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AWS Cloud Map

AWS Cloud Map is a managed service registry and discovery layer for cloud resources, representing namespaces, services and instances and returning endpoints through DNS or API queries with optional Route 53 or custom health status.

Explore pricing models, common use cases, infrastructure support, and the AWS services that commonly work with AWS Cloud Map.

AWS Cloud Map pricing and cost programs

Pricing model: Service-discovery registry usage

On-Demand
Available
Reserved Instances or reserved capacity
Not applicable
Savings Plans
Not applicable
Spot
Not applicable

Billing dimensions: Registered resources · Discovery API calls · Route 53 queries

Programs and modes: API discovery · DNS discovery · Cloud Map namespaces

Cloud Map registry and discovery charges can be accompanied by Route 53 DNS charges.

Free Tier: Service-specific — verify current offers

Pricing reviewed 2026-07-25. Reviewed against the linked official AWS pricing page. Recheck regional rates and program terms before purchase.

Official AWS pricing

Official AWS sources reviewed 2026-07-21.

Why implement AWS Cloud Map?

  • Replaces hand-maintained service registries and DNS records for dynamic application resources.
  • Supports public or private DNS namespaces, API-only namespaces, resource attributes, service discovery queries, ECS integration, and weighted or multivalue DNS routing.
  • Can filter API discovery by attributes and exclude unhealthy resources when health is configured and maintained correctly.

How to implement AWS Cloud Map

  1. Define namespace scope, public, private or API discovery, naming, record types, TTLs, instance attributes, registration ownership, health source, authentication, quotas and stale-entry reconciliation.
  2. Create namespace and service, configure DNS and Route 53 or custom health where supported, grant narrow register and discover permissions, register endpoints through deployment automation, and make clients honor DNS or API caching behavior.
  3. Test registration, update, deregistration, unhealthy instances, resolver caches, duplicate IDs and service failure; monitor discovery calls, health and drift and run a reconciler to remove orphaned entries.

AWS Cloud Map best practices

  • Do not assume discovery implies health: without a configured health check Cloud Map includes resources in discovery responses, and custom health requires an external checker to call the status API.
  • Use low enough DNS TTLs for the required replacement speed without creating excessive query load, implement client retries and connection handling, and deregister instances before termination.
  • Standardize namespaces and attributes, restrict who can mutate registrations, avoid putting secrets in attributes, monitor quotas, and continuously reconcile the registry against the actual orchestrator or resource inventory.

AWS Cloud Map use cases and server impact

  • ECS and microservice discovery
  • Dynamic endpoint registries for non-container resources
  • Attribute-filtered discovery across application environments

Replaces service-registry servers and manual DNS automation, while endpoint registration, health truth, client caching and retries, namespace governance, stale-record cleanup, and application resilience remain yours.

Official implementation resources

Commonly paired AWS services