S3 Static Website Hosting URL

S3 Static Website Hosting Endpoints

When a bucket is configured for static website hosting, S3 provides a special website endpoint that behaves differently from the standard REST API endpoint.

Website Endpoint Format

http://BUCKET.s3-website-REGION.amazonaws.com
http://BUCKET.s3-website.REGION.amazonaws.com

Note: The format uses either a dash or a dot before the region, depending on the region.

Example

http://my-blog.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/posts/hello-world.html

Parsed Components

Component	Value
Bucket	my-blog
Key	posts/hello-world.html
Region	us-east-1
Type	Website Endpoint

Website vs REST Endpoint Differences

Feature	REST Endpoint	Website Endpoint
HTTPS	Supported	HTTP only (use CloudFront for HTTPS)
Index documents	Not supported	Serves index.html for / paths
Error documents	XML error responses	Custom error pages (e.g., 404.html)
Redirects	Not supported	Supports redirect rules
ListBucket	Returns XML listing	Returns 403 (no directory listing)
URL format	s3.amazonaws.com	s3-website.amazonaws.com

CloudFront Integration

In production, you typically put CloudFront in front of the website endpoint to provide:

1. HTTPS — Website endpoints only support HTTP.
2. Custom domain — Map your domain to the CloudFront distribution.
3. Caching — Reduces S3 request costs and improves latency.
4. Geographic routing — Serves content from edge locations.

CloudFront origin:

my-blog.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com

Important: Use the website endpoint as the CloudFront origin (not the REST endpoint) if you need index document and redirect behavior.

Common Configuration

{
  "IndexDocument": { "Suffix": "index.html" },
  "ErrorDocument": { "Key": "404.html" },
  "RoutingRules": [
    {
      "Condition": { "KeyPrefixEquals": "old/" },
      "Redirect": { "ReplaceKeyPrefixWith": "new/" }
    }
  ]
}