A Complete Guide To AWS Marketplace

What is AWS Marketplace and how it works?

AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog where customers find, buy, and deploy third-party software, data, and services that run on AWS, simplifying procurement with centralized billing on your AWS bill. 

They offer flexible pricing (free trials, pay-as-you-go, BYOL) and enable quick launches of pre-configured solutions such as Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and containers. 

AWS Marketplace serves as a storefront for independent software vendors (ISVs) and resellers to reach AWS users, streamline sales, contracts, and deployments for both buyers and sellers, and improve governance and speed.

How AWS Marketplace works for buyers

• Browse through thousands of listings for security, business apps, ML, data, etc., from leading vendors.
• Access product details, vendor info, security profiles, and often free trials.
• Purchase using flexible options (hourly, annual, BYOL) with unified billing on your AWS invoice.
• Launch pre-configured solutions (AMIs, SaaS, Containers) with a few clicks, often integrated directly into your AWS environment.
• Centralize spending, track usage, and manage licenses through your AWS account.

How AWS Marketplace works for sellers/ partners

• ISVs, VARs, and SIs list their software on the AWS marketplace. 
• The listing is accessible to a vast global audience of AWS users.
• Set pricing, offer trials, and manage contracts (including private offers for specific clients).
• AWS handles invoicing and payments, providing streamlined disbursements.

Sellers can now also integrate “Buy with AWS” buttons on their websites, enabling buyers to purchase their solutions even more seamlessly.

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Why sell on AWS Marketplace (or cloud marketplaces)

Selling on AWS Marketplace helps software vendors reach millions of AWS customers. 

As it simplifies cloud GTM via integrated billing, procurement, and sales, it accelerates revenue by reducing sales cycles and scales globally with automated tax/payment handling. 

Let’s understand how companies benefit from AWS marketplaces.

1. Faster procurement and shorter sales cycles

With AWS or cloud marketplaces, you bypass many of the traditional procurement hurdles:

• New vendor onboarding
• Complex legal negotiations
• Security review loops
• Procurement committee cycles

AWS Marketplace standardizes contract terms, leverages pre-approved AWS vendor status, and removes administrative bottlenecks. This can reduce enterprise deal timelines by more than half. 

A deal that might have taken months with traditional procurement may close in weeks when sold through the AWS Marketplace.

2. Purchases count toward AWS Cloud Commit spend

Enterprises often sign multi-year commitments, agreeing to spend a certain amount with AWS. These cloud commitment agreements create pressure to consume the committed spend within the contracted timeframe.

Marketplace purchases count toward cloud commit. That means buyers can purchase your software using a budget that has already been approved. This makes deals easier to justify internally, especially late in the fiscal year when teams are trying to maximize cloud consumption.

3. AWS field sellers actively support marketplace deals

AWS sellers are incentivized to help partners close deals through the marketplace. When you register opportunities in AWS Partner Central, AWS sellers may:

• Introduce you to new buyers
• Champion your product within their account
• Help shape an enterprise solution that includes your offering
• Accelerate approvals with procurement

AWS co-sell alignment is unique. No other cloud marketplace has such a deeply integrated field motion.

4. Higher win rates and stronger competitive positioning

When procurement paths are simplified and AWS sellers are aligned with your deal, your win rate increases. Buyers also perceive marketplace-listed vendors as more mature and enterprise-ready. It matters in competitive RFPs where procurement complexity can be the deciding factor.

Vectra AI more than doubled its AWS marketplace volume in less than a year by leveraging Clazar’s automation.

5. A more scalable, predictable revenue engine

As your cloud GTM motion matures:

• Your sales team learns when to introduce marketplace procurement into deals
• Your renewals team leverages private offers for expansion using ABOs
• Your finance team gets used to marketplace disbursement and reconciliation
• Your partner team leverages CPPO to broaden reach
• Your revenue operations team automates workflows with tools like Clazar

Over time, Marketplace becomes a revenue multiplier rather than a side channel.

6. Ability to sell globally through AWS infrastructure

When you sell on the AWS marketplace, you leverage AWS’s global billing infrastructure. 

This includes:

• Multi-currency private offers
• Localized tax handling
• Compliance frameworks
• Global availability

This enables even small SaaS companies to sell internationally without building global billing systems.

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What do you need to sell on the AWS marketplace?

To sell on AWS Marketplace, your organization must meet eligibility, legal, technical, and operational requirements. These prerequisites ensure your product can be sold, billed, and supported consistently in an AWS-compatible manner.

Below is a complete breakdown:

1. An active AWS account

This account becomes your Marketplace management identity. It must have:

• Administrators who manage listings
• Financial contacts for tax and payouts
• Technical owners for integration
• Security compliance owners

Without this foundational AWS account, you cannot begin the listing process.

2. Register as an AWS Marketplace seller

You can register yourself by visiting the AWS Marketplace Management Portal. For the registration you require:

• Company contact information
• Customer support details
• Payment bank account
• Tax documentation
• Acceptance of AWS Marketplace agreements

3. The country must be supported

AWS allows Marketplace sellers only in approved geographies due to regulatory and tax complexities. If you are located in a non-supported country, you must sell through a reseller. You can find the list of countries supported here.

4. Product must be a supported category

AWS does not allow arbitrary product types. You must select an approved listing category:

• SaaS
• AMI
• Container-based product
• ML model
• AI Agent
• Professional services

Each category has different integration requirements and review processes.

5. Meet AWS technical integration requirements

Each product type has a corresponding set of technical requirements. If you are listing a SaaS product, you must implement:

• A registration URL
• Entitlement checks
• Metering (if usage-based pricing applies)
• A subscription activation flow
• A subscription deactivation flow

You can also work with a platform like Clazar, which can manage technical integrations and streamline the listing process, making it easier to sell on the AWS Marketplace. 

6. Meet AWS security requirements

Marketplace listings reflect on AWS’s reputation, so security standards are strict. AWS reviews the following:

• Authentication
• Data handling practices
• API usage
• Documentation clarity
• Product functionality

7. Complete tax compliance requirements

You are required to submit the appropriate tax forms for your country of incorporation. A detailed overview is available in the AWS Tax Guide for Sellers and Resellers.

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What kind of products can you sell on the AWS marketplace?

To sell on AWS Marketplace, you must have a supported product type. Each type has unique attributes, pricing capabilities, and technical requirements. Understanding these categories helps you choose the best format for your product and align your cloud GTM strategy accordingly. The following product types are supported on the AWS marketplace:

1. SaaS products (most common for B2B software)

SaaS listings allow you to sell software hosted in your own environment. You integrate AWS with your subscription system using entitlement or metering APIs.

SaaS is the most common listing type because:

• It suits nearly all modern SaaS companies
• It supports flexible pricing models
• It enables private offers and CPPO
• It aligns with AWS co-sell programs

SaaS pricing options

You can choose:

• Flat monthly or annual subscription
• Usage-based pricing
• Contract pricing
• Hybrid pricing

2. AMI-based products

Amazon Machine Image (AMI) listings are virtual machine images that can be deployed on Amazon EC2. 

An AMI is specific to the following:

• Region
• Operating system
• Processor architecture
• Root volume type
• Virtualization type

AMI listings are great when your product needs customer-side compute resources.

AMI pricing options 

You can choose:

• Bring your own license (BYOL)
• Paid hourly or hourly-annual
• Paid monthly
• Usage-based pricing
• Contract pricing

3. Container products

Container-based listings allow you to deliver Docker images that customers can run on ECS, EKS, or Kubernetes clusters. 

Best for:

• Enterprise infrastructure tools
• Kubernetes native applications
• Developer productivity products

Container product pricing options 

You can choose: 

• Bring your own license (BYOL)
• Monthly
• Custom metered pricing dimensions
• Per task or per pod hourly price
• Hourly pricing or custom metering pricing with a long-term contract
• Container contract pricing
  

Important note: On March 1, 2026, AWS Marketplace will discontinue Quick Launch for Helm chart deployments on Amazon EKS. Existing deployments will continue running normally. You can still deploy using standard Helm commands or container images on Amazon ECS.

4. Machine Learning models

AWS Marketplace supports ML model listings that customers can deploy in SageMaker. These are popular with AI, analytics, and data science vendors.

There are two types of SageMaker AI products listed in AWS Marketplace:

• Model package: A pre-trained model for making predictions that does not require any further training by the buyer.
• Algorithm: A model that requires the buyer to supply training data before it makes predictions. 

Machine Learning models pricing options 

You can choose: 

• Free pricing
• Hourly pricing
• Inference pricing
• Free trial

5. AI agent pro

AWS Marketplace now offers an AI Agents and Tools category featuring AI systems that autonomously reason, plan, and execute tasks using foundation models and agentic tools. Buyers can deploy these solutions via API or containers, enabling faster adoption of AI for content creation, analytics, customer service, automation, and security workflows.

When listing or buying an AI agent on AWS Marketplace, you can pick from two deployment models:

• API deployment: where the vendor hosts the agent on their infrastructure and exposes its functionality via APIs. This model is ideal for complex agents or those using proprietary models, where infrastructure or computation is abstracted away.
  
• Container deployment: where agents (and their supporting tools) are packaged as containers that the buyer can deploy within their own AWS environment. This gives buyers more control over data, compliance, infrastructure, and custom configurations, which is often required when dealing with sensitive or regulated data.

6. Professional Services

These are used for training, onboarding, implementation, or advisory services related to your software. While usage units cannot price professional services, they can complement SaaS listings.

Professional services pricing options 

You can choose: 

• Installment plan
• Upfront payment
• Variable payments

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How to sell on AWS Marketplace step-by-step

To sell on AWS Marketplace, you need a complete understanding of the listing workflow. Most sellers underestimate the level of detail required to get a listing approved, leading to delays and unnecessary rework. 

You can either do this process yourself or work with a Clazar expert to go live in less than two weeks.

Here is a step-by-step breakdown of how to sell on AWS Marketplace:

Step 1: Register as an AWS Marketplace seller

Start by creating or updating a seller profile at the AWS Marketplace Management Portal. At the time of seller registration, you must provide:

• Company legal name
• Public-facing display name
• Primary seller contact
• Customer and support contact details
• Banking information for disbursements
• Tax information depends on your country of incorporation
• Agreement to AWS Marketplace Seller Terms

During the registration, AWS will check:

• Whether your legal entity is valid
• Whether your tax identification is correct
• Whether your banking details can support international payouts
• Whether your company operates in a supported region
  

The listing on AWS Marketplace can take anywhere from a few days to two weeks.

Step 2: Choose the right product type and pricing model

Choosing your product type is one of the most important early decisions. AWS supports several listing types (explained earlier):

• SaaS
• AMI
• Container
• AI Agent 
• ML model
• Professional services

When choosing a pricing model, AWS offers multiple plans based on the product type. You can opt for a monthly, yearly, tiered, usage-based (metered billing) subscription, contract, or hybrid pricing.

Step 3: Create and optimize your listing content

This step is often underestimated. The quality of your AWS marketplace listing directly affects discoverability, co-sell engagement, conversion rates, and how customers perceive your brand.

Your AWS Marketplace listing must include:

• A strong product title
• A concise summary description
• A long, detailed product description
• Key features and benefits
• Use cases and problem statements
• Supported regions
• System requirements (if relevant)
• Architecture diagrams
• Pricing details and plan descriptions
• Customer support information
  

Pro tip: To optimize your AWS marketplace listing, make sure to add:

• Use keywords customers actually search for.
• Write short, benefit-focused descriptions at the beginning of the long description.
• Add customer use cases and industry applicability for relevance scoring.
• Insert architecture diagrams to show how your product fits into AWS workflows.
  

Step 4: Complete technical integration

Technical integration is where many companies encounter complexity. To sell on AWS, your product requires correct handling of entitlements, activation, cancellations, and, if applicable, metering.

Technical requirements vary by listing type. If you are listing SaaS, you must implement:

• SaaS product registration URL
• Buyer registration workflow
• Entitlement checks to confirm the customer has an active subscription
• Metering (only if you bill based on usage)
  

Many SaaS companies underestimate the time required to get this right. It is common for SaaS integration to take weeks, depending on engineering bandwidth.

If you are listing AMI or container products, don’t forget to:

• Create images according to AWS requirements
• Perform vulnerability scanning
• Build and validate images
• Provide deployment documentation
• Ensure security and runtime compliance‍

Step 5: Submit your listing for AWS review

Once your listing content and technical integration are complete, you submit everything to AWS for review. AWS will evaluate the :

• Product functionality
• Accuracy of documentation
• Security posture
• Pricing correctness
• Entitlement or metering accuracy
• User experience quality
• Compliance with Marketplace guidelines
  

If AWS detects issues, it returns the listing to you with revision instructions.

The review process typically takes:

• 3 to 10 business days for SaaS
• 5 to 14 business days for AMI and container products
  

Step 6: Go live and validate end-to-end

Once AWS approves your listing, it becomes publicly available on the AWS Marketplace. After going live, you must:

• Test purchases
• Validate entitlement activation
• Validate cancellation flows
• Confirm correct metering data
• Confirm earnings appear in AWS Marketplace Revenue Reports
• Update internal documentation
• Notify your sales, CS, and partner teams
  

This last step is crucial. If your team does not know how to position AWS Marketplace during deals, utilization will be low.

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Pricing and fees when you sell on AWS Marketplace

AWS takes a small percentage of revenue from Marketplace transactions. The exact fee depends on your product category, listing type, buyer region, or pricing model.

AWS charges these fees to cover billing infrastructure, fraud handling, payment processing, and Marketplace operations.

Choose a pricing structure for your product (e.g., monthly, annual, or tiered plans).  Best suited for horizontal SaaS tools, platforms with user-based or seat-based pricing, or companies wanting predictable recurring revenue.

Some also opt for usage-based pricing that is based on per API call, per GB of data processed, or per event/ transaction. This is best for data pipelines, infrastructure monitoring, and developer tooling.

Contract pricing lets you offer 1-year, 2-year terms, or multi-year discounting. This is commonly used during private offers for enterprise deals.

Another popular model is the hybrid pricing, which combines a subscription-based rate and usage-based variable charges. This model is ideal when most customers pay a baseline fee but have variable usage patterns.

How your pricing appears to buyers

When you sell on AWS, make sure to display clearly the following:

• Pricing summary
• Pricing units
• Contract options
• Usage measurement methods
• Renewal terms
  

Clear pricing builds trust and reduces the number of clarifying questions during procurement.

How marketplace billing works for sellers

Now we know AWS manages all billing, collections, and disbursements. Then you receive monthly payouts from AWS and do not invoice the customer directly. This reduces friction for finance teams and eliminates the risk of late payments or non-payment. 

When selling on AWS Marketplace, you pay listing fees based on your product type and deal size, with recent changes simplifying it to:

• 3% for most public SaaS/AWS Data exchange
• Lower for large private offers (1.5-3% by TCV)
  
  • Under $1M TCV: 3%
  • $1M - $10M TCV: 2%
  • $10M+ TCV: 1.5%
  • All Renewals: 1.5%
• AMI/Container listings often see 20%
• Professional Services have a 2.5% listing fee.

All CPPO transactions have a .5% uplift on the listing fee, regardless of the offer type or deployment method. For example, if the reseller extends a $500k SaaS private offer, the listing fee would be 3.5%.

Sometimes, AWS also adds a region-specific listing fee. For example, South Korea has an additional listing fee of 1%.

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What are AWS Marketplace private offers?

If you want to sell on AWS Marketplace to enterprise customers, you must understand private offers. Most high-value Marketplace transactions happen through private offers, not public listings, and hence, having seamless offer management is a must.

What is a Private Offer?

A private offer is a custom deal that you create for a specific customer through cloud Marketplaces such as AWS Marketplace. It includes:

• Custom pricing
• Custom payment schedule
• Custom term length
• Optional contract language
• Buyer-specific entitlements
• Multi-year commitments
• Option to co-terminate contracts

Why AWS private offers matter

Private offers allow you to mirror your direct selling pricing strategy, negotiate enterprise pricing, offer volume discounts, and close deals faster by letting AWS handle billing.

What you can customize in a private offer

Price, term, discount levels, payment cadence, start dates, end dates, and EULA are some of the factors you can customize via private offers. This means private offers can replicate nearly any commercial structure you offer in direct sales.

Steps on how to send a private offer:

1. Log in to the Marketplace Management Portal
2. Select your product
3. Create a private offer
4. Enter the buyer’s AWS account ID
5. Add pricing details
6. Upload custom terms if needed
7. Submit for AWS validation
8. Buyer accepts the offer
   

Agreement-based Offers (ABOs) allow you to modify an existing private offer mid-contract.

For example, the buyer increases usage, adds more seats, or wants a longer term.

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What is a CPPO? (Channel Partner Private Offer)

If you sell on cloud marketplaces and work with channel partners, AWS CPPO is a critical program to understand. CPPO stands for Channel Partner Private Offers. It allows approved consulting partners to create and sell private offers on your behalf.

Why CPPO is important

• It expands your distribution without building your own partner billing system
• Partners earn a margin, which motivates them to sell your product
• You gain access to new customer pipelines
• It is easier to sell into regulated industries with partner assistance
• It makes your Marketplace listing more flexible and enterprise-ready

Step-by-step guide for creating a CPPO

With Clazar, you can manage the entire CPPO lifecycle, from creation to tracking, from the Clazar platform and even the CRM of your choice, such as Salesforce.

What are the top use cases for using AWS CPPO?

CPPOs help you accelerate cloud sales on AWS Marketplace and are most effective for the following use-cases: 

• Implementation partners selling a bundled solution
• Resellers with enterprise relationships
• Regional partners in EMEA, APAC, or LATAM
• Partners adding services around your SaaS product
• Deals that require local billing entities

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What is co-selling, and how can ISVs co-sell with AWS?

AWS Marketplace is not just a billing route or procurement shortcut. It is deeply intertwined with AWS field sellers, partner managers, and solution architects who influence enterprise buying decisions every day. 

Therefore, it is essential for ISVs to co-sell with AWS to scale their cloud GTM motion.

What is co-selling?

Co-selling is a coordinated sales strategy in which two or more companies, for example, an ISV and AWS, work together by sharing relationships, resources, and deal pipelines. The goal is to present a unified solution to customers that delivers more value, while also creating shared growth and quicker sales outcomes for each partner.

What is co-selling with AWS?

Co-selling with AWS refers to a joint sales approach in which Independent Software Vendors and AWS work together to deliver combined solutions to customers. This collaboration leverages the strength of AWS cloud services along with the ISV’s product expertise to drive larger opportunities and shorten sales cycles. 

The process often runs through AWS Marketplace and the ISV Accelerate Program, using tools such as the APN ACE portal to share pipelines, unlock incentives for AWS sellers, and increase visibility, helping speed up customer transformation.

Why AWS co-sell matters for Marketplace success

AWS field sellers have a quota. They earn compensation when AWS consumption grows. Marketplace transactions increase AWS consumption, which means AWS sellers have a reason to support deals that close through Marketplace. 

This alignment means AWS field sellers can:

• Introduce your solution to accounts where it is a fit
• Validate your deal inside AWS Partner Central
• Influence customer buying decisions
• Help you navigate enterprise procurement
• Escalate internal blockers
• Provide insights into the customer’s AWS strategy

This can be the difference between a slow, friction-filled sales cycle and a fast, collaborative enterprise deal. AWS sellers lean in when there is a strong “better together” story.

You can learn more about how AWS partner programs structure these incentives here in Clazar’s guide to AWS partner programs.

How AWS co-sell works in practice

Co-sell becomes operational through AWS Partner Central and ACE (AWS Customer Engagements). Here is the workflow SaaS companies follow:

Step 1: Register opportunities in AWS Partner Central

Once your sales team identifies a Marketplace-qualified deal, you enter it into ACE. This gives AWS visibility into the opportunity.

Step 2: AWS validates the opportunity

AWS partner managers or field sellers review the opportunity and decide whether to support it. They look for:

• Customer cloud usage
• Fit with AWS services
• Revenue alignment with AWS’s goals
• Whether Marketplace is the right route to transact

When validated, the opportunity becomes visible to AWS teams involved in the account.

Step 3: AWS sellers engage the customer

AWS sellers support partners by:

• Providing customer context
• Coaching partners on account strategy
• Making introductions
• Advocating for the Marketplace as the procurement route
• Helping structure commercial terms within Marketplace’s framework

Step 4: The deal closes through AWS Marketplace

When the deal closes through AWS Marketplace, both you and AWS benefit:

• You close the deal faster
• AWS increases cloud consumption
• Procurement friction disappears
• Renewals become easier to manage

How AWS Marketplace strengthens co-sell motion

When you sell on AWS Marketplace, you signal to AWS field teams that:

• You are serious about the AWS ecosystem
• Your product is approved and validated
• You have a clean procurement path
• You support AWS’s goal of driving consumption

AWS sellers prefer recommending solutions that support AWS’s goals. Marketplace signals alignment.

‍Note: AWS has launched a new version of Partner Central that unifies the Marketplace and Partner Central workflows. Clazar is offering a migration service (free for limited partners) to help ISVs move seamlessly to the new experience.

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How to scale AWS marketplace sales with automation (using Clazar)

Scaling AWS Marketplace sales will eventually overwhelm any team relying on manual steps. As deal volume increases, processes that once felt manageable turn into bottlenecks across sales, revenue operations, finance, and engineering. 

This is why Clazar has become the top solution for ISVs looking to grow on AWS Marketplace quickly and accurately.

Streamlining AWS private offer management
Clazar allows sales teams to generate private offers directly from the CRM, revenue operations to manage approvals, and finance to track payouts without manual effort. The result is faster deals with fewer errors.

Managing CPPO deals from CRM
CPPO deals introduce added complexity through partner margins, shared revenue, and regional rules. Clazar automates partner authorization, offer creation, margin calculations, and contract workflows so teams can execute CPPO motions at scale without extra overhead.

Automated co-sell management
With Clazar’s integration to AWS Partner Central, opportunities sync automatically, AWS sellers gain visibility earlier, and reporting becomes consistent across systems. Teams avoid duplicate data entry and accelerate co-sell outcomes.

Revenue reporting and reconciliation
AWS Marketplace payouts involve complex files and multi-step reconciliation. Clazar analytics automates disbursement tracking, revenue reconciliation, billing cycles, refunds, partner margins, and more to support accurate revenue recognition.

Future-ready with multi-marketplace management
For companies selling on Azure or GCP in addition to AWS, Clazar centralizes listings, offers, entitlements, and analytics in one platform. This ensures your cloud GTM strategy is future-proof and ready to scale across any marketplace.

By automating every core workflow, Clazar removes the operational friction that slows down cloud marketplace growth. ISVs can scale sales, improve accuracy, and fully unlock the revenue potential of AWS Marketplace with a single trusted platform.

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What are the common mistakes new AWS Marketplace sellers should avoid

If you are preparing to sell on AWS Marketplace for the first time, small missteps can slow down your launch or block approvals. After helping more than 250 software companies list and scale on AWS Marketplace, the Clazar team has identified five mistakes new sellers should avoid: 

1. Using a personal AWS account or root credential

New sellers often start with the wrong account structure. Always register through a dedicated business AWS account with IAM roles to ensure secure, compliant access when you list and sell on AWS Marketplace.

2. Delaying tax and bank setup

AWS cannot process disbursements without validated tax documents and a verified bank account. Many first-time sellers lose weeks here. Complete this step early to speed up your AWS Marketplace launch.

3. Poor listing presentation

Your product listing must be optimized with buyer keywords. If your title, description, or value proposition does not match the language customers use, your product becomes invisible in AWS search. Strong copy helps you stand out when you sell on AWS Marketplace.

4. Treating the listing as a one-time task

An AWS Marketplace listing needs ongoing updates. Refresh your content, versions, and offers regularly to keep your listing accurate and engaging.

5. Ignoring private offers and partner motions

Most enterprise deals close through custom private offers or partner-led CPPO deals, not just the public listing. Sellers who skip these paths leave significant revenue behind. Clazar supports private offers and CPPOs from the UI or directly within your CRM.

By avoiding these mistakes, new sellers can launch faster, stay compliant, and start generating revenue on AWS Marketplace with confidence.