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IoT

AWS IoT Core

AWS IoT Core provides a managed device gateway, MQTT and HTTPS messaging, device registry, shadows, rules engine, jobs, fleet provisioning, security policies, custom authentication and integrations for connecting devices securely to AWS services at scale.

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

AWS IoT Core pricing and cost programs

Pricing model: Device connectivity and messaging usage

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

Billing dimensions: Connection minutes · Messages · Rules actions · Device location

Programs and modes: MQTT and WebSocket connectivity · Messaging · Rules Engine · Device Shadow

Message size, connection duration, protocol, and rules actions determine charges.

Free Tier: Available — 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 IoT Core?

  • Provides elastic MQTT and HTTP connectivity and message routing without operating public broker clusters.
  • Combines per-device identities, mutual TLS, policies, registry attributes, persistent shadows, rules, jobs, fleet provisioning, metrics and logs.
  • Routes telemetry and commands into Lambda, streams, databases, storage, notifications and other supported AWS targets.

How to implement AWS IoT Core

  1. Define device threat model, unique identity and client ID, certificate manufacture or enrollment, topic namespace, payload schema and versioning, offline behavior, shadow ownership, command authorization, update, rotation, revocation, Region and disaster recovery.
  2. Provision one unique certificate and tightly scoped IoT policy per device or security boundary, validate the AWS server certificate, use fleet provisioning only with protected claim credentials, and route validated messages through least-privilege rules.
  3. Test reconnect, duplicate, delayed and out-of-order messages, shadow conflicts, certificate rotation, revoked devices, quotas and regional loss; enable logs and metrics, audit fleet state, update firmware safely and delete identities at decommission.

AWS IoT Core best practices

  • Use a unique identity and client ID for every device, prohibit shared fleet credentials, bind topic permissions to device identity variables, and revoke compromised certificates immediately.
  • Protect manufacturing and fleet-provisioning claim certificates because compromise can enroll unauthorized devices; constrain policy templates, monitor use, rotate claims and prefer secure hardware-backed keys where feasible.
  • Validate server certificates and hostnames, encrypt and minimize payloads, design idempotent consumers for MQTT delivery semantics, apply Device Defender and logging, and build disaster recovery independently in a second Region rather than relying on deprecated sample automation.

AWS IoT Core use cases and server impact

  • Industrial and consumer device telemetry
  • Remote device state and commands
  • Fleet provisioning, monitoring, and over-the-air operations

Replaces internet-facing MQTT brokers and much device registry, routing and connection scaling, while hardware trust, firmware, unique credentials, message semantics, device safety, fleet updates, analytics and regional recovery remain yours.

Official implementation resources

Commonly paired AWS services