Previously, Athena’s capacity reservations required longer-duration commitments and higher minimum Data Processing Units (DPUs), limiting flexibility for short or variable workloads. The new feature enables users to reserve capacity in 1-minute increments with a minimum of 4 DPUs, improving cost-efficiency for bursty or time-sensitive queries.
Capacity Reservations provide dedicated serverless compute resources with no data scanned charges, offering query prioritization and concurrency controls. Workgroups can attach to reservations without SQL or application changes, facilitating seamless cost and performance optimization based on dynamic demand patterns.
Source & further reading
Amazon Athena now supports 1-minute reservations and 4 DPU minimum capacity ↗Source published 2026-02-10. This report was prepared with AI assistance from the linked primary-source material. Claims and limitations should be checked against the original announcement or research.