If I am currently in the free-tier, what's the next step for me as I look to scale?
Good question. I would attempt to track what your costs would be without the free tier and use that to calculate your profitability and other business metrics.
So long as you think of it as a one off bonus then it should be OK.
Gotcha! And keen on implementing an effective cloud cost management tool as suggested. Do share updates; Looking forward to a solution like that. Thanks