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Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

aws.amazon.com

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Spec score 7.4 #16 of 27 in Event Streaming Platforms

What it is

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is a cloud, serverless service for capturing, processing, and analyzing live data streams. It can continuously capture gigabytes per second from hundreds of thousands of sources, then make records available to multiple real-time analytics applications, Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink, or AWS Lambda within 70 milliseconds of collection. Data is synchronously replicated across three Availability Zones in an AWS Region. Each stream supports up to 20 consumers with dedicated read throughput, and retention can be configured for as long as 365 days. Server-side encryption uses AWS Key Management Service keys, while Amazon VPC provides private access. Integrations include DynamoDB, Aurora, Database Migration Service, CloudWatch, Lambda, Managed Service for Apache Flink, and Kinesis Data Firehose. Records can be delivered to Amazon S3 Tables as Apache Iceberg tables or to S3 buckets in source format. It supports log and event streaming, real-time analytics, event-driven applications, and real-time AI or machine-learning workloads. Access is through an API or web interface. Pricing is paid from $0.03, with no free plan or AWS Free Tier availability.

Spec sheet

What it does
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is a serverless, real-time data streaming service for capturing, processing, and analyzing data streams at any scale.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Integrations
AWS lists integrations with Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Aurora, AWS Database Migration Service, Amazon CloudWatch, AWS Lambda, Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink, and Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Security
The service supports server-side encryption with AWS Key Management Service keys and private access through Amazon VPC.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Availability
Streaming data is synchronously replicated across three Availability Zones in an AWS Region.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Consumer fan-out
A Kinesis data stream can have up to 20 consumers, each with dedicated read throughput.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Data delivery
Kinesis Data Streams can deliver records directly to Amazon S3 Tables as Apache Iceberg tables and to general-purpose Amazon S3 buckets in source format.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Free tier
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is not currently available in the AWS Free Tier.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Getting started
Users can create a stream through the AWS Management Console or CreateStream API, configure producers, and build applications to read and process records.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Latency
Streaming data can be made available to multiple real-time analytics applications, Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink, or AWS Lambda within 70 milliseconds of collection.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Retention
Kinesis Data Streams supports retention for up to 365 days.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Scale
It can continuously capture gigabytes of data per second from hundreds of thousands of sources.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Security model
AWS states that security is a shared responsibility and provides guidance for data protection, IAM access control, compliance validation, resilience, and infrastructure security.Read 1 Oct 2026 · docs.aws.amazon.com
Use cases
AWS describes use cases including log and event streaming, real-time analytics, event-driven applications, and real-time AI and machine-learning applications.Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com

Plans and prices

On-demand Advantage Price not published pay per GB written and read with account-level minimum usage $0.032/GB ingested in US-East · $0.016/GB retrieved in US-East · 25 MB/s minimum ingested and retrieved at account level · no fixed stream-hour charge · retention up to 365 days Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
On-demand Standard Price not published pay per GB written and read plus per-stream hourly charge $0.08/GB ingested in US-East · $0.040/GB retrieved in US-East · $0.040 per stream-hour in US-East · 24-hour retention included · optional retention up to 365 days Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Provisioned mode Price not published pay per shard-hour, PUT payload units, and optional features 1 MB/s write or 1,000 records/s per shard · 2 MB/s read per shard · 25 KB PUT payload units · 24-hour default retention · retention up to 365 days Read 1 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com

Every Amazon Kinesis Data Streams plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Captures gigabytes per second from hundreds of thousands of sources
  • Data available to consumers within 70 milliseconds
  • Retention configurable for up to 365 days
  • Synchronous replication across three Availability Zones
  • Supports Go, Java, Python, and many other languages

Limits

  • No free plan or AWS Free Tier availability
  • Paid pricing starts at $0.03
  • At-least-once delivery guarantee
  • Cloud deployment only

Who it suits

It suits teams building cloud applications that capture high-volume streams for analytics, event handling, or machine-learning workloads. API and web access, stream processing, schema registry, and support for many client languages fit application developers.

Verdict

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams combines high-volume ingestion, sub-second availability, configurable retention, and AWS integrations. It is a paid cloud service with no free tier, so usage and retention choices affect cost.

Where Specifiction places it

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