Amazon SQS vs Temporal
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Amazon SQS and Temporal built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Amazon SQS if…
AWS-resident systems that want a queue with a permanent free million requests a month and no capacity to plan — SQS scales without a throughput setting to choose.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose Temporal if…
Long-running, stateful workflows where losing execution history is the failure that matters — Temporal keeps event history as first-class storage rather than logs that expire.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Amazon SQS: Billing is per request rather than per message, and a 1 MiB payload counts as sixteen, so chatty polling or large messages cost far more than the message count suggests.
- Temporal: Entry is $100 a month before any usage, and the unit is an Action, which does not map onto messages or task runs — budgeting requires modelling your workflows, not counting jobs.
15 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Amazon SQS 0
Temporal 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Amazon SQS | Temporal |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | No paid plan or minimum fee; billed per request after the free 1 million requests a month. | $100/month for Essentials, including 1 million Actions, 1 GB active storage and 40 GB retained storage. Business starts at $500/month with 2.5 million Actions. |
| Pricing model | Per request, not per message: every API action counts, and a 1 MiB payload is billed as 16 requests. FIFO queues cost $0.50 per million against standard's $0.40 in us-east-1, and fair queue requests add $0.10 per million on top of the standard rate. | Per Action, with storage billed separately and split between open and closed workflows. Plans buy SLA tier and support response rather than volume — Essentials is 99.9% with one business day P0 response, Business adds scale. An open-source self-hosted edition runs the same service on your own infrastructure. |
| Infrastructure | ||
| Regions | 34 commercial AWS Regions plus 2 AWS GovCloud (US) Regions listed in the SQS service endpoints table. | 20 regions for Temporal Cloud Namespaces: 14 AWS regions and 6 Google Cloud regions, each with a PrivateLink or Private Service Connect endpoint. |
| Queues | ||
| Included per month | 1,000,000 requests a month free, permanently and across all regions. Beyond that, standard queues are $0.40 per million in us-east-1, falling to $0.30 above 100 billion and $0.24 above 200 billion. | 1,000,000 Actions a month on Essentials and 2.5 million on Business. An Action is Temporal's own unit — a workflow operation — and is not comparable to a message, an operation or an execution elsewhere in this category. |
| Maximum message size | 256 KB per message. A single request carries 1 to 10 messages up to 1 MiB total, and each 64 KB chunk of payload is billed as one request. | 2 MB maximum payload per request (each Workflow/Activity argument or return value); 4 MB per Event History transaction, non-configurable. |
| Message retention | 4 days by default; configurable from 60 seconds up to 14 days per queue. | Storage rather than a time window: 1 GB of active storage for open workflows and 40 GB retained for closed ones on Essentials, 2.5 GB active on Business. Temporal keeps workflow event history, so retention is bounded by bytes rather than by days — recorded without a magnitude because it is not the quantity this criterion ranks. |
| Maximum delay | 15 minutes maximum per-message delay (message timer) or per-queue delay; default is 0 seconds. | Timers (durable sleeps) may run up to 100 years in Temporal Cloud. |
| Concurrency | Approximately 120,000 in-flight messages per standard queue (received but not yet deleted); API call rate on standard queues is nearly unlimited. | 500 Actions per second per Namespace by default, auto-scaling above that with On-Demand Capacity; 20,000 Activity and 20,000 Workflow Task pollers per Namespace. |
| Compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page. | SOC 2 Type II certified; trust center lists SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA badges. |
| HIPAA | Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page. | Temporal Cloud is stated to be compliant with HIPAA regulations; HIPAA listed among trust-center certifications. |
| GDPR / data residency | AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data. | GDPR compliant with a DPA reflecting GDPR; Namespaces do not share data processing or storage across regional boundaries. |
| Encryption at rest | Server-side encryption of queue contents with SQS-managed keys (SSE-SQS) or AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS). | Persistence layer and Elasticsearch index encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM; TLS 1.3 in transit. |
| Customer-managed keys | Supported via SSE-KMS: queues can use a customer managed KMS key created and policy-controlled in AWS KMS. | Client-side Data Converter encrypts payloads with your keys on your Workers before they reach Temporal Cloud, which cannot decrypt them; no server-side KMS option stated. |
| Role-based access control | IAM identity-based policies on users, groups and roles plus resource-based queue policies control access to queues and actions. | Account-level roles (administrator, developer, read-only) plus Namespace-level permissions; custom roles, SAML and SCIM documented. |
| Private networking / VPC | Interface VPC endpoints (AWS PrivateLink) let a VPC reach SQS privately, including FIPS endpoints; HTTPS endpoints only. | AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect to Namespaces, alongside the default public endpoints. |
Where they differ.
Entry paid plan
- Amazon SQS
- No paid plan or minimum fee; billed per request after the free 1 million requests a month.
- Temporal
- $100/month for Essentials, including 1 million Actions, 1 GB active storage and 40 GB retained storage. Business starts at $500/month with 2.5 million Actions.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS Pricing ↗
“With AWS SQS, you pay only for what you use and there is no minimum fee.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing
- Pricing — Temporal ↗
“Essentials Starting at $100/mo. [...] 1 M Actions 1 GB Active Storage 40 GB Retained Storage [...] Business Starting at $500/mo. [...] 2.5 M Actions 2.5 GB Act”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Pricing model
- Amazon SQS
- Per request, not per message: every API action counts, and a 1 MiB payload is billed as 16 requests. FIFO queues cost $0.50 per million against standard's $0.40 in us-east-1, and fair queue requests add $0.10 per million on top of the standard rate.
- Temporal
- Per Action, with storage billed separately and split between open and closed workflows. Plans buy SLA tier and support response rather than volume — Essentials is 99.9% with one business day P0 response, Business adds scale. An open-source self-hosted edition runs the same service on your own infrastructure.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Price List API — AWSQueueService, us-east-1 ↗
“"$0.50 per million Amazon SQS FIFO requests in Tier1 in US East" [...] "$0.40 per million Amazon SQS standard requests in Tier1" [...] "$0.10 per million Amazon SQS fair queue requests in US East"”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Temporal ↗
“Cloud platform 99.9% SLA, 99.99% HA options [...] Essentials support with 1 business day P0 response time [...] Host It Yourself Open Source Temporal Self-Hosted [...] Temporal Service Temporal SDKs Temporal CLI Temporal UI Community Support”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Regions
34 commercial AWS Regions plus 2 AWS GovCloud (US) Regions listed in the SQS service endpoints table.
20 regions for Temporal Cloud Namespaces: 14 AWS regions and 6 Google Cloud regions, each with a PrivateLink or Private Service Connect endpoint.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon Simple Queue Service endpoints and quotas - AWS General Reference ↗
“Region Name Region Endpoint Protocol US East (Ohio) us-east-2 sqs.us-east-2.amazonaws.com [...] AWS GovCloud (US-West) us-gov-west-1 sqs.us-gov-west-1.amazonaws.com”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Service regions - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Temporal Cloud operates in the following Amazon Web Services (AWS) regions: Asia Pacific - Tokyo ( ap-northeast-1 ) [...] Temporal Cloud operates the following Google Cloud (GCP) regions: North America - Iowa ( us-central1 )”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Included per month
- Amazon SQS
- 1,000,000 requests a month free, permanently and across all regions. Beyond that, standard queues are $0.40 per million in us-east-1, falling to $0.30 above 100 billion and $0.24 above 200 billion.
- Temporal
- 1,000,000 Actions a month on Essentials and 2.5 million on Business. An Action is Temporal's own unit — a workflow operation — and is not comparable to a message, an operation or an execution elsewhere in this category.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Price List API — AWSQueueService, us-east-1 ↗
“"First 1,000,000 Amazon SQS Requests per month are free" [...] "$0.40 per million Amazon SQS standard requests in Tier1 in US East" [...] "$0.30 per million ... Tier2" [...] "$0.24 per million ... Tier3"”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
- Pricing — Temporal ↗
“Essentials Starting at $100/mo. [...] 1 M Actions 1 GB Active Storage 40 GB Retained Storage [...] Business [...] 2.5 M Actions 2.5 GB Active Storage”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Maximum message size
256 KB per message. A single request carries 1 to 10 messages up to 1 MiB total, and each 64 KB chunk of payload is billed as one request.
2 MB maximum payload per request (each Workflow/Activity argument or return value); 4 MB per Event History transaction, non-configurable.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS Pricing — AWS ↗
“A single request can have from 1 to 10 messages, up to a maximum total payload of 1 MiB. [...] Each 64 KB chunk of a payload is billed as 1 request (for example, an API action with a 1 MiB payload is billed as 16 requests).”
Read 2026-09-06 · official docs
- Limits - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“The max payload for a single request is 2 MB. The max size limit for any given Event History transaction is 4 MB. This limit is non-configurable for Temporal Cloud.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Message retention
- Amazon SQS
- 4 days by default; configurable from 60 seconds up to 14 days per queue.
- Temporal
- Storage rather than a time window: 1 GB of active storage for open workflows and 40 GB retained for closed ones on Essentials, 2.5 GB active on Business. Temporal keeps workflow event history, so retention is bounded by bytes rather than by days — recorded without a magnitude because it is not the quantity this criterion ranks.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS message quotas - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“Message retention By default, a message is retained for 4 days. The minimum is 60 seconds (1 minute). The maximum is 1,209,600 seconds (14 days).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Pricing — Temporal ↗
“EVENT HISTORY AND RETENTION Storage Temporal stores workflow event history as Active storage for open workflows and Retained Storage for closed workflows [...] 1 GB Active Storage 40 GB Retained Storage”
Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing
Maximum delay
- Amazon SQS
- 15 minutes maximum per-message delay (message timer) or per-queue delay; default is 0 seconds.
- Temporal
- Timers (durable sleeps) may run up to 100 years in Temporal Cloud.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS message quotas - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“Message timer The default (minimum) delay for a message is 0 seconds. The maximum is 15 minutes.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Limits - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Timer duration limit Timers have a maximum duration of 100 years in Temporal Cloud.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Concurrency
- Amazon SQS
- Approximately 120,000 in-flight messages per standard queue (received but not yet deleted); API call rate on standard queues is nearly unlimited.
- Temporal
- 500 Actions per second per Namespace by default, auto-scaling above that with On-Demand Capacity; 20,000 Activity and 20,000 Workflow Task pollers per Namespace.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon SQS standard queue quotas - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“For most standard queues (depending on queue traffic and message backlog), there can be a maximum of approximately 120,000 in flight messages (received from a queue by a consumer, but not yet deleted from the queue).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Limits - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Actions per second Scope: Namespace Default limit: 500 actions per second (APS). [...] Temporal Cloud limits each Namespace to 20,000 Activity pollers and 20,000 Workflow Task pollers concurrently.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
SOC 2
- Amazon SQS
- Listed as SOC-compliant on AWS's own compliance scope page.
- Temporal
- SOC 2 Type II certified; trust center lists SOC 2 Type 2, GDPR, HIPAA and CCPA badges.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS Services in Scope for SOC ↗
“Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) listed with a checkmark on the SOC services-in-scope page.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site
- Security | Temporal ↗
“Compliance Temporal Cloud is SOC 2 Type II certified, and compliant with GDPR and HIPAA regulations.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site
HIPAA
- Amazon SQS
- Listed as a HIPAA-eligible service on AWS's own reference page.
- Temporal
- Temporal Cloud is stated to be compliant with HIPAA regulations; HIPAA listed among trust-center certifications.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- AWS HIPAA Eligible Services Reference ↗
“Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS) listed on the HIPAA-eligible services reference page.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site
- Security | Temporal ↗
“Temporal Cloud is SOC 2 Type II certified, and compliant with GDPR and HIPAA regulations.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official site
GDPR / data residency
- Amazon SQS
- AWS customers can process personal data on all AWS services in compliance with GDPR, and choose the storage type and geographic region for their data.
- Temporal
- GDPR compliant with a DPA reflecting GDPR; Namespaces do not share data processing or storage across regional boundaries.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- GDPR — Amazon Web Services ↗
“AWS customers can use all AWS services to process personal data [...] in compliance with the GDPR. [...] Customers have control of their customer data. With AWS, customers can: Determine where their customer data will be stored, including the type of storage and geographic region of that storage.”
Read 2026-09-12 · official site
- Security model - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Namespaces in the same environment are logically segregated. Namespaces do not share data processing or data storage across regional boundaries.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Encryption at rest
- Amazon SQS
- Server-side encryption of queue contents with SQS-managed keys (SSE-SQS) or AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS).
- Temporal
- Persistence layer and Elasticsearch index encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM; TLS 1.3 in transit.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Encryption at rest in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“SSE protects the contents of messages in queues using SQS-managed encryption keys (SSE-SQS) or keys managed in the AWS Key Management Service (SSE-KMS).”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Security model - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Both are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Customer-managed keys
- Amazon SQS
- Supported via SSE-KMS: queues can use a customer managed KMS key created and policy-controlled in AWS KMS.
- Temporal
- Client-side Data Converter encrypts payloads with your keys on your Workers before they reach Temporal Cloud, which cannot decrypt them; no server-side KMS option stated.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Encryption at rest in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“You can create KMS keys, define the policies that control how KMS keys can be used, and audit KMS key usage using the Customer managed keys section of the AWS KMS console or the CreateKey AWS KMS action.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Security model - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Data Conversion runs on your Temporal Workers and Clients ; Temporal Cloud cannot see or decrypt your data.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Role-based access control
- Amazon SQS
- IAM identity-based policies on users, groups and roles plus resource-based queue policies control access to queues and actions.
- Temporal
- Account-level roles (administrator, developer, read-only) plus Namespace-level permissions; custom roles, SAML and SCIM documented.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Overview of managing access in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“An account administrator can attach permissions policies to IAM identities (users, groups, and roles), and some services (such as Amazon SQS) also support attaching permissions policies to resources.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Security model - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Authorization is managed at the account and Namespace level. Users and systems are assigned one or more preconfigured roles. Users hold account-level Roles of administrators, developers, and read-only users.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
Private networking / VPC
- Amazon SQS
- Interface VPC endpoints (AWS PrivateLink) let a VPC reach SQS privately, including FIPS endpoints; HTTPS endpoints only.
- Temporal
- AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect to Namespaces, alongside the default public endpoints.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Internetwork traffic privacy in Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service ↗
“An Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) endpoint for Amazon SQS is a logical entity within a VPC that allows connectivity only to Amazon SQS. [...] Amazon SQS also supports FIPS endpoints through PrivateLink using the com.amazonaws.region.sqs-fips endpoint service.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
- Connectivity - Temporal Cloud | Temporal Documentation ↗
“Temporal Cloud supports private connectivity to Namespaces via AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect, in addition to the default public internet endpoints.”
Read 2026-09-13 · official docs
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Amazon SQS or Temporal?
Amazon SQS: No paid plan or minimum fee; billed per request after the free 1 million requests a month.
Temporal: $100/month for Essentials, including 1 million Actions, 1 GB active storage and 40 GB retained storage. Business starts at $500/month with 2.5 million Actions.
Should I choose Amazon SQS or Temporal?
Pick Amazon SQS if AWS-resident systems that want a queue with a permanent free million requests a month and no capacity to plan — SQS scales without a throughput setting to choose.
Pick Temporal if Long-running, stateful workflows where losing execution history is the failure that matters — Temporal keeps event history as first-class storage rather than logs that expire.