Amazon Athena adds cost and performance controls for Capacity Reservations

Amazon Athena now gives you control over Data Processing Unit (DPU) usage for queries running on Capacity Reservations. You can now configure DPU settings at the workgroup or query level to balance cost efficiency, concurrency, and query-level performance needs.

Capacity Reservations provides dedicated serverless processing capacity for your Athena queries. Capacity is measured in DPUs, and queries consume DPUs based on their complexity. Now you can set explicit DPU values for each query—ensuring small queries use only what they need while guaranteeing critical queries get sufficient resources for fast execution. The Athena console and API now return per-query DPU usage, helping you understand DPU usage and determine your capacity needs. These updates help you control per-query capacity usage, control query concurrency, reduce costs by eliminating over-provisioning, and deliver consistent performance for business-critical workloads.

Cost and performance controls are available today in AWS Regions where Capacity Reservations is supported. To learn more, see Control capacity usage in the Athena user guide.