Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed cloud service for creating, publishing, securing, monitoring, and operating APIs. It supports HTTP APIs, REST APIs, and WebSocket APIs, making it suitable for teams exposing backend functionality to internal applications, customers, or third-party developers. The service fits serverless, containerized, web, and real-time workloads, with support for private APIs and integrations with public HTTP/HTTPS endpoints. AWS-native teams are the clearest audience, particularly when their APIs already depend on services such as Lambda, EC2, ECS, or EventBridge.
Pricing is usage-based rather than a fixed subscription. The Free Tier includes 1 million REST API calls, 1 million HTTP API calls, 1 million WebSocket messages, and 750,000 WebSocket connection minutes per month. HTTP APIs start at $1 per 1 million requests monthly, while REST APIs start at $3.50 per 1 million requests monthly. WebSocket APIs start at $1 per 1 million messages monthly, with connection minutes charged separately. Data transfer out for HTTP APIs is charged separately, and API Gateway Portals cost $125 per month with 10 PortalProducts included.
Its main strength is breadth across gateway controls and AWS ecosystem fit. Features include throttling at account, route, method, and usage-plan levels; request validation; request and response transformation; API keys; versioning; stages; CloudWatch metrics and logs; VPC connectivity; and managed developer portals for REST APIs. Authentication options include IAM/SigV4, Cognito user pools, JWT/OIDC/OAuth 2.0, Lambda authorizers, API keys, and mutual TLS. Choose it when broad API management and AWS integration matter most. Teams seeking a simple fixed-cost gateway, or needing predictable total costs without usage and related-service variables, should evaluate alternatives.
Amazon API Gateway pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Supports HTTP, REST, and WebSocket APIs
- Offers IAM, Cognito, JWT, authorizers, API keys, and mutual TLS
- Connects with Lambda, CloudWatch, WAF, CloudFront, and other AWS services
- Where it doesn't
- Usage pricing varies by API type, region, volume, and related services
- Data transfer, connection minutes, and caching can add separate charges
- API Gateway Portals cost $125 per month
Amazon API Gateway fact sheet, pricing and score →
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