# Deploy WebSocket APIs in API Gateway
<a name="apigateway-set-up-websocket-deployment"></a>

 After creating your WebSocket API, you must deploy it to make it available for your users to invoke. 

To deploy an API, you create an [API deployment](api-gateway-basic-concept.md#apigateway-definition-api-deployment) and associate it with a [stage](api-gateway-basic-concept.md#apigateway-definition-api-stage). Each stage is a snapshot of the API and is made available for client apps to call. 

**Important**  
Every time you update an API, you must redeploy it. Changes to anything other than stage settings require a redeployment, including modifications to the following resources:  
Routes
Integrations
Authorizers
By default you are limited to 10 stages for each API. We recommend that you re-use stages for your deployments. 

To call a deployed WebSocket API, the client sends a message to the API's URL. The URL is determined by the API's hostname and stage name.

**Note**  
API Gateway will support payloads up to 128 KB with a maximum frame size of 32 KB. If a message exceeds 32 KB, it must be split into multiple frames, each 32 KB or smaller.

Using the API's default domain name, the URL of (for example) a WebSocket API in a given stage (`{stageName}`) is in the following format:

```
wss://{api-id}.execute-api.{region}.amazonaws.com/{stageName}
```

To make the WebSocket API's URL more user-friendly, you can create a custom domain name (e.g., `api.example.com`) to replace the default host name of the API. The configuration process is the same as for REST APIs. For more information, see [Custom domain name for public REST APIs in API Gateway](how-to-custom-domains.md).

Stages enable robust version control of your API. For example, you can deploy an API to a `test` stage and a `prod` stage, and use the `test` stage as a test build and use the `prod` stage as a stable build. After the updates pass the test, you can promote the `test` stage to the `prod` stage. The promotion can be done by redeploying the API to the `prod` stage. For more details about stages, see [Set up a stage for a REST API in API Gateway](set-up-stages.md).

**Topics**
+ [

## Create a WebSocket API deployment using the AWS CLI
](#apigateway-create-websocket-deployment-using-awscli)
+ [

## Create a WebSocket API deployment using the API Gateway console
](#apigateway-create-websocket-deployment-using-console)

## Create a WebSocket API deployment using the AWS CLI
<a name="apigateway-create-websocket-deployment-using-awscli"></a>

The following [create-deployment](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/apigatewayv2/create-deployment.html) command creates a deployment:

```
aws apigatewayv2 --region us-east-1 create-deployment --api-id aabbccddee
```

The output will look like the following:

```
{
    "DeploymentId": "fedcba",
    "DeploymentStatus": "DEPLOYED",
    "CreatedDate": "2018-11-15T06:49:09Z"
}
```

The deployed API is not callable until you associate the deployment with a stage. You can create a new stage or reuse a stage that you have previously created.

The following [create-stage](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/apigatewayv2/create-stage.html) command creates a new stage and associates it with the deployment:

```
aws apigatewayv2 --region us-east-1 create-stage --api-id aabbccddee --deployment-id fedcba --stage-name test
```

The output looks like the following:

```
{
    "StageName": "test",
    "CreatedDate": "2018-11-15T06:50:28Z",
    "DeploymentId": "fedcba",
    "DefaultRouteSettings": {
        "MetricsEnabled": false,
        "ThrottlingBurstLimit": 5000,
        "DataTraceEnabled": false,
        "ThrottlingRateLimit": 10000.0
    },
    "LastUpdatedDate": "2018-11-15T06:50:28Z",
    "StageVariables": {},
    "RouteSettings": {}
}
```

You can also reuse an existing stage by updating the stage's `deploymentId` property with the newly created deployment ID (*deployment-id*). The following [update-stage](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/apigatewayv2/update-stage.html) command updates the stage's deployment ID:

```
aws apigatewayv2 update-stage --region region \
    --api-id api-id \ 
    --stage-name stage-name \ 
    --deployment-id deployment-id
```

## Create a WebSocket API deployment using the API Gateway console
<a name="apigateway-create-websocket-deployment-using-console"></a>

To use the API Gateway console to create a deployment for a WebSocket API:

1. Sign in to the API Gateway console and choose the API.

1. Choose **Deploy API**.

1. Choose the desired stage from the dropdown list or enter the name of a new stage.