Question: Can you store XML in DynamoDB?

Answer

Yes. You can store XML directly in a DynamoDB String attribute, or store its encoded bytes in a Binary attribute. Converting XML to JSON first is optional, not a requirement.

Choose a string when you want to retrieve the original XML text. Binary is useful for compressed content or when exact bytes matter. DynamoDB treats either representation as an opaque value: it does not parse XML, run XPath or index elements inside it.

If the application needs lookups by an XML field, extract that value into a separate top-level attribute and design a table key or secondary index for it. Converting selected XML structures into maps and lists can make document-path updates possible, but preserve attributes, namespaces and repeated elements deliberately; a naive conversion can lose meaning.

The complete item must fit within 400 KB, including its key, attribute names and other metadata. Keep larger files in S3 and store an object key in DynamoDB. Upload and metadata writes need application-level error handling because they are separate operations.

See data types and large binary values for storage trade-offs.

Source: AWS supported types.