Posted On: Jun 17, 2015

Amazon CloudFront now lets you configure a Default TTL and a Maximum time-to-live (Max TTL) to specify how long CloudFront caches your objects in edge locations. These new settings enhance the control over cache duration that you already had with the Minimum TTL setting (Min TTL). You can learn more about how to set these granular caching rules here.

These new settings let you:

  • Set a TTL without setting cache control headers on each object: If you can't set cache-control headers at your origin (for example, when you're using a third-party content management system), you can now use Default TTL to specify the cache duration.
  • Override cache-control headers set by your origin: If you don't want to rely on the cache-control headers set by your origin (for example, when you don't control the origin server), you can now easily override the cache-control headers by setting the same value for Max TTL, Min TTL and Default TTL.
  • Ensure that TTLs are always within a range you specify. By setting both a Min TTL and a Max TTL, you can override origin misconfigurations that might cause objects to be cached for longer or shorter periods than you intend.

There are no additional charges for configuring Min TTL, Max TTL, or Default TTL. You can learn more about these new features by reading the Specifying How Long Objects Stay in a CloudFront Edge Cache section on the Amazon CloudFront Developer Guide.