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AWS Lambda

Amazon's Original Functions as a Service

AWS Lambda Overview

Core Product

Functions
Free Tier

Information Resources

AWS Lambda Homepage
AWS Lambda Homepage

What is AWS Lambda?

AWS Lambda introduced serverless cloud computing to the masses as early as 2014. Being the first with a massive user-base, has set up Amazon Web Services for great success. It took a few years for competitors to offer similar functionality and to actually acknowledge the FaaS space as a new chapter in cloud compute.

Focus

AWS Lambda is a FaaS platform. It does not focus heavily on solving specific problems, but rather providing a platform to use for whatever event-driven workflows you might have. Because of Amazon’s extensive service catalog, Lambda does have heavy emphasis on compatibility and integration with other AWS services.

Key Features

  • Deploy .zip file archives known as Lambda Layers that can contain library dependencies, a custom runtime, or configuration files. Reduce the size of your deployment packages, separate core function logic from dependencies, share dependencies across multiple functions, or use the Lambda console code editor.
  • Integration for deploying functions packaged as Docker container images through Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR). Build and deploy containerized applications to Lambda with the extra functionality of Docker images stored in ECR.

With Amazon’s gigantic scale, a shift has started with companies that are on the AWS platform to move more and more of their infrastructure to serverless. AWS Lambda’s integration with other AWS services makes it an obvious choice for those already living in Amazon’s ecosystem. Unfortunately, it also inherits the cost prediction difficulties that AWS services are often criticized for.

Service Types

Functions
Available

Functions Runtimes

.Net
Available
C#
Available
Go
Available
Java
Available
JavaScript
Available
Node.js
Available
PowerShell
Available
Python
Available
Ruby
Available
Rust
Available
TypeScript
Available

Execution Limits and Resource Quotas

Min. Memory
128 MB
Max. Memory
10 GB
Default Timeout
5 s
Max. Timeout
900 s
Request Payload
6 MB
Response Payload
6 MB

Just like with Lambda, duration cost depends on the amount of memory you allocate to your function. You can allocate any amount of memory to your function between 128 MB and 10 GB, in 1 MB increments. In contrast to Lambda, Lambda@Edge does not offer a free tier.

Lambda@Edge pricing does not vary by region. You are charged for the total number of requests across all your functions executed in all regions. Lambda@Edge counts a request each time it starts executing in response to an Amazon CloudFront event globally.

  • Requests: $0.20 per 1M requests
  • Duration: $0.0000166667 per GB-second

Get an estimate of your project costs with AWS Lambda's
An interactive map displaying all 39 AWS Lambda datacenters by region.
Last updated: June 18, 2021

*Information is subject to change. Verify with the official AWS Lambda website.

Alternatives to AWS Lambda are generated by matching platform type and supported runtimes