/sns

name: sns
description: AWS SNS notification service for pub/sub messaging. Use when creating topics, managing subscriptions, configuring message filtering, sending notifications, or setting up mobile push.
last_updated: "2026-01-07"
doc_source: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/

AWS SNS

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is a fully managed pub/sub messaging service for application-to-application (A2A) and application-to-person (A2P) communication.

Table of Contents

• [Core Concepts](#core-concepts)
• [Common Patterns](#common-patterns)
• [CLI Reference](#cli-reference)
• [Best Practices](#best-practices)
• [Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting)
• [References](#references)

Core Concepts

Topics

Named channels for publishing messages. Publishers send to topics, subscribers receive from topics.

Topic Types

| Type | Description | Use Case | |------|-------------|----------| | **Standard** | Best-effort ordering, at-least-once | Most use cases | | **FIFO** | Strict ordering, exactly-once | Order-sensitive |

Subscription Protocols

| Protocol | Description | |----------|-------------| | **Lambda** | Invoke Lambda function | | **SQS** | Send to SQS queue | | **HTTP/HTTPS** | POST to endpoint | | **Email** | Send email | | **SMS** | Send text message | | **Application** | Mobile push notification |

Message Filtering

Route messages to specific subscribers based on message attributes.

Common Patterns

Create Topic and Subscribe

**AWS CLI:**

# Create standard topic
aws sns create-topic --name my-topic

# Create FIFO topic
aws sns create-topic \
  --name my-topic.fifo \
  --attributes FifoTopic=true

# Subscribe Lambda
aws sns subscribe \
  --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic \
  --protocol lambda \
  --notification-endpoint arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:123456789012:function:my-function

# Subscribe SQS
aws sns subscribe \
  --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic \
  --protocol sqs \
  --notification-endpoint arn:aws:sqs:us-east-1:123456789012:my-queue

# Subscribe email
aws sns subscribe \
  --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic \
  --protocol email \
  --notification-endpoint user@example.com

**boto3:**

import boto3

sns = boto3.client('sns')

# Create topic
response = sns.create_topic(Name='my-topic')
topic_arn = response['TopicArn']

# Subscribe Lambda
sns.subscribe(
    TopicArn=topic_arn,
    Protocol='lambda',
    Endpoint='arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:123456789012:function:my-function'
)

# Subscribe SQS with filter
sns.subscribe(
    TopicArn=topic_arn,
    Protocol='sqs',
    Endpoint='arn:aws:sqs:us-east-1:123456789012:order-queue',
    Attributes={
        'FilterPolicy': '{"event_type": ["order_created", "order_updated"]}'
    }
)

Publish Messages

import boto3
import json

sns = boto3.client('sns')
topic_arn = 'arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic'

# Simple publish
sns.publish(
    TopicArn=topic_arn,
    Message='Hello, World!',
    Subject='Notification'
)

# Publish with attributes (for filtering)
sns.publish(
    TopicArn=topic_arn,
    Message=json.dumps({'order_id': '12345', 'status': 'created'}),
    MessageAttributes={
        'event_type': {
            'DataType': 'String',
            'StringValue': 'order_created'
        },
        'priority': {
            'DataType': 'Number',
            'StringValue': '1'
        }
    }
)

# Publish to FIFO topic
sns.publish(
    TopicArn='arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic.fifo',
    Message=json.dumps({'order_id': '12345'}),
    MessageGroupId='order-12345',
    MessageDeduplicationId='unique-id'
)

Message Filtering

# Add filter policy to subscription
aws sns set-subscription-attributes \
  --subscription-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic:abc123 \
  --attribute-name FilterPolicy \
  --attribute-value '{
    "event_type": ["order_created"],
    "priority": [{"numeric": [">=", 1]}]
  }'

Filter policy examples:

// Exact match
{"event_type": ["order_created", "order_updated"]}

// Prefix match
{"customer_id": [{"prefix": "PREMIUM-"}]}

// Numeric comparison
{"price": [{"numeric": [">=", 100, "<=", 500]}]}

// Exists check
{"customer_id": [{"exists": true}]}

// Anything but
{"event_type": [{"anything-but": ["deleted"]}]}

// Combined
{
  "event_type": ["order_created"],
  "region": ["us-east", "us-west"],
  "priority": [{"numeric": [">=", 1]}]
}

Fan-Out Pattern (SNS to Multiple SQS)

import boto3
import json

sns = boto3.client('sns')
sqs = boto3.client('sqs')

# Create topic
topic = sns.create_topic(Name='orders-topic')
topic_arn = topic['TopicArn']

# Create queues for different processors
queues = {
    'analytics': sqs.create_queue(QueueName='order-analytics')['QueueUrl'],
    'fulfillment': sqs.create_queue(QueueName='order-fulfillment')['QueueUrl'],
    'notification': sqs.create_queue(QueueName='order-notification')['QueueUrl']
}

# Subscribe each queue
for name, queue_url in queues.items():
    queue_arn = sqs.get_queue_attributes(
        QueueUrl=queue_url,
        AttributeNames=['QueueArn']
    )['Attributes']['QueueArn']

    sns.subscribe(
        TopicArn=topic_arn,
        Protocol='sqs',
        Endpoint=queue_arn
    )

# One publish reaches all queues
sns.publish(
    TopicArn=topic_arn,
    Message=json.dumps({'order_id': '12345', 'total': 99.99})
)

Lambda Permission for SNS

aws lambda add-permission \
  --function-name my-function \
  --statement-id sns-trigger \
  --action lambda:InvokeFunction \
  --principal sns.amazonaws.com \
  --source-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:my-topic

CLI Reference

Topic Management

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | `aws sns create-topic` | Create topic | | `aws sns delete-topic` | Delete topic | | `aws sns list-topics` | List topics | | `aws sns get-topic-attributes` | Get topic settings | | `aws