--- title: DynamoDB Client API Tutorial: Query, Pagination, Cost... description: A walkthrough of DynamoDB's client API using a small NestJS app and a single table holding a tiny social feed for three users, focused entirely on... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/mbwxftpm0 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: DynamoDB Client API Tutorial: Query, Pagination, Cost Explained | daily.dev og:description: A walkthrough of DynamoDB's client API using a small NestJS app and a single table holding a tiny social feed for three users, focused entirely on... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/mbwxftpm0 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mbWxftPm0.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # DynamoDB Client API Tutorial: Query, Pagination, Cost Explained **[Joud Awad](https://daily.dev/sources/iac4jsbu0lv8wbsc85fsh)** · [@joudawad](https://daily.dev/joudawad) · 33 upvotes · 4 comments ## Summary A walkthrough of DynamoDB's client API using a small NestJS app and a single table holding a tiny social feed for three users, focused entirely on understanding cost. It explains how capacity units are calculated (4KB blocks for reads, 1KB for writes, with rates doubling for strongly consistent or transactional operations), then walks through GetItem, PutItem, BatchGetItem, BatchWriteItem, Query, Scan, TransactGetItems, and TransactWriteItems, showing the actual consumed capacity for each call. Key points include: eventual consistent reads cost half a unit vs a full unit for strongly consistent, transactional reads cost double a strong read, PutItem overwrites by default unless a condition expression is added, batch operations aren't atomic and can return unprocessed items, Query supports pagination via LastEvaluatedKey/ExclusiveStartKey and ordering via ScanIndexForward, filter expressions run after the read so they never reduce cost, and Scan reads the entire table (expensive at scale) while Query stays cheap regardless of table size. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@epicuser** · 4 upvotes > cheers mate 🍺 thank you for the DynamoDB Series videos! **@jntnlima** · 1 upvotes > Great walkthrough! ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [DynamoDB crash course: part 2 – data model](https://daily.dev/posts/dynamodb-crash-course-part-2-data-model-67qh0m1qw) · Planet Python · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [How to Query Data in DynamoDB Using .Net](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-query-data-in-dynamodb-using-net-uj3gpcxju) · freeCodeCamp · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Megabytes in milliseconds: How FireTV uses parallel queries and vertical partitioning to serve millions of customers in Amazon DynamoDB](https://daily.dev/posts/megabytes-in-milliseconds-how-firetv-uses-parallel-queries-and-vertical-partitioning-to-serve-milli-za51ozn2f) · AWS Database Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [When your data model is the bottleneck: lessons from Medium’s feature store](https://daily.dev/posts/when-your-data-model-is-the-bottleneck-lessons-from-medium-s-feature-store-19cd3kzv5) · The New Stack · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Top Use Cases for DynamoDB in 2024](https://daily.dev/posts/top-use-cases-for-dynamodb-in-2024-ctzldcrx8) · Tinybird · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#backend](https://daily.dev/tags/backend), [#nosql](https://daily.dev/tags/nosql), [#aws-dynamodb](https://daily.dev/tags/aws-dynamodb) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/mbwxftpm0) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/mbwxftpm0","headline":"DynamoDB Client API Tutorial: Query, Pagination, Cost Explained","text":"Shared: DynamoDB Client API Tutorial: Query, Pagination, Cost Explained","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mbwxftpm0","datePublished":"2026-08-24T09:19:27.080Z","dateModified":"2026-08-24T09:20:21.844Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Joud Awad","url":"https://daily.dev/joudawad","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--dOB9RaXY--/f_auto/v1773320801/avatars/avatar_iaC4JsBU0lV8wBsc85fSh?_a=BAMAMiiu0","description":"Principal Solution Architecture ","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Metalab","logo":"https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=metalab.com&sz=128"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":86210}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--foaA6JGU--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2004","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":33},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/ovJWWFlnW"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"cheers mate 🍺 thank you for the DynamoDB Series videos!","datePublished":"2026-08-24T09:38:35.243Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mbWxftPm0#c-ZHILtdUHD","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"EpicUser","url":"https://daily.dev/epicuser","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":4}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Great walkthrough!","datePublished":"2026-08-25T00:30:33.406Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mbWxftPm0#c-bRLCm1nTn","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Jonathan Lima","url":"https://daily.dev/jntnlima","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/67848049?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/iac4jsbu0lv8wbsc85fsh","name":"Joud Awad"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Joud Awad","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/iac4jsbu0lv8wbsc85fsh"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"DynamoDB Client API Tutorial: Query, Pagination, Cost Explained"}]} ```