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What Is AWS Lambda? How It Works, Uses, Features, and Pricing

AWS Lambda runs your code in response to events while AWS manages the compute infrastructure. Learn how it works, what it costs, and when it fits.
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AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service: you provide code as functions, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) manages the servers and underlying compute infrastructure. Lambda runs a function when an event or API call invokes it, scales automatically, and charges for usage rather than requiring you to provision a server for each function.

How AWS Lambda works

A Lambda function contains code and a configured handler—the entry point that processes each invocation. When an event triggers the function, the language runtime prepares the event data and context, then passes them to the handler. AWS runs the function in a managed, isolated execution environment with allocated memory and temporary storage at /tmp.

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A function’s execution environment moves through initialization, invocation, and shutdown phases. AWS may reuse an environment for another invocation, which can make initialization work reusable, but that reuse is not guaranteed. Do not use it as persistent storage for user or application state.

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Invocations, triggers, and event sources

You can invoke a function directly or connect it to a trigger. For streams and queues such as Amazon Kinesis and Amazon SQS, an event source mapping polls the source, groups records into batches, and invokes the function with those records. The source’s delivery and retry behavior matters to application design; a handler should be prepared for the same work to be delivered again where the integration permits retries.

Packaging and permissions

Functions can be deployed as ZIP archives or container images, and each function has one configured handler. An execution role grants the function permission to access AWS resources. A resource-based policy can authorize AWS services or other principals to invoke it. Keep both kinds of permissions limited to the resources and invocation sources the function actually needs.

What AWS Lambda is used for

AWS documents Lambda for event-driven tasks and application backends. Common examples include:

  • Processing a file after it is uploaded to Amazon S3.
  • Responding to database changes and automating data workflows.
  • Running scheduled or periodic tasks through Amazon EventBridge.
  • Processing streams for analytics or monitoring.
  • Providing web, mobile, IoT, or third-party API backends.
  • Coordinating multi-step workflows, such as order processing, approvals, and data pipelines, with durable functions.

These are possible uses, not a guarantee that Lambda is the best fit for every application. Consider execution length, startup-latency requirements, event-source behavior, scaling, permissions, and the cost of connected services when choosing an architecture.

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Lambda features and execution options

Lambda includes options for deployment, traffic management, integrations, and operations. AWS documents environment variables, versions, layers, code signing, concurrency and scaling controls, SnapStart, response streaming, container images, VPC and file-system integrations, function URLs, and extensions. Which options apply depends on the runtime, integration, and workload; they are not all enabled by default.

Standard and durable functions

Standard Lambda functions can run for up to 15 minutes per invocation. Durable functions add checkpointed state for workflows that need to preserve progress across steps, wait, resume, or pause for human approval; AWS documents durable workflows lasting up to one year. These capabilities serve different execution patterns, so check the current AWS documentation for availability and limits before designing around them.

How much AWS Lambda costs

For standard Lambda functions, AWS bases charges on request count and execution duration, measured in GB-seconds. The configured memory affects the resources allocated and contributes to duration charges. AWS’s pricing page lists a monthly free tier of 1 million requests and 400,000 GB-seconds; check the current page for eligibility and terms.

There is no single monthly price that applies to every Lambda workload. Region, processor architecture, memory, duration, and request volume affect the estimate. Optional features and related services—including provisioned concurrency, extensions, durable operations, storage, event polling, and the services that produce or consume events—can also add costs. Use the AWS Lambda pricing page and AWS pricing calculator with your expected workload to estimate charges.

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Benefits and trade-offs

AWS manages server maintenance and capacity provisioning, and Lambda scales automatically. For standard functions, billing by requests and execution duration can align compute charges with usage. Those benefits can reduce infrastructure work, but they do not remove the need to design the function, its event integrations, permissions, and surrounding services.

Before choosing Lambda, check whether the work fits the applicable execution-duration limit, whether startup latency is acceptable, how the event source and concurrency should behave, and what connected services and optional features add to total cost. AWS’s Lambda overview, execution environment documentation, and Lambda concepts explain the service and its operating model.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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