What are Edge Locations in AWS?

Edge Locations are data centers AWS operates at the network edge — closer to end users than Regions — to cache content and accelerate global traffic.

• Purpose — serve cached responses for CloudFront, terminate TLS, run Lambda@Edge / CloudFront Functions, and accept ingress for Global Accelerator and Route 53.

• Scale — 600+ Points of Presence (PoPs) across 100+ cities and 90+ countries in 2026.

• Different from Regions — Edge Locations don't run general-purpose EC2; they're optimized for low-latency content delivery and edge compute.

• Regional Edge Caches — a tier between Edge Locations and the origin, with larger storage for long-tail content.

Why it matters: Edge Locations cut latency from hundreds of milliseconds (origin) to single-digit (edge) for cacheable content.