AWS announces Lambda Web Functions for serverless HTTP workloads

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced Lambda Web Functions, a new serverless compute primitive designed to handle HTTP requests directly. This feature allows developers to run standard code, such as Express or Hono frameworks, by listening on a port as they would on a traditional HTTP server, without requiring custom adapters or complex configurations.

Lambda Web Functions is intended to support workloads including AI inference endpoints, server-side rendered web applications, streaming API endpoints, and microservices. A key economic feature is that users pay for active CPU time and memory rather than idle time spent waiting on downstream services. The launch also includes a rebranding of existing Lambda functions to Lambda Event Functions, which does not require code changes or redeployments.

Currently, the service supports the Node.js runtime and offers capabilities such as native HTTP streaming and multi-Region routing to reduce latency. This new execution model provides an alternative to traditional EC2 Auto Scaling architectures for hosting LLM agents and AI microservices, offering a way to run standard Node.js HTTP applications without managing server fleets.