Amazon SQS and SNS Announce 256KB Large Payloads

Posted on: Jun 18, 2013

Today, we are increasing the maximum allowed payload size for the Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) and the Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) from 64 KB to 256 KB. We are also adding a new option to deliver SNS messages in raw format, in addition to the existing JSON format. This is useful if you are using SNS in conjunction with SQS transmit identical copies of a message to multiple queues. Here is more information about these new features:

• 256KB Payloads (SQS and SNS) enable developers to send and receive more data with each API call. Previously, payloads were capped at 64KB. Now, large payloads are billed as one request per 64KB 'chunk' of payload. For example, a single API call for a 256KB payload will be billed as four requests. Our customers tell us larger payloads will enable new use cases that were previously difficult to accomplish.
• SNS Raw Message Delivery enables developers to pack even more information content into their messaging payloads. When delivering notifications to SQS and HTTP endpoints, SNS today adds JSON encoding with metadata about the current message and topic. Now, developers can set the optional "RawMessageDelivery" property to disable this added JSON encoding. Raw message delivery is off by default, to ensure existing applications continue to behave as expected.

free tier Amazon SNS page Amazon SQS page SQS developer reference guide