ReceiveMessage
Retrieves one or more messages (up to 10), from the specified queue. Using the
WaitTimeSeconds
parameter enables long-poll support. For more
information, see Amazon SQS
Long Polling in the Amazon SQS Developer Guide.
Short poll is the default behavior where a weighted random set of machines is sampled
on a ReceiveMessage
call. Therefore, only the messages on the sampled
machines are returned. If the number of messages in the queue is small (fewer than
1,000), you most likely get fewer messages than you requested per
ReceiveMessage
call. If the number of messages in the queue is
extremely small, you might not receive any messages in a particular
ReceiveMessage
response. If this happens, repeat the request.
For each message returned, the response includes the following:
-
The message body.
-
An MD5 digest of the message body. For information about MD5, see RFC1321
. -
The
MessageId
you received when you sent the message to the queue. -
The receipt handle.
-
The message attributes.
-
An MD5 digest of the message attributes.
The receipt handle is the identifier you must provide when deleting the message. For more information, see Queue and Message Identifiers in the Amazon SQS Developer Guide.
You can provide the VisibilityTimeout
parameter in your request. The
parameter is applied to the messages that Amazon SQS returns in the response. If you don't
include the parameter, the overall visibility timeout for the queue is used for the
returned messages. The default visibility timeout for a queue is 30 seconds.
Note
In the future, new attributes might be added. If you write code that calls this action, we recommend that you structure your code so that it can handle new attributes gracefully.
Request Syntax
{
"AttributeNames": [ "string
" ],
"MaxNumberOfMessages": number
,
"MessageAttributeNames": [ "string
" ],
"MessageSystemAttributeNames": [ "string
" ],
"QueueUrl": "string
",
"ReceiveRequestAttemptId": "string
",
"VisibilityTimeout": number
,
"WaitTimeSeconds": number
}
Request Parameters
For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.
The request accepts the following data in JSON format.
- AttributeNames
-
This parameter has been deprecated.
Important
This parameter has been discontinued but will be supported for backward compatibility. To provide attribute names, you are encouraged to use
MessageSystemAttributeNames
.A list of attributes that need to be returned along with each message. These attributes include:
-
All
– Returns all values. -
ApproximateFirstReceiveTimestamp
– Returns the time the message was first received from the queue (epoch timein milliseconds). -
ApproximateReceiveCount
– Returns the number of times a message has been received across all queues but not deleted. -
AWSTraceHeader
– Returns the AWS X-Ray trace header string. -
SenderId
-
For a user, returns the user ID, for example
ABCDEFGHI1JKLMNOPQ23R
. -
For an IAM role, returns the IAM role ID, for example
ABCDE1F2GH3I4JK5LMNOP:i-a123b456
.
-
-
SentTimestamp
– Returns the time the message was sent to the queue (epoch timein milliseconds). -
SqsManagedSseEnabled
– Enables server-side queue encryption using SQS owned encryption keys. Only one server-side encryption option is supported per queue (for example, SSE-KMS or SSE-SQS). -
MessageDeduplicationId
– Returns the value provided by the producer that calls theSendMessage
action. -
MessageGroupId
– Returns the value provided by the producer that calls theSendMessage
action. Messages with the sameMessageGroupId
are returned in sequence. -
SequenceNumber
– Returns the value provided by Amazon SQS.
Type: Array of strings
Valid Values:
All | Policy | VisibilityTimeout | MaximumMessageSize | MessageRetentionPeriod | ApproximateNumberOfMessages | ApproximateNumberOfMessagesNotVisible | CreatedTimestamp | LastModifiedTimestamp | QueueArn | ApproximateNumberOfMessagesDelayed | DelaySeconds | ReceiveMessageWaitTimeSeconds | RedrivePolicy | FifoQueue | ContentBasedDeduplication | KmsMasterKeyId | KmsDataKeyReusePeriodSeconds | DeduplicationScope | FifoThroughputLimit | RedriveAllowPolicy | SqsManagedSseEnabled
Required: No
-
- MaxNumberOfMessages
-
The maximum number of messages to return. Amazon SQS never returns more messages than this value (however, fewer messages might be returned). Valid values: 1 to 10. Default: 1.
Type: Integer
Required: No
- MessageAttributeNames
-
The name of the message attribute, where N is the index.
-
The name can contain alphanumeric characters and the underscore (
_
), hyphen (-
), and period (.
). -
The name is case-sensitive and must be unique among all attribute names for the message.
-
The name must not start with AWS-reserved prefixes such as
AWS.
orAmazon.
(or any casing variants). -
The name must not start or end with a period (
.
), and it should not have periods in succession (..
). -
The name can be up to 256 characters long.
When using
ReceiveMessage
, you can send a list of attribute names to receive, or you can return all of the attributes by specifyingAll
or.*
in your request. You can also use all message attributes starting with a prefix, for examplebar.*
.Type: Array of strings
Required: No
-
- MessageSystemAttributeNames
-
A list of attributes that need to be returned along with each message. These attributes include:
-
All
– Returns all values. -
ApproximateFirstReceiveTimestamp
– Returns the time the message was first received from the queue (epoch timein milliseconds). -
ApproximateReceiveCount
– Returns the number of times a message has been received across all queues but not deleted. -
AWSTraceHeader
– Returns the AWS X-Ray trace header string. -
SenderId
-
For a user, returns the user ID, for example
ABCDEFGHI1JKLMNOPQ23R
. -
For an IAM role, returns the IAM role ID, for example
ABCDE1F2GH3I4JK5LMNOP:i-a123b456
.
-
-
SentTimestamp
– Returns the time the message was sent to the queue (epoch timein milliseconds). -
SqsManagedSseEnabled
– Enables server-side queue encryption using SQS owned encryption keys. Only one server-side encryption option is supported per queue (for example, SSE-KMS or SSE-SQS). -
MessageDeduplicationId
– Returns the value provided by the producer that calls theSendMessage
action. -
MessageGroupId
– Returns the value provided by the producer that calls theSendMessage
action. Messages with the sameMessageGroupId
are returned in sequence. -
SequenceNumber
– Returns the value provided by Amazon SQS.
Type: Array of strings
Valid Values:
All | SenderId | SentTimestamp | ApproximateReceiveCount | ApproximateFirstReceiveTimestamp | SequenceNumber | MessageDeduplicationId | MessageGroupId | AWSTraceHeader | DeadLetterQueueSourceArn
Required: No
-
- QueueUrl
-
The URL of the Amazon SQS queue from which messages are received.
Queue URLs and names are case-sensitive.
Type: String
Required: Yes
- ReceiveRequestAttemptId
-
This parameter applies only to FIFO (first-in-first-out) queues.
The token used for deduplication of
ReceiveMessage
calls. If a networking issue occurs after aReceiveMessage
action, and instead of a response you receive a generic error, it is possible to retry the same action with an identicalReceiveRequestAttemptId
to retrieve the same set of messages, even if their visibility timeout has not yet expired.-
You can use
ReceiveRequestAttemptId
only for 5 minutes after aReceiveMessage
action. -
When you set
FifoQueue
, a caller of theReceiveMessage
action can provide aReceiveRequestAttemptId
explicitly. -
It is possible to retry the
ReceiveMessage
action with the sameReceiveRequestAttemptId
if none of the messages have been modified (deleted or had their visibility changes). -
During a visibility timeout, subsequent calls with the same
ReceiveRequestAttemptId
return the same messages and receipt handles. If a retry occurs within the deduplication interval, it resets the visibility timeout. For more information, see Visibility Timeout in the Amazon SQS Developer Guide.Important
If a caller of the
ReceiveMessage
action still processes messages when the visibility timeout expires and messages become visible, another worker consuming from the same queue can receive the same messages and therefore process duplicates. Also, if a consumer whose message processing time is longer than the visibility timeout tries to delete the processed messages, the action fails with an error.To mitigate this effect, ensure that your application observes a safe threshold before the visibility timeout expires and extend the visibility timeout as necessary.
-
While messages with a particular
MessageGroupId
are invisible, no more messages belonging to the sameMessageGroupId
are returned until the visibility timeout expires. You can still receive messages with anotherMessageGroupId
as long as it is also visible. -
If a caller of
ReceiveMessage
can't track theReceiveRequestAttemptId
, no retries work until the original visibility timeout expires. As a result, delays might occur but the messages in the queue remain in a strict order.
The maximum length of
ReceiveRequestAttemptId
is 128 characters.ReceiveRequestAttemptId
can contain alphanumeric characters (a-z
,A-Z
,0-9
) and punctuation (!"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^_`{|}~
).For best practices of using
ReceiveRequestAttemptId
, see Using the ReceiveRequestAttemptId Request Parameter in the Amazon SQS Developer Guide.Type: String
Required: No
-
- VisibilityTimeout
-
The duration (in seconds) that the received messages are hidden from subsequent retrieve requests after being retrieved by a
ReceiveMessage
request. If not specified, the default visibility timeout for the queue is used, which is 30 seconds.Understanding
VisibilityTimeout
:-
When a message is received from a queue, it becomes temporarily invisible to other consumers for the duration of the visibility timeout. This prevents multiple consumers from processing the same message simultaneously. If the message is not deleted or its visibility timeout is not extended before the timeout expires, it becomes visible again and can be retrieved by other consumers.
-
Setting an appropriate visibility timeout is crucial. If it's too short, the message might become visible again before processing is complete, leading to duplicate processing. If it's too long, it delays the reprocessing of messages if the initial processing fails.
-
You can adjust the visibility timeout using the
--visibility-timeout
parameter in thereceive-message
command to match the processing time required by your application. -
A message that isn't deleted or a message whose visibility isn't extended before the visibility timeout expires counts as a failed receive. Depending on the configuration of the queue, the message might be sent to the dead-letter queue.
For more information, see Visibility Timeout in the Amazon SQS Developer Guide.
Type: Integer
Required: No
-
- WaitTimeSeconds
-
The duration (in seconds) for which the call waits for a message to arrive in the queue before returning. If a message is available, the call returns sooner than
WaitTimeSeconds
. If no messages are available and the wait time expires, the call does not return a message list. If you are using the Java SDK, it returns aReceiveMessageResponse
object, which has a empty list instead of a Null object.Important
To avoid HTTP errors, ensure that the HTTP response timeout for
ReceiveMessage
requests is longer than theWaitTimeSeconds
parameter. For example, with the Java SDK, you can set HTTP transport settings using the NettyNioAsyncHttpClientfor asynchronous clients, or the ApacheHttpClient for synchronous clients. Type: Integer
Required: No
Response Syntax
{
"Messages": [
{
"Attributes": {
"string" : "string"
},
"Body": "string",
"MD5OfBody": "string",
"MD5OfMessageAttributes": "string",
"MessageAttributes": {
"string" : {
"BinaryListValues": [ blob ],
"BinaryValue": blob,
"DataType": "string",
"StringListValues": [ "string" ],
"StringValue": "string"
}
},
"MessageId": "string",
"ReceiptHandle": "string"
}
]
}
Response Elements
If the action is successful, the service sends back an HTTP 200 response.
The following data is returned in JSON format by the service.
Errors
For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.
- InvalidAddress
-
The specified ID is invalid.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- InvalidSecurity
-
The request was not made over HTTPS or did not use SigV4 for signing.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- KmsAccessDenied
-
The caller doesn't have the required KMS access.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- KmsDisabled
-
The request was denied due to request throttling.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- KmsInvalidKeyUsage
-
The request was rejected for one of the following reasons:
-
The KeyUsage value of the KMS key is incompatible with the API operation.
-
The encryption algorithm or signing algorithm specified for the operation is incompatible with the type of key material in the KMS key (KeySpec).
HTTP Status Code: 400
-
- KmsInvalidState
-
The request was rejected because the state of the specified resource is not valid for this request.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- KmsNotFound
-
The request was rejected because the specified entity or resource could not be found.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- KmsOptInRequired
-
The request was rejected because the specified key policy isn't syntactically or semantically correct.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- KmsThrottled
-
AWS KMS throttles requests for the following conditions.
HTTP Status Code: 400
- OverLimit
-
The specified action violates a limit. For example,
ReceiveMessage
returns this error if the maximum number of in flight messages is reached andAddPermission
returns this error if the maximum number of permissions for the queue is reached.HTTP Status Code: 400
- QueueDoesNotExist
-
The specified queue doesn't exist. Ensure that the
QueueName
is correct and that the queue has not been deleted.HTTP Status Code: 400
- RequestThrottled
-
The request was denied due to request throttling.
-
The rate of requests per second exceeds the AWS KMS request quota for an account and Region.
-
A burst or sustained high rate of requests to change the state of the same KMS key. This condition is often known as a "hot key."
-
Requests for operations on KMS keys in a AWS CloudHSM key store might be throttled at a lower-than-expected rate when the AWS CloudHSM cluster associated with the AWS CloudHSM key store is processing numerous commands, including those unrelated to the AWS CloudHSM key store.
HTTP Status Code: 400
-
- UnsupportedOperation
-
Error code 400. Unsupported operation.
HTTP Status Code: 400
Examples
The following example query request receives messages from the specified queue.
The structure of AUTHPARAMS
depends on the signature of the API request.
For more information, see
Examples of Signed Signature Version 4 Requests in the
AWS General Reference.
Example
Using AWS JSON protocol (Default)
Sample Request
POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
X-Amz-Target: AmazonSQS.ReceiveMessage
X-Amz-Date: <Date>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
Authorization: <AuthParams>
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Connection: Keep-Alive
{
"QueueUrl": "https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/177715257436/MyQueue/",
"MaxNumberOfMessages": 5,
"VisibilityTimeout": 15,
"AttributeNames": ["All"]
}
Sample Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
x-amzn-RequestId: <requestId>
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Date: <Date>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
{
"Messages": [
{
"Attributes": {
"SenderId": "AIDASSYFHUBOBT7F4XT75",
"ApproximateFirstReceiveTimestamp": "1677112433437",
"ApproximateReceiveCount": "1",
"SentTimestamp": "1677112427387"
},
"Body": "This is a test message",
"MD5OfBody": "fafb00f5732ab283681e124bf8747ed1",
"MessageId": "219f8380-5770-4cc2-8c3e-5c715e145f5e",
"ReceiptHandle": "AQEBaZ+j5qUoOAoxlmrCQPkBm9njMWXqemmIG6shMHCO6fV20JrQYg/AiZ8JELwLwOu5U61W+aIX5Qzu7GGofxJuvzymr4Ph53RiR0mudj4InLSgpSspYeTRDteBye5tV/txbZDdNZxsi+qqZA9xPnmMscKQqF6pGhnGIKrnkYGl45Nl6GPIZv62LrIRb6mSqOn1fn0yqrvmWuuY3w2UzQbaYunJWGxpzZze21EOBtywknU3Je/g7G9is+c6K9hGniddzhLkK1tHzZKjejOU4jokaiB4nmi0dF3JqLzDsQuPF0Gi8qffhEvw56nl8QCbluSJScFhJYvoagGnDbwOnd9z50L239qtFIgETdpKyirlWwl/NGjWJ45dqWpiW3d2Ws7q"
}
]
}
Example
Using AWS query protocol
Sample Request
POST /177715257436/MyQueue/ HTTP/1.1
Host: sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
X-Amz-Date: <Date>
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Authorization: <AuthParams>
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Connection: Keep-Alive
Action=ReceiveMessage
&MaxNumberOfMessages=5
&VisibilityTimeout=15
&AttributeName=All
Sample Response
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
<ReceiveMessageResponse xmlns="http://queue.amazonaws.com/doc/2012-11-05/">
<ReceiveMessageResult>
<Message>
<MessageId>60e827c3-c8a5-410a-af0e-fb43746e70b1</MessageId>
<ReceiptHandle>AQEBwPTK2fT2gy97H1iyU5in9umgT+Y4IOxyKGOzpZa8iemEqoR5/aPn0xAodmiVTzyrW7S4e8XwcWbB04XK92jIQzUpiGwRFA4Dl7r3GOw84Qzq/0OBQe/JaKxJw6iilafYA5fo1SJQo5Wg8xXbJHTVlJqgvTXd/UtlByLMhWMi0JMra1UUjYiPsGtYUpLVnOaRkYSPvzRnFFYUbcqCW9lm2Bi/jQKK6KNOZyCCfIh8TooE5i4P2L9N3o9yUHwMdv6p0nb5lKaGurQ2sJwwsyhXf38ZHnVN6pWwsqQnWKYuEXpxPofxd2lcLdgUurMpydS22DzCrkAaf6gmrdxbmCAoeQxE0sFf8alwX9yQmcOjny9aLGe7ro4Vl5o5KMr5hHM4vHEyhwi4wHeKM6MGX0vATA==</ReceiptHandle>
<MD5OfBody>0e024d309850c78cba5eabbeff7cae71</MD5OfBody>
<Body>test message body 1</Body>
<Attribute>
<Name>SenderId</Name>
<Value>AIDASSYFHUBOBT7F4XT75</Value>
</Attribute>
<Attribute>
<Name>ApproximateFirstReceiveTimestamp</Name>
<Value>1677112300463</Value>
</Attribute>
<Attribute>
<Name>ApproximateReceiveCount</Name>
<Value>1</Value>
</Attribute>
<Attribute>
<Name>SentTimestamp</Name>
<Value>1677111805489</Value>
</Attribute>
</Message>
</ReceiveMessageResult>
<ResponseMetadata>
<RequestId>5ba605cc-1e4b-58ba-93db-59bca8677ec9</RequestId>
</ResponseMetadata>
</ReceiveMessageResponse>
Example
The following example enables long polling by calling the
ReceiveMessage
action with the WaitTimeSeconds
parameter set to 10 seconds.
Using AWS JSON protocol (Default)
Sample Request
POST / HTTP/1.1
Host: sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
X-Amz-Target: AmazonSQS.ReceiveMessage
X-Amz-Date: <Date>
Content-Type: application/x-amz-json-1.0
Authorization: <AuthParams>
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Connection: Keep-Alive
{
"QueueUrl": "https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/177715257436/MyQueue/",
"WaitTimeSeconds": 10,
"MaxNumberOfMessages": 5,
"VisibilityTimeout": 15,
"AttributeNames": ["All"]
}
Example
The following example shows the request and response when using the parameter MessageSystemAttributeNames
.
Sample Request
aws sqs receive-message \
--queue-url https://sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/123456789012/MyQueue \
--message-system-attribute-names SentTimestamp SenderId
Sample Response
{
"Messages": [
{
"MessageId": "abc1234d-5678-90ab-cdef-EXAMPLE11111",
"ReceiptHandle": "AQEBwJnKyrHigUMZj6rYigCgxlaS3SLy0a...",
"MD5OfBody": "e99a18c428cb38d5f260853678922e03",
"Body": "Example message",
"Attributes": {
"SenderId": "AIDAEXAMPLE123ABC",
"SentTimestamp": "1638368280000"
}
}
]
}
Example
Using AWS query protocol
Sample Request
POST /177715257436/MyQueue/ HTTP/1.1
Host: sqs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com
X-Amz-Date: <Date>
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Authorization: <AuthParams>
Content-Length: <PayloadSizeBytes>
Connection: Keep-Alive
Action=ReceiveMessage
&WaitTimeSeconds=10
&MaxNumberOfMessages=5
&VisibilityTimeout=15
&AttributeName=All
See Also
For more information about using this API in one of the language-specific AWS SDKs, see the following: