Amazon API Gateway
Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service for creating, publishing, and securing APIs at any scale. It acts as the "front door" for applications to access backend services like Lambda, EC2, or any HTTP endpoint.
Types of APIs
| Type | Use Case |
|---|---|
| REST API | Traditional RESTful APIs with full feature set |
| HTTP API | Lightweight, lower-cost REST APIs |
| WebSocket API | Real-time, two-way communication |
Key Features
- Authentication: Integration with Cognito, IAM, and custom authorizers
- Rate limiting: Throttling and quota management
- Caching: Response caching to reduce backend load
- Transformations: Request/response mapping templates
- CORS: Built-in cross-origin resource sharing configuration
Common Patterns
Lambda Integration
The most common pattern pairs API Gateway with Lambda for fully serverless APIs:
Client → API Gateway → Lambda → DynamoDB
Proxy Integration
Pass requests directly to backend services with minimal transformation.
What We Like
- Zero infrastructure: No servers to manage
- Automatic scaling: Handles traffic spikes seamlessly
- Built-in security: WAF integration, throttling, and authentication
- Observability: CloudWatch metrics and X-Ray tracing
What We Don't Like
- Cold starts: Combined with Lambda, initial requests can be slow
- Pricing complexity: Costs can add up with high request volumes
- 29-second timeout: Hard limit can be problematic for long-running operations
Pricing Consideration
For high-volume APIs, HTTP APIs are significantly cheaper than REST APIs while covering most use cases. We typically recommend HTTP APIs unless you need features exclusive to REST APIs (like request validation or WAF integration).