This inefficiency occurs when teams assume AWS Marketplace SaaS purchases will contribute toward EDP or PPA commitments, but the SaaS product is not eligible under AWS’s “Deployed on AWS” standard. As of May 1, 2025, AWS Marketplace allows SaaS products regardless of where they are hosted, while separately identifying products that qualify for commitment drawdown via a visible “Deployed on AWS” badge.

Eligibility is determined based on the invoice date, not the contract signing date. As a result, Marketplace SaaS contracts signed prior to the policy change may still generate invoices after May 1, 2025 that no longer qualify for commitment retirement. This can lead to Marketplace spend appearing on AWS invoices without reducing commitments, creating false confidence in commitment progress and increasing the risk of end-of-term shortfalls.

In many organizations, AWS Marketplace purchases are lumped into a single consolidated billing line without visibility into individual vendors. 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.

Many organizations mistakenly believe that all AWS Marketplace spend automatically contributes to their EDP commitment. In reality, only certain Marketplace transactions, those involving EDP-eligible vendors and transactable SKUs, will count towards a portion of their EDP commitment. This misunderstanding can lead to double counting: forecasting based on the assumption that both native AWS usage and Marketplace purchases will fully draw down the commitment. If the assumptions are incorrect, the organization risks failing to meet its EDP threshold, incurring penalties or losing expected discounts.