Updated June 2026

AWS Route 53 — Cloud DNS from Amazon

Highly available and scalable authoritative DNS with deep AWS integration and advanced routing policies.

What Is AWS Route 53

Amazon Route 53 is a highly available and scalable cloud Domain Name System (DNS) web service. It is designed to give developers and businesses a reliable way to route end users to internet applications by translating domain names into IP addresses. Route 53 also serves as a domain registrar and can perform health checks on resources.

Launched in 2010, Route 53 is named after the TCP/UDP port 53 used by DNS traffic. It was one of the first cloud DNS services and remains the most widely used managed DNS platform due to its deep integration with the broader AWS ecosystem. Route 53 offers a 100% uptime SLA and operates from AWS's global network of edge locations.

AWS Route 53 is an authoritative DNS service — it hosts the DNS records for your domain so that recursive resolvers like Cloudflare 1.1.1.1 or Google 8.8.8.8 can query it on behalf of end users. It is not a recursive resolver like Google Public DNS or Cloudflare 1.1.1.1.

Key Features

Route 53 supports all standard DNS record types including A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV, NS, PTR, and CAA. It offers advanced routing features including latency-based routing, geolocation routing, geoproximity routing, weighted round-robin, and simple routing. Route 53 integrates with AWS CloudWatch for monitoring, AWS IAM for access control, and AWS Certificate Manager for SSL/TLS certificates.

Routing Policies

Route 53 offers multiple routing policies. Simple routing directs traffic to a single resource. Weighted routing distributes traffic across multiple resources based on assigned weights. Latency routing directs traffic to the resource with the lowest latency. Geolocation routing directs traffic based on user geographic location. Geoproximity routing considers both geographic location and resource proximity. Failover routing directs traffic to a primary resource with automatic failover to a secondary resource.

Pricing

Route 53 charges $0.50 per hosted zone per month for the first 25 zones, with a lower rate for additional zones. Query pricing starts at $0.40 per million queries for standard queries. Traffic flow policies, health checks, and domain registration have separate pricing. Route 53 does not offer a free tier for hosted zones.

Health Checks and Failover

Route 53 health checks monitor the health of your resources by sending periodic requests and evaluating the responses. When a health check fails, Route 53 can automatically route traffic away from the unhealthy resource. Health checks integrate with AWS CloudWatch alarms and can be configured to check endpoints via HTTP, HTTPS, or TCP.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AWS Route 53?

Amazon Route 53 is a scalable and highly available cloud DNS service with domain registration and health checking capabilities.

How much does Route 53 cost?

$0.50 per hosted zone per month plus $0.40 per million queries. Health checks and domain registration are billed separately.

Does Route 53 support DNSSEC?

Yes, Route 53 supports DNSSEC signing for domains.

Is Route 53 a recursive resolver?

No. Route 53 is an authoritative DNS service. Use Amazon's Route 53 Resolver for recursive DNS within VPCs.