The Core Idea

S3 performance is all about parallelization — doing multiple things at once instead of one at a time.

• Multiple prefixes = parallel requests
• Multi-part upload = parallel upload
• Transfer Acceleration = optimized network path
• Byte-range fetch = parallel download

1. Baseline Performance

S3 is automatically fast out of the box with no configuration needed.

• Latency: 100 to 200 milliseconds
• 3,500 PUT / COPY / POST / DELETE requests per second per prefix
• 5,500 GET / HEAD requests per second per prefix

What is a Prefix?

A prefix is simply the folder path inside your bucket.

bucket/folder1/sub1/       <- one prefix
bucket/folder1/sub2/       <- another prefix
bucket/photos/2024/        <- another prefix

Each prefix gets its own independent request limit.

Speed Trick: Use Multiple Prefixes

Spread your files across multiple prefixes to multiply your throughput.

1 prefix  =  5,500 GET requests/sec
4 prefixes = 22,000 GET requests/sec
10 prefixes = 55,000 GET requests/sec

Instead of putting all files in one folder, split them across several folders.