Amazon API Gateway
Fully managed AWS service for REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs at any scale.
About
Amazon API Gateway is AWS's fully managed service for creating, publishing, and securing APIs. It offers three API flavors: REST APIs (full management features: caching, usage plans, request validation, WAF integration) at $3.50 per 1M requests, cheaper HTTP APIs (up to 71% less than REST per AWS) at $1.00 per 1M requests, and WebSocket APIs for real-time bidirectional communication billed per message and connection minute. There are no minimum fees, and new accounts get 1M calls per month per type free for 12 months.
It is the natural front door for serverless architectures (Lambda, Cognito, IAM authorizers, CloudWatch metrics) and handles routing, throttling, and monitoring so teams run no gateway servers. The trade-offs are well documented: a hard 29-second integration timeout, 10MB payload cap, added latency, and deep AWS coupling. It is a gateway with usage plans and keys, not a full APIM suite: productization, a rich developer portal, and cross-gateway governance are limited compared with dedicated API management platforms.
What it can do
- REST, HTTP, and WebSocket API types
- Lambda, Cognito, and IAM authorization
- Usage plans, API keys, and throttling
- Response caching and request validation
- CloudWatch metrics and X-Ray tracing
- Custom domains with ACM certificates
Setup
Create an API in the AWS console or with CDK/SAM, attach a Lambda or HTTP integration, deploy to a stage, and call the endpoint.
Prerequisites
AWS account; familiarity with IAM and Lambda for typical setups.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 9/10
Scored 9/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: pricing, limits, and feature split between REST/HTTP/WebSocket APIs documented by AWS and corroborated by independent cost guides. Strengths: zero-ops managed scale, cheapest managed path for serverless APIs, generous 12-month free tier. Docked for: (1) hard limits (29s timeout, 10MB payload) and AWS-only design; (2) not a full API-management platform (thin portal, no monetization); (3) proprietary billing with data-transfer surcharges. License: proprietary.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 10.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 10.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 2.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 9.0/10
- · REST APIs $3.50/1M, HTTP APIs $1.00/1M (up to 71% cheaper per AWS), WebSocket per message + connection minute
- · Hard limits: 29s integration timeout, 10MB payload (AWS docs)
- · Free tier: 1M calls/mo per type for 12 months on new accounts
- · manual review: gateway with usage plans, not a full APIM suite (thin portal, no monetization)
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.