Share stream sessions with stream URLs

Stream URLs let you quickly share your stream sessions with anyone. Recipients access your stream sessions in a supported web browser, with no AWS account or client integration required, and you control expiration, usage, and revocation. After creating a stream URL anyone who accesses it starts their own stream session without needing any credentials. Stream URLs are ideal for quickly and easily setting up demos, playtests, stakeholder reviews, and guest access.

How stream URLs work

A stream URL ties together a stream group (the capacity that runs the stream) and one application in that stream group (the content to run). When you create a stream URL, Amazon GameLift Streams returns a stream URL of the following form:

https://gameliftstreams.aws.com/su-1AB2C3De4/stream?token=EXAMPLETOKEN

The workflow has four steps:

Because the stream URL is unauthenticated, the end user never sees or needs your AWS credentials. The service routes each end user to a nearby location based on the streaming location preference you set at creation time. Amazon GameLift Streams reorders your preferred streaming locations by proximity but never adds locations you did not include.

The end-user experience

Users you share a stream URL with do not need an AWS account or any software install. They open the URL in a supported web browser and stream from a webpage that Amazon GameLift Streams hosts for you. Streaming uses WebRTC and has the same browser and device requirements as the Amazon GameLift Streams Web SDK client. For the supported browsers and minimum versions, see Amazon GameLift Streams compatible devices and browsers. If the stream group has no capacity available when an end user opens the URL, the page shows a message that the stream is temporarily at capacity, and the end user can retry. If the end user tries to close or reload the tab, the page prompts them to confirm, because leaving the page ends the session.

Prerequisites

Before you create a stream URL, you need the following:

Creating a stream URL

The following AWS CLI example creates a stream URL for an application in a stream group. The stream URL is valid for two hours and can be used up to five times, and it prefers the us-west-2 and us-east-1 locations.

aws gameliftstreams create-stream-url \
    --identifier sg-1AB2C3De4 \
    --application-identifier a-9ZY8X7Wv6 \
    --protocol WebRTC \
    --url-expires-after-minutes 120 \
    --usage-limit 5 \
    --locations us-west-2 us-east-1 \
    --description "Preview build - reviewer invites"

A successful call returns the stream URL resource, including its StreamUrlId (prefixed su-), its ARN, the full shareable StreamUrl, the computed expiration time, and the initial remaining uses.

{
    "StreamUrlId": "su-1AB2C3De4",
    "Arn": "arn:aws:gameliftstreams:us-west-2:111122223333:streamurl/sg-1AB2C3De4/su-1AB2C3De4",
    "StreamUrl": "https://gameliftstreams.aws.com/su-1AB2C3De4/stream?token=EXAMPLETOKEN",
    "Status": "ACTIVE",
    "UsageLimit": 5,
    "RemainingUses": 5,
    "ExpiresAt": "2026-07-31T20:00:00+00:00"
}

The following parameters are required:

The following parameters are optional. Any session settings you provide are frozen into the stream URL at creation time and applied to every session started from the stream URL.

Monitoring your stream URLs

Use GetStreamUrl to retrieve a single stream URL. Specify the stream group with --identifier and the stream URL with --stream-url-identifier (a stream URL ID or ARN). In addition to the stream URL's configuration, current Status, and RemainingUses, the response includes a StreamSessions list of the sessions started from it, so you can see who is actively streaming.

aws gameliftstreams get-stream-url \
    --identifier sg-1AB2C3De4 \
    --stream-url-identifier su-1AB2C3De4

Use ListStreamUrls to enumerate the stream URLs in your account. You can filter by Status and by stream group, and page through results with MaxResults (1–100, default 25) and NextToken.

aws gameliftstreams list-stream-urls \
    --status ACTIVE \
    --stream-group-identifier sg-1AB2C3De4

You can also audit stream URL management activity in CloudTrail. CloudTrail records calls to CreateStreamUrl, GetStreamUrl, ListStreamUrls, and RevokeStreamUrl as data events. An end user opening a stream URL and starting a session is not one of your API calls and is not recorded as customer CloudTrail activity. For more information, see Logging Amazon GameLift Streams API calls using AWS CloudTrail.

Revoking a stream URL

Revoke a stream URL when you want to stop it from starting any more sessions, for example when a preview period ends or it might have been unintentionally shared.

RevokeStreamUrl takes a RevocationMode:

aws gameliftstreams revoke-stream-url \
    --identifier sg-1AB2C3De4 \
    --stream-url-identifier su-1AB2C3De4 \
    --revocation-mode REVOKE_AND_TERMINATE_SESSIONS

A revoked stream URL transitions to the REVOKED status and cannot be reactivated. Create a new stream URL if you need to resume sharing.

Amazon GameLift Streams also automatically revokes a stream URL when a resource it depends on is deleted. Deleting the stream group revokes all stream URLs on that stream group, and deleting the application revokes all stream URLs that reference that application. In both cases the stream URL moves to REVOKED with a status reason that identifies the deleted resource.

Stream URL lifecycle and status

A stream URL is ACTIVE when created and stays that way until it expires, runs out of uses, or is revoked. It never returns to ACTIVE after leaving that state.

When a stream URL is REVOKED, GetStreamUrl and ListStreamUrls also return a status reason that explains why.

Differences from sessions you start with StartStreamSession

Sessions started from a stream URL run on the same infrastructure as sessions you start yourself, but they are tuned for short, hands-off, single-viewer playback. Keep these differences in mind:

Troubleshooting

Amazon GameLift Streams deliberately hides the specific reason for a failed stream URL activation from end users. An end user who opens a stream URL that cannot start a stream always sees a generic "not found" page or an "at capacity" message, regardless of the underlying cause. To diagnose the real cause, inspect the stream URL from the creator side with GetStreamUrl and ListStreamUrls, check the Status and status reason, and review stream URL API activity in CloudTrail.