IQ can involve granting temporary access to your AWS environment and payment through your AWS account, you need to sign-in with appropriate account permissions. If you are already an administrator on your account, you should be all set. If not, you will need to set up an IAM user with the IAMFullAccess and AWSIQFullAccess managed policies before you can sign-in to AWS IQ. For additional information about IAM users and managed policies, please see visit IAM documentation.
To log in to AWS IQ, please visit: https://iq.aws.amazon.com.
For additional information about IAM users and managed policies, please see visit IAM documentation.
What is the cost to use AWS IQ as an AWS customer?
It is free to post a request on AWS IQ. When you request project help, experts will propose a project scope, payment type, and price. You and the expert or consulting firm will agree on a fixed price for the project and the cost will not exceed that price. Once you agree on a price, terms, and payment type, you will be charged as outlined in the proposal. Upfront and scheduled payments are agreed to when agreeing to the proposal. For milestone payments, experts or consulting firms will request payment as milestones are met. Experts request payment up front, in milestones, or according to a schedule. You pay the price agreed for a project, plus applicable taxes. All payments are processed through your AWS account. Learn more about AWS IQ pricing.
How do I contact Customer Service?
Visit the AWS Support Center, select ‘Accounts and billing’, and then choose ‘IQ’ in the Service dropdown menu.
How do I pay my expert?
You will either agree to payments when approving the proposal or as milestones are met. We will charge the payment method registered to your AWS account. The bill will appear under AWS Marketplace > Professional services provided by AWS IQ expert (sold by [provider’s name]).
What if something goes wrong or I am not happy with my paid consultation or the expert’s work?
If an expert requests a milestone payment for work that is incomplete or has errors, you may decline their payment request and ask that they resolve the issue. If you are unsatisfied for work after you have paid, you may request a refund.
How do I request a refund?
Once approved, all payments are considered final. Thoroughly review all expert work before approving a payment request. After approving a payment request, if you are unhappy with the work, you can request a refund from the expert/consulting firm. The expert/consulting firm can approve or decline the refund request at their discretion. If the expert approves the refund, provide them with your AWS Account ID. They will then submit a ticket to AWS Customer Support to process the refund. AWS Customer Support will contact you when the refund is complete.
AWS cannot provide a refund if an expert/consulting firm denies your request. You are responsible for all actions taken and all resources created within your AWS cloud environment.
What currencies does AWS IQ support?
AWS IQ supports payment in multiple currencies but proposals and payment requests will always be listed in US dollars. Learn more about accepted currencies here.
What if an expert on AWS IQ wants me to pay them directly?
Direct payments are not allowed. If an AWS IQ expert asks you to pay them directly, please let us know by contacting AWS Support.
As an AWS customer, do I need to issue tax reporting form (e.g. Form 1099) to my expert?
You are not responsible for tax reporting to your AWS IQ expert/consulting firm on their earnings. AWS serves as a third-party settlement organization and processes payments and transactions between AWS customers and experts. AWS is responsible for soliciting any necessary tax documentation from experts and reporting income earned by experts as required.
How do AWS IQ requests work?
Once the expert or consulting firm understands your needs, they will submit a proposal for you to review. The proposal will describe the work the expert or consulting firm will deliver, the payment method, and the amount you will be charged. The payment method will be upfront where you are charged in full when accepting the proposal, according to a schedule where you agree to all payments in the schedule when accepting the proposal, or milestones where you review work as its completed and accept or decline payments. The total of the approved payment requests will never exceed the proposal’s maximum agreed amount (plus applicable taxes). For milestone payments, you have ten (10) days to approve or decline a payment request. If you do not decline the payment request in ten (10) days, the request is automatically approved and your AWS account is charged. Upon processing the final payment, the project will be marked as completed.
Do you support fixed price and hourly project agreements?
At this time, AWS IQ projects are fixed price only. You and your expert will agree upfront to a scope of work and price for the project.
Can I cancel a project?
You may ask your expert to stop work on a project at any time, at which point your expert is required to immediately stop work and prepare a final bill for any work they have already completed, in accordance to your agreement with them.
What if there are no experts available to help me now?
AWS IQ is open for making requests 24 x 7, but the number of experts available varies through the day. Once you have posted a request, you will be notified of any responses and you can return to AWS IQ at any time to check for responses.
Where can I leave a review?
You can only leave reviews and ratings on completed proposals. To do this, navigate to your project request, click on the “Proposals” panel on the right, and then click on “Leave review”.
Once you accept the final payment, you will be prompted to leave a review and rating. Note: If using upfront payments, you may need to ask your expert to close the proposal in order for you to submit your review.
Can I grant an expert access to my AWS account?
You can choose to grant an expert access to your AWS account to complete agreed upon projects. You may revoke access at any time. While the expert is working within your AWS account, you can monitor their activity and revoke access if you notice activity that falls outside of the expert's agreed upon scope of work. Since you are responsible for the actions of experts in your account, it is important that you carefully monitor expert activities in your account.
Can AWS Promotional Credits be used on IQ?
Credits cannot be used to pay for AWS IQ 3rd party services. You may use credits for eligible resources that are spun up in your AWS environment. Learn more.
I posted a project on AWS IQ, but now I can’t find it.
You may be logged in to the wrong AWS account. Log in using the AWS Account ID used to post the project. If you are still having issues, reach out to us at iq-info@amazon.com.
Have a question that is not answered here?
Please let us know at iq-feedback@amazon.com.