Amazon Forecast can now support generating predictions in any quantile

Posted on: Nov 25, 2019

Amazon Forecast can now support generating forecasts in any quantile between 1% and 99% (including the mean forecast). Until today, the service only generated probabilistic forecasts at three default quantiles i.e. 10%/50%/90%.

This can be limiting on two fronts 1. The fixed quantiles might not meet specific use case requirements e.g. If meeting customer demand is imperative at all costs a P99 forecast might make more sense and 2. Customers had to pay for the three default forecasts whether they wanted it or not. With the change, customers can override the defaults and choose between 1 to 5 quantiles of their choice. This can be achieved by passing an optional parameter in the CreateForecast API or directly from the AWS Console. You can learn more here.

You will continue to be able to query your chosen forecasts via the console or QueryForecast API.