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How to Set Up Amazon SNS-to-SQS Message Delivery

Set up SNS-to-SQS delivery with the right queue policy, payload format, routing filters, FIFO behavior, and dead-letter handling.
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To send messages from Amazon SNS to Amazon SQS, subscribe the queue to the topic and allow that topic to call sqs:SendMessage in the queue’s resource policy. Then publish a test message and confirm the consumer receives the format it expects. Filters, FIFO delivery, and a subscription dead-letter queue are optional design choices—not prerequisites for a basic connection.

How SNS-to-SQS delivery works

An SNS topic can fan out a published message to subscribed SQS queues. Each queue is a separate subscriber, so you can route one publication to multiple consumers. The queue policy authorizes delivery from the topic; it does not replace the permissions of the people or applications that publish to the topic or consume from the queue. See AWS’s procedure for subscribing an SQS queue to an SNS topic.

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The basic setup has three permission paths to keep distinct:

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  • SNS to SQS: the queue’s resource policy allows the intended topic to send messages.
  • Publisher to SNS: the publishing principal needs permission to publish to the topic.
  • Consumer to SQS: the consumer principal needs the queue permissions required to receive and delete messages, as appropriate to its work.

Keep the topic permission scoped to the intended topic ARN. If multiple topics are authorized to send to one queue, add a separate authorization statement for each topic rather than granting broad access.

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Configure the topic, queue, and permissions

Use the AWS console, API, CLI, SDK, or CloudFormation. The essential sequence is the same regardless of interface:

  1. Choose or create the SNS topic and SQS queue. Record their ARNs and decide whether standard or FIFO behavior fits the application.
  2. Update the queue resource policy. Allow sqs:SendMessage from the intended SNS topic ARN. Avoid an unrestricted topic source.
  3. Subscribe the queue to the topic. Confirm the subscription targets the intended queue.
  4. Set publisher and consumer permissions separately. Give the publishing principal permission to publish, and give the consumer the SQS permissions it needs to receive and delete messages.
  5. Publish a test message. Read it from the queue and check both that delivery succeeded and that its payload has the format your consumer expects.

A successful subscription alone does not prove the full path works: the queue policy, publisher permissions, and consumer permissions serve different purposes. AWS documents the queue subscription and policy steps in its SNS-to-SQS subscription guide.

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Choose the message format your consumer expects

By default, SNS sends a notification envelope around the message. The envelope includes SNS notification metadata, so a consumer must parse the notification rather than assume the queue body is only the original published payload. With raw message delivery enabled for the subscription, SNS sends the payload as-is instead. Choose based on the consumer contract, then verify the result with a test message. AWS describes delivery behavior in Amazon SNS message delivery.

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Delivery choice What arrives at the queue When it fits
Default envelope The published message wrapped with SNS notification metadata When the consumer needs the SNS envelope or its metadata
Raw message delivery The published payload as-is When the consumer expects the original payload and its parser is built for that format

Raw delivery is optional. It is not required to use subscription filters.

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Route only selected messages with a subscription filter

A filter policy is attached to an SNS subscription, so it controls which messages that particular subscriber receives. You can filter using message attributes or properties in the message body. Choose the matching method to fit how publishers represent the data and how you want to express the routing rules. Other subscribers can have different policies or receive all topic messages.

Allow for propagation time after changing a policy: AWS says filter-policy updates can take up to 15 minutes to take effect. A message that does not arrive immediately after a policy edit may have been evaluated under the prior policy. See AWS’s guides to SNS subscription filter policies and applying a subscription filter policy.

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  • Keep your home comfortable – Control compatible smart home devices with your voice and routines triggered by built-in motion or indoor temperature sensors. Create routines to automatically turn on lights when you walk into a room, or start a fan if the inside temperature goes above your comfort zone.
  • Do more with device pairing – Fill your home with music using compatible Echo devices in different rooms, or create a home theatre system with Fire TV.
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Decide whether FIFO delivery is necessary

Choose standard or FIFO semantics from the consumer’s actual requirements. SNS FIFO topics can deliver to SQS FIFO or standard queues. Pairing an SNS FIFO topic with an SQS FIFO queue is the choice when strict ordering and deduplication matter; a standard queue can suit workloads where best-effort ordering is sufficient. Review AWS’s documentation on FIFO-topic message delivery.

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Requirement Design direction Important consideration
Strict ordering and deduplication Use an SNS FIFO topic with an SQS FIFO queue FIFO deduplication depends on delivery and consumer conditions; it is not unconditional.
Best-effort ordering A standard queue may be suitable Do not select FIFO solely by default if the application does not need its ordering and deduplication behavior.

AWS lists conditions for FIFO deduplication: the queue must be a permitted type, the consumer must delete messages in time, the subscription must not use a filter, and network disruption must not prevent acknowledgement. A filter policy therefore affects this design choice if deduplication behavior is important. See Amazon SNS message deduplication for FIFO topics.

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Retain failed deliveries with a subscription dead-letter queue

An SNS subscription dead-letter queue is an SQS queue that retains messages SNS could not deliver to the subscriber, giving operators a place to investigate or reprocess them. The DLQ itself needs a queue policy that allows SNS to send messages. AWS specifies that the subscription and its DLQ must be in the same AWS account and Region.

Plan who will inspect the DLQ and how recovered messages will be handled; retaining a failed delivery is useful only if there is an operational path to diagnose and reprocess it. See AWS’s documentation for SNS dead-letter queues and configuring an SNS dead-letter queue.

Understand the encryption boundary

For SNS FIFO and SQS FIFO, AWS KMS encryption covers message bodies, not message attributes or resource metadata. Turning on encryption does not encrypt messages that were already backlogged. Account for those limits when deciding what data to place in attributes and when planning an encryption change. AWS details this scope in Amazon SNS message security for FIFO topics.

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Troubleshoot messages that do not arrive

  • Check the queue policy. Verify it permits sqs:SendMessage from the correct topic ARN. A subscription does not override a missing or incorrectly scoped queue permission.
  • Verify the subscription target. Make sure it points to the intended queue and that you are checking the expected topic and queue. The same-account and same-Region requirement noted above applies specifically to an SNS subscription DLQ.
  • Check the filter policy. Confirm the message matches the configured attribute or body-property rules. After a policy change, allow up to 15 minutes for it to take effect.
  • Inspect the payload contract. Determine whether the consumer expects the default SNS envelope or raw payload and compare that with what the subscription delivers.
  • Separate client-side from server-side delivery failures. AWS says client-side failures, such as stale subscription metadata or a restrictive endpoint policy, are not retried; server-side failures follow SNS retry behavior. Review the SNS message-delivery documentation and check the subscription DLQ for undelivered messages.
  • Use the DLQ for diagnosis. Inspect retained messages to understand failed delivery and determine whether they can be reprocessed.

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