Available CloudWatch metrics for Amazon SQS - Amazon Simple Queue Service
Amazon SQS metricsDead-letter queues (DLQs) and CloudWatch metricsDimensions for Amazon SQS metricsMonitoring tips
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Available CloudWatch metrics for Amazon SQS

Amazon SQS sends the following metrics to CloudWatch.

Note

For some metrics, the result is approximate because of the distributed architecture of Amazon SQS. In most cases, the count should be close to the actual number of messages in the queue.

Amazon SQS metrics

Amazon SQS automatically publishes operational metrics to Amazon CloudWatch under the AWS/SQS namespace. These metrics help you monitor queue health and performance. Due to SQS’s distributed nature, many values are approximate, but accurate enough for most operational decisions.

Note

  • All metrics emit non-negative values only when the queue is active.

  • Some metrics (such as SentMessageSize) are not emitted until at least one message is sent.

Metric Description Units Reporting behavior Key notes
ApproximateAgeOfOldestMessage The age of the oldest unprocessed message in the queue.

Seconds

 Reported if the queue contains at least one active message.

  • For standard queues, if a message is received three or more times and not deleted, SQS moves it to the back of the queue. The metric then reflects the age of the next message that hasn’t exceeded the receive threshold. This reordering occurs even when a redrive policy is in place.

  • Poison-pill messages (those repeatedly received but never deleted) are excluded from this metric until successfully processed.

  • When a message is moved to a DLQ after exceeding the maxReceiveCount, the age resets. In that case, the DLQ’s metric reflects the time the message was moved—not when it was originally sent.

  • FIFO queues don't reorder messages to preserve order. A failed message blocks its message group until it's deleted or expires. If a DLQ is configured, the message is sent there after the receive threshold is met.
ApproximateNumberOfGroupsWithInflightMessages For FIFO only. The number of message groups with one or more in-flight messages.

Count

 Reported if the FIFO queue is active.

  • A message is considered in-flight after it’s received from the queue by a consumer but not yet deleted or expired.

  • This metric helps you troubleshoot and optimize FIFO queue throughput. High values usually indicate strong concurrency.

  • If the queue has a large backlog and this value remains low, consider scaling consumers or increasing the number of active message groups.

  • For throughput and in-flight limits, see Amazon SQS quotas.
ApproximateNumberOfMessagesDelayed

The number of messages in the queue that are delayed and not immediately available for retrieval.

Count

 Reported if delayed messages exist in the queue.

  • Applies to queues configured with a default delay and to individual messages sent with a DelaySeconds parameter.

  • Delayed messages remain hidden from consumers until their delay period expires, which can affect perceived queue backlog or throughput.
ApproximateNumberOfMessagesNotVisible The number of in-flight messages that have been received but not yet deleted or expired.

Count

 Reported if in-flight messages exist.

  • Messages enter the in-flight state after being sent to a consumer via the ReceiveMessage API.

  • These messages are temporarily hidden from other consumers during the visibility timeout window.

  • Use this metric to track message processing delays or stuck consumers.
ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible The number of messages currently available for retrieval and processing.

Count

 Reported if the queue is active.

  • Reflects the current processing backlog in the queue.

  • There's no hard limit on how many messages can accumulate, but they are subject to the queue’s configured retention period.

  • A consistently high value may indicate under-provisioned consumers or stuck processing logic.
NumberOfEmptyReceives¹ The number of ReceiveMessage API calls that returned no messages.

Count

 Reported during receive operations.

  • This metric can help identify inefficiencies in polling behavior or underutilized consumer instances.

  • High values may occur when the queue is empty, the consumer uses short polling, or messages are being processed faster than they are produced.

  • This isn't a precise indicator of queue state. It reflects service-side behavior and may include retries.
NumberOfDeduplicatedSentMessages For FIFO only. The number of sent messages that were deduplicated and not added to the queue.

Count

 Reported if duplicate MessageDeduplicationId values or content are detected.

  • SQS deduplicates messages based on the MessageDeduplicationId or content-based hashing (if enabled).

  • A high value may indicate that a producer is repeatedly sending the same message within the 5-minute deduplication window.

  • Use this metric to troubleshoot redundant producer logic or confirm that deduplication is functioning as intended.
NumberOfMessagesDeleted¹

The number of messages successfully deleted from the queue.

Count

 Reported for each delete request with a valid receipt handle.

  • This metric counts all successful delete operations—even if the same message is deleted more than once.

  • Common reasons for higher-than-expected values include:

    • Multiple deletes of the same message using different receipt handles, after visibility timeout expires and the message is received again.

    • Duplicate deletes using the same receipt handle, which still return a success status and increment the metric.

  • Use this metric to track message processing success, but don't treat it as an exact count of unique deleted messages.
NumberOfMessagesReceived¹ The number of messages returned by the ReceiveMessage API.

Count

 Reported during receive operations.

  • This includes all messages returned to consumers, including those that are later returned to the queue due to visibility timeout expiration.

  • A single message can be received multiple times if it isn’t deleted, which can cause this metric to exceed the number of messages sent.

  • Use this to track consumer activity, but don't treat it as a count of unique messages processed.
NumberOfMessagesSent¹ The number of messages successfully added to a queue.

Count

 Reported for each successful manual send.

  • Manual calls to SendMessage or SendMessageBatch are counted, including those targeting a DLQ directly.

  • Messages that are automatically moved to a DLQ after exceeding the maxReceiveCount are not included in this metric.

  • As a result, NumberOfMessagesSent may be lower than NumberOfMessagesReceived—especially if redrive policies are moving many messages to DLQs behind the scenes.
SentMessageSize¹

The size of messages successfully sent to the queue.

Bytes

 Not emitted until at least one message is sent.

  • This metric will not appear in the CloudWatch console until the queue receives its first message.

  • Use this metric to track the size of each message in bytes. This is useful for analyzing payload trends or estimating throughput cost.

  • The maximum message size for SQS is 256 KB.

¹ These metrics reflect system-level activity and may include retries, duplicates, or delayed messages. Don’t use raw counts to estimate real-time queue state without factoring in message lifecycle behavior.

Dead-letter queues (DLQs) and CloudWatch metrics

When working with DLQs, it's important to understand how Amazon SQS metrics behave:

  • NumberOfMessagesSent – This metric behaves differently for DLQs:

    • Manual Sending – Messages manually sent to a DLQ are captured by this metric.

    • Automatic Redrive – Messages automatically moved to a DLQ due to processing failures are not captured by this metric. As a result, the NumberOfMessagesSent and NumberOfMessagesReceived metrics may show discrepancies for DLQs.

  • Recommended Metric for DLQs – To monitor the state of a DLQ, use the ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible metric. This metric indicates the number of messages currently available for processing in the DLQ.

Dimensions for Amazon SQS metrics

Amazon SQS metrics in CloudWatch use a single dimension: QueueName. All metric data is grouped and filtered by the name of the queue.

Monitoring tips

Monitor SQS effectively using key metrics and CloudWatch alarms to detect queue backlogs, optimize performance, and stay within service limits.

  • Set CloudWatch alarms based on ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible to catch backlog growth.

  • Monitor NumberOfEmptyReceives to tune poll frequency and reduce API cost.

  • Use ApproximateNumberOfGroupsWithInflightMessages in FIFO queues to diagnose throughput limits.

  • Review SQS quotas to understand metric thresholds and service limits.