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Amazon SNS
What it is
Amazon SNS is a managed publish-and-subscribe service for messaging between applications and people. It sends notifications to application endpoints and reaches people through SMS, mobile push, and email. Standard topics handle nearly unlimited messages per second with best-effort ordering and deduplication; FIFO topics preserve order and prevent duplicate delivery within five minutes, with a limit of 3,000 messages per second or 10 MB per second per topic. Publishers can send batches of 1 to 10 messages per API request, while subscribers can filter notifications. SNS integrates with AWS event sources and destinations, including SQS, Data Firehose, Lambda, and HTTPS endpoints. It retries delivery, stores messages across geographically separated servers and data centers, and supports dead-letter queues. Individual messages can be up to 256 KB; the Extended Client Library can store payloads up to 2 GB in S3 and publish a reference. A free tier includes monthly request and delivery allowances. Paid usage is billed monthly and depends on topic type, requests, deliveries, and payload data.
For and against
For
- Supports standard and FIFO topics
- Subscribers can filter notifications
- Retries delivery and supports dead-letter queues
- PrivateLink VPC endpoints are supported
- Free monthly usage allowances
Against
- FIFO topics are limited to 3,000 messages per second or 10 MB per second per topic
- Individual messages are limited to 256 KB
- Paid charges depend on usage and delivery type
The verdict
Amazon SNS provides messaging options for application endpoints and people, with topic choices for different ordering needs. Its free tier includes stated monthly allowances, while paid costs vary with usage and delivery.
Who it suits
SNS suits teams that need to send application events or notifications through AWS, including to people by SMS, push, or email. It serves organizations ranging from startups to governments.
Plans and prices
Free Tier
1 million requests · 100,000 HTTP notifications · 1,000 email notifications
Read 20 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
API requests
Pay-as-you-go API request pricing
Read 20 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
HTTP deliveries
HTTP notification delivery pricing
Read 20 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Email deliveries
Email notification delivery pricing
Read 20 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Pay-as-you-go
No upfront fees · No required minimum commitments · No long-term contracts · Charges depend on topic type, requests, deliveries, and payload data
Read 29 Sep 2026 · aws.amazon.com
On the record
- Compliance
- Amazon SNS is listed as in scope for AWS SOC 1, 2, and 3 reports; AWS says customers remain responsible for their applicable compliance obligations.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Delivery
- SNS delivers notifications to application endpoints and to people through SMS, mobile push, and email.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Durability
- SNS stores published messages across geographically separated servers and data centers, retries delivery, and supports dead-letter queues for undelivered messages.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Encryption
- Encrypted topics use server-side 256-bit AES-GCM encryption with a key issued by AWS Key Management Service.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- FIFO topics
- FIFO topics preserve message order, prevent duplicate delivery within a five-minute interval, and support up to 3,000 messages per second or 10 MB per second per topic.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Filtering and batching
- Publishers can batch 1 to 10 messages per API request, and subscribers can use filter policies to receive selected notifications.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Integrations
- SNS has native integrations with AWS event sources and destinations, and supports endpoints including Amazon SQS, Amazon Data Firehose, AWS Lambda, and HTTPS.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Message size
- Each message can contain up to 256 KB; the SNS Extended Client Library can store payloads up to 2 GB in Amazon S3 and publish an object reference.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Mobile push
- SNS mobile push supports iOS, Android, Fire, Windows, and Baidu devices through providers including APNs, Firebase Cloud Messaging, and Amazon Device Messaging.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Private networking
- SNS supports AWS PrivateLink VPC endpoints to publish to topics without traversing the public internet.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Purpose
- Amazon SNS is a fully managed Pub/Sub service for application-to-application and application-to-person messaging.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- SMS reach
- SNS supports SMS messaging to over 200 countries and offers redundancy across multiple SMS providers.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Standard topics
- Standard topics support nearly unlimited messages per second, best-effort ordering and deduplication, and up to 12.5 million subscriptions per topic.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Who it serves
- AWS says its customers include startups, enterprises, non-profits, and governments.aws.amazon.com · read 29 Sep 2026
