What AWS changed for partner funding in 2026
On December 1, 2025, AWS published its partner plans for 2026. For partners building pipeline, three funding items matter. Qualifying partners in the new agentic AI categories get an additional $25K of MDF in 2026, on top of an existing $50K. Amazon Connect implementations can receive up to $50K of MDF, launching January 2026. And the Business Outcomes Xcelerator program adds dedicated account planning, line-of-business sales training and industry-specific MDF up to $50K.
Those amounts are useful because they are specific. A partner can design a campaign to a known budget instead of guessing. A $50K Amazon Connect program, for example, can fund a webinar series, content syndication to named accounts, a qualified outreach program and a roundtable, with enough left for proper evidence capture and reporting.
The mechanics of MDF cash are worth knowing before you plan. A 2025 guide from Invisory describes reimbursement of up to 50% of eligible marketing expenses, with the partner paying costs up front and AWS reimbursing against valid receipts, alongside AWS Promotional Credits that can offset AWS usage during approved campaigns. The same guide describes requesting funds at least two weeks before an activity, claims due within 30 days of completion, and year-end cutoffs. Check the current rules in Partner Central, since they change.
How Agency Connect works
Agency Connect is AWS's program for partners with limited or no marketing resources. AWS-preferred agencies align with AWS brand and messaging, commit to service levels, and list services at pre-negotiated prices on the Agency Connect site inside AWS Partner Marketing Central. Services fall into awareness creation, lead acquisition and lead nurture, and MDF-eligible tactics include content development, paid media, social media, webinars, online events, email, content lead syndication, telemarketing, list purchase and enhancement, video production and demo creation.
The process, as AWS describes it, runs through your partner marketing team. Partner marketing managers help develop a marketing plan, check MDF eligibility and direct partners to Agency Connect when agency support is needed. The partner submits a quote request, the agency engages and runs the campaign, and the agency transacts directly with the partner. The partner requests MDF and submits the claim to AWS.
Two points follow. First, ownership of the funding request and claim stays with the partner, whichever agency runs the work. Second, the listed tactics are execution channels. They produce pipeline only when they are aimed at the right accounts with a message that a buyer finds credible, which is the part a program has to design before any quote request goes in. Decide the accounts, the qualification definition, the message and who follows up on each response, then choose the tactics and the agency that fit that plan, not the other way around.
Designing an MDF program that produces meetings
Funded campaigns fail in predictable ways. Content syndication produces a long list of names nobody calls. A webinar fills with people who cannot buy. Paid media produces clicks from outside the target market. Each tactic works when it serves a named account list and hands off to a person, and fails when it runs as a standalone campaign judged on volume.
Sequence matters as much as selection. Build the list and the qualification definition first. Then use awareness and syndication to create engagement inside that list, move engaged contacts into practitioner-led outreach, and invite the most engaged accounts to a small roundtable. Nurture everything that is real but not ready. Run in that order, the same MDF budget that would buy one large sponsorship funds a program that keeps producing conversations for the whole fund period.
- Start with 50 to 150 named accounts for one solution, chosen on at least two agreeing signals.
- Agree a written definition of a qualified lead with your practice lead before any tactic runs.
- Use syndication and webinars to create engagement inside the list, not to find a new list.
- Put practitioners in the first touch and route replies to a named person within the hour.
- Report meetings, opportunities and pipeline with every claim, not just receipts.
How we work with AWS partners
We have not published an AWS-specific case study yet, and we will not invent one. The approach carries over from our partner-channel work: at Phantom Tech we built a resale channel through system integrators, and at Quills AI the go-to-market pivoted toward SIs that cross-sell the product per client instance. Both depended on making the program easy for partners to sell and deliver.
For an AWS partner we build the account list and narrative, size the campaign to the MDF available, run webinars, syndication, outreach and roundtables, and assemble the proof of execution and outcome report for each claim. Across the agency, programs like these have produced up to $10M in pipeline per client, with about $2.4M in average sales closed per client account per year, across more than 35 active clients.
Confirm with your AWS partner team how MDF applies to agency work outside Agency Connect before planning, since eligibility can depend on the activity and the program.
Measure the program across the full funding year rather than campaign by campaign. Track cost per qualified meeting, meeting to opportunity conversion, opportunities shared with AWS through co-sell, and pipeline per MDF dollar. Those four numbers tell your AWS partner team whether the next request deserves support, and they tell you which tactics to keep, which to cut and where the next agentic AI or Amazon Connect program should focus.
AWS partner marketing terms, defined
AWS partner funding involves several programs, portals and categories, and eligibility depends on your partner path and designations. These definitions reflect the program as described on this page. Confirm current amounts and rules in Partner Central with your AWS partner team.
- APN (AWS Partner Network): the AWS program for consulting, software and services partners.
- MDF (market development funds): AWS funds for eligible partner marketing activities, typically reimbursed against receipts.
- Cost share: the portion of eligible expenses AWS reimburses; a 2025 guide describes up to 50% for MDF cash.
- Agentic AI category MDF: an additional $25K of MDF announced for 2026 for qualifying partners in new agentic AI categories.
- Amazon Connect MDF: up to $50K of MDF for Amazon Connect implementations, announced from January 2026.
- Agency Connect: an AWS program giving partners access to AWS-preferred agencies with pre-negotiated marketing services.
- AWS Partner Marketing Central: where partners find Agency Connect services and campaign resources.
- Partner Central: the AWS portal where partners manage programs, funding and opportunities.
- Proof of execution: receipts, screenshots, attendee lists and reports submitted with a claim.
- Content syndication: distributing gated content through third-party networks to reach a defined audience.
- Consulting tier: a partner's level on the services path, with Select and above eligible for Agency Connect.
Common mistakes in AWS MDF campaigns
AWS MDF can substantially co-fund a partner's demand generation, but many funded campaigns produce claims and little pipeline. The pattern is usually the same: activities chosen because they are eligible, not because they reach buyers with a live problem. Avoid these mistakes when planning your next funded program.
For fund mechanics across ecosystems, read the partner MDF guide, and for data platform partners on AWS, see our Snowflake partner page.
- Designing a broad awareness campaign instead of targeting 50 to 150 named accounts for one solution.
- Launching before agreeing a written definition of a qualified lead with the AWS partner team.
- Counting syndicated downloads as leads and sending them straight to sales without practitioner follow-up.
- Requesting funds after the activity has started, or claiming long after it ends.
- Losing receipts and proof of execution because nobody owned evidence capture.
- Assuming MDF covers the full cost, then running out of budget for your share.
- Planning re:Invent meetings too late, after senior calendars are full.
- Reporting activities with claims but not meetings, opportunities and pipeline.
- Keeping practitioners out of the first touch, so interested buyers get a sales pitch instead of a relevant technical conversation.
- Ignoring AWS account team priorities when choosing which accounts to target.