Amazon Athena review
A flexible serverless SQL service for querying S3 and connected data sources.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Amazon Athena is a cloud-based, serverless query service for analysts, data engineers, developers, and organizations that need interactive analytics without managing query infrastructure. It uses standard SQL to query data stored in Amazon S3 and connected sources, including relational, non-relational, object, and custom data sources. Its web and API access, along with JDBC and ODBC connectivity, supports both interactive work and application-based access.
Pricing is usage-based rather than organized around fixed user plans. SQL queries cost $5 per TB scanned, with charges based on the data scanned by queries. Capacity Reservations cost $0.3 per DPU-hour for capacity-based query processing. Apache Spark costs $0.35 per DPU-hour for Spark applications and notebooks. Athena also stores query results in Amazon S3 and provides Workgroups for query controls and cost tracking, giving teams ways to manage usage as workloads grow.
Athena fits environments centered on Amazon S3 and broader data integration. AWS Glue Data Catalog integration supports cataloged data, while federated queries can reach sources such as Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Azure Synapse, Kafka, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. The service also connects with AWS IAM, Amazon SageMaker, Amazon EMR Studio, and AWS Step Functions, and SQL queries can invoke SageMaker models. Row-level security is provided through AWS Lake Formation integration for supported Athena SQL workloads. Choose Athena for serverless, cross-source SQL and Spark workloads; choose a more warehouse-oriented option when fixed plans or warehouse-focused capabilities matter more.
Amazon Athena pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Queries Amazon S3 data with standard SQL and no query infrastructure
- Federates queries across relational, non-relational, and custom sources
- Adds Glue, JDBC/ODBC, Spark, and SageMaker integrations
- Where it doesn't
- No free plan is listed
- SQL query costs vary with the amount of data scanned
- Less warehouse-oriented than dedicated warehouse options
Amazon Athena fact sheet, pricing and score →
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