Amazon API Gateway helps developers easily create, publish, and maintain secure APIs at any scale. API Gateway handles all of the heavy lifting of managing thousands of API calls. There are no minimum fees and you only pay for the API calls you receive.

Announcing the API Gateway HTTP API

We talk to customers every day that use API Gateway for critical production applications. This includes everything ranging from simple HTTP proxies to full-blown API management with request transformation, authentication, and validation. API Gateway supports REST APIs and WebSocket APIs, but customers have told us they want more features, lower latency, and lower cost.

Customers have explained their need for the core features of API Gateway at a lower price along with an easier developer experience. Based on this feedback, we are excited to announce the availability of HTTP APIs (Preview).

HTTP APIs is a new flavor of API Gateway. It focuses on delivering enhanced features, improved performance, and an easier developer experience for customers building with API Gateway. Today, we’re launching the first phase, and we will continue to enhance HTTP APIs over the next few months.

We are introducing a new pricing model for HTTP APIs that better represents customer usage patterns. Staying true to our serverless principles, you will only pay for the requests you receive. With existing REST APIs, you pay $3.50/million requests plus data transferred out.

With HTTP APIs, we have reduced request pricing to $1.00/million requests for the first 300 million requests, and $0.90/million for all requests after that. Most customers will see an average cost saving up to 70%, when compared to API Gateway REST APIs. In addition, you will see significant performance improvements in the API Gateway service overhead.

Getting started

The API Gateway HTTP API is in preview, so there are a couple of things to keep in mind:

The preview is available in the following Regions: US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), US West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), EU (Frankfurt), EU (Ireland).

The preview is optimized for building APIs that proxy requests to Lambda functions or HTTP endpoints. Over the next few months, we will continue to add functionality to HTTP APIs (see the complete feature overview).

Review the preview guide for a detailed description of the service.

Creating an HTTP API

There are currently two API Gateway namespaces for managing API Gateway deployments. The API V1 namespace represents REST APIs and API V2 represents WebSocket APIs and the new HTTP APIs. You can create an HTTP API by using the AWS Management Console, CLI, APIs, CloudFormation, SDKs, or the Serverless Application Model (SAM).

Let’s review creating an HTTP API via the AWS Management Console. If you are familiar with API Gateway, the first thing you’ll notice is a new console experience.

Start by navigating to the API Gateway console, locate the new HTTP API “Beta” dialog box, and choose Build: For this example, we use Lambda as our backend integration. If you use Lambda, be sure to review the required response attributes. You can use this as an example Lambda function: exports.handler = async (event) => { // TODO implement const response = { statusCode: 200, body: JSON.stringify('Hello from Lambda!'), }; return response; }; Select Add Integration and choose Lambda. Select your Lambda function, provide a name for the API, and choose Next. Next, you must configure the routes. A route directs API requests to backend resources (Integrations), and consists of a resource path and an HTTP method that invokes your integration. We use the default ‘ANY’ Method but you can select a more specific HTTP Method if you need. Choose Next. Now you are ready to configure stages. A stage represents a unique version of an API (for example, dev, test or prod). HTTP APIs support a $default stage that is served from the API’s base URL. Accept the $default stage, and leave Auto-deploy enabled. Choose Next. Review your settings and choose Create. Since Auto deploy was left enabled the API is ready to serve content immediately using the $default stage. Any changes you make to the API are also reflected immediately. After you choose Create, the API is auto-deployed at the $default stage and the assigned Invoke URL. You are now ready to test.

Enter the Invoke URL into your browser and append the route you created earlier (/myHTTPProxyFunction). For example, https://abcdedfg.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/myHTTPProxyFunction. This routes an HTTP GET request to the Lambda integration and returns “Hello from Lambda!”

Explore the new console experience

The navigation panel on the left lets you manage your APIs. You can add, remove, or modify routes, and their integrations. Or enable authorization and provide CORS response details for your routes. You can also review your deployed stages. Finally, use the Metrics and Logging sections to see options for monitoring your API.

What’s new?

We encourage you to explore the following new and improved features:

JWT Authorizers. This is a new authorization type that supports native OpenID Connect (OIDC) authorization. You can configure API Gateway to parse incoming JWT tokens, and allow or deny requests based on the OAuth scopes in the token. With REST APIs, you must use a Lambda custom authorizer to parse the incoming JWT token. Choose Authorization in the left navigation panel to get started.

in the left navigation panel to get started. Ability to assign a default Stage or configure a default route. Default Stages and Routes make it easier to work with APIs. When you assign a default stage, you are able to serve your API from the base URL. For example: https://{api_id}.execute-api.{region}.amazonaws.com/ . This means you no longer need an explicit stage in your API. Choose the Stages option in the left nav bar to review or manage your Stages.

. This means you no longer need an explicit stage in your API. Choose the option in the left nav bar to review or manage your Stages. Automatic deployments. You can now optionally enable Auto deploy when you change a stage. By default, you must deploy the API to a stage for changes to go live. This option lets you release changes to your API immediately as the changes are made

Fully customizable CORS experience. Cross-Origin Resource Sharing allows a browser to execute Javascript across different domains or origins by sending a preflight options request to API Gateway. You do not need to configure an options route, as API Gateway manages this. Choose the CORS link in the left nav bar to edit the settings.

Developer experience

In addition to the console, you can use the Serverless Application Model (SAM) or CloudFormation to create your HTTP APIs. The HTTP API is supported under the AWS::ApigatewayV2 resource type. Here’s an example of how to create a basic HTTP API with CloudFormation. See here for more CloudFormation examples.

Resources: HttpApi: Type: AWS::ApiGatewayV2::Api Properties: Name: Lambda Proxy Description: Lambda Proxy using Quick Create ProtocolType: HTTP Target: arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:[your acct number here]:function:Echo

The CLI also supports HTTP APIs via the apigatewayV2 commands. Here is an example CLI command that creates an HTTP API:

aws apigatewayv2 create-api —name MyAPIname —protocol-type HTTP --target arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:[your acct number here]:function:Echo

This uses the new Quick Create feature. This feature automatically creates an API with a default route and default stage. The service automatically deploy your changes allowing you to create an API with a simple CloudFormation script or CLI command. Quick create enables the API to be invoked at its base path.

Don’t forget that you will need to add a Lambda resource policy permission to the function to allow API Gateway to invoke your function. For example:

aws lambda add-permission --statement-id dd0dffb7-971e-5952-9699-38493cf34293 --action lambda:InvokeFunction --function-name "arn:aws:lambda:us-west-1:[your account number]:function:Echo" --principal apigateway.amazonaws.com --source-arn "arn:aws:execute-api:us-west-1:[your accunt number]:[your gateway id]/"

Who should use HTTP APIs

Here is a feature summary of what is available today. Over the next few months, we will enhance HTTP APIs with new features.

You can migrate today if your APIs interact with HTTP or Lambda integrations and your authorization requirements are OIDC/JWT based. You can export your existing REST APIs to an OpenAPI JSON file, and import the API definition as an HTTP API. To learn more about exporting a REST API, see here. Once you have exported your API definition, you can import it with the CLI as follows:

aws apigatewayv2 import-api —body file://api-definition.json

Conclusion

Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for developers to build and manage APIs with API Gateway. We encourage you to try the new HTTP APIs and let us know what you think. Take a look at our developer guide and happy coding!