DynamoDB read consistency
Amazon DynamoDB reads data from tables, local secondary indexes (LSIs), global secondary indexes (GSIs), and streams. For more information, see Core components of Amazon DynamoDB. Both tables and LSIs provide two read consistency options: eventually consistent (default) and strongly consistent reads. All reads from GSIs and streams are eventually consistent.
When your application writes data to a DynamoDB table and receives an HTTP 200 response (OK), that means the write completed successfully and has been durably persisted. DynamoDB provides read-committed isolation and ensures that read operations always return committed values for an item. The read will never present a view to the item from a write which did not ultimately succeed. Read-committed isolation does not prevent modifications of the item immediately after the read operation.
Eventually Consistent Reads
Eventually consistent is the default read consistent model for all read operations. When issuing eventually consistent reads to a DynamoDB table or an index, the responses may not reflect the results of a recently completed write operation. If you repeat your read request after a short time, the response should eventually return the more recent item. Eventually consistent reads are supported on tables, local secondary indexes, and global secondary indexes. Also note that all reads from a DynamoDB stream are also eventually consistent.
Eventually consistent reads are half the cost of strongly consistent reads. For
more information, see Amazon DynamoDB
Strongly Consistent Reads
Read operations such as GetItem, Query, and
Scan provide an optional ConsistentRead parameter. If
you set ConsistentRead to true, DynamoDB returns a response with the most
up-to-date data, reflecting the updates from all prior write operations that were
successful. Strongly consistent reads are only supported on tables and local
secondary indexes. Strongly consistent reads from a global secondary index or a
DynamoDB stream are not supported.
Global tables read consistency
DynamoDB also supports global tables for multi-active and multi-Region replication. A global table is composed of multiple replica tables in different AWS Regions. Any change made to any item in any replica table is replicated to all the other replicas within the same global table, typically within a second, and are eventually consistent. For more information, see Consistency and conflict resolution.
