Larger Payloads (256 KB) for Amazon SQS and SNS

Today we are raising the maximum 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 allow you to opt for delivery of 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’s some more information for you:

• 256KB Payloads (SQS and SNS) allows you 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 allows you to pack even more information content into your 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.

Getting started with Amazon SNS and Amazon SQS is easy with our free tier of service. To learn more, visit the Amazon SNS page  and the Amazon SQS page.  To learn more about subscribing SQS queues to SNS topics, visit the SQS developer reference guide.

— Jeff;