Setup

1. Install @remotion/lambda

Check the newest version number in the #lambda Discord channel

npm

bash
npm i @remotion/lambda

bash
npm i @remotion/lambda

yarn

bash
yarn add @remotion/lambda

bash
yarn add @remotion/lambda

pnpm

bash
pnpm i @remotion/lambda

bash
pnpm i @remotion/lambda

Also update all the other Remotion packages to have the same version: remotion, @remotion/cli and others.

note

Make sure no package version number has a ^ character in front of it as it can lead to a version conflict.

Your package.json should look like the following:

json
  "@remotion/cli": "3.0.0", // Replace 3.0.0 with the current version
  "@remotion/lambda": "3.0.0", // Remove any `^` character
  // ...
  "remotion": "3.0.0",

json
  "@remotion/cli": "3.0.0", // Replace 3.0.0 with the current version
  "@remotion/lambda": "3.0.0", // Remove any `^` character
  // ...
  "remotion": "3.0.0",

note

You can install @remotion/lambda in any Node.JS project to trigger a render, but remember to also install react and react-dom as they are peer dependencies.

2. Create role policy

• Go to AWS account IAM Policies section
• Click on "Create policy"
• Click on JSON
• In your project, type npx remotion lambda policies role in the command line and copy it into the "JSON" field on AWS.
• Click next. On the tags page, you don't need to fill in anything. Click next again.
• Give the policy exactly the name remotion-lambda-policy. The other fields can be left as they are.

3. Create a role

• Go to AWS account IAM Roles section
• Under "Common use cases", select "Lambda". Click next.
• Under "Attach permissions policies", filter for remotion-lambda-policy and click the checkbox to assign this policy.
• Click next. No need to add tags. Click next again.
• Tags: Skip it
• In the final screen, name the role remotion-lambda-role exactly. You can leave the other fields as is.
• Click "Create role" to confirm.

4. Create a user

• Go to AWS account IAM Users section
• Click Add users
• Enter any username, such as remotion-user.
• Check the "Access key - Programmatic access" option.
• Don't check the Management console access option. You don't need it.
• Click "Next: Permissions", then "Next: Tags", then "Next: Review" without changing any settings.
• Click "Create user", and ignore the warning that might appear.
• Reveal the Secret access key.
• Add a .env file to your project, and insert the following contents, using the credentials you just copied:

.env
txt
REMOTION_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<Access key ID>
REMOTION_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<Secret access key>

.env
txt
REMOTION_AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<Access key ID>
REMOTION_AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<Secret access key>

5. Add permissions to your user

• Go to AWS account IAM Users section
• Select the user you just created.
• Click "Add inline policy" on the right of the screen.
• Click the tab "JSON".
• Enter in your terminal: npx remotion lambda policies user and copy into the AWS text field what gets printed.
• Give the policy a name. For example remotion-user-policy, but it can be anything..
• Click "Create policy" to confirm.

6. Optional: Validate the permission setup

• Run npx remotion lambda policies validate

---

For the following steps, you may execute them on the CLI, or programmatically using the Node.JS APIs.

7. Deploy a function

CLI

Deploy a function by executing the following command:

bash
npx remotion lambda functions deploy

bash
npx remotion lambda functions deploy

Node.JS

You can deploy a function using deployFunction().

ts
const { functionName } = await deployFunction({
  region: "us-east-1",
  timeoutInSeconds: 120,
  memorySizeInMb: 1536,
  createCloudWatchLogGroup: true,
  architecture: "arm64",
});

ts
const { functionName } = await deployFunction({
  region: "us-east-1",
  timeoutInSeconds: 120,
  memorySizeInMb: 1536,
  createCloudWatchLogGroup: true,
  architecture: "arm64",
});

The function name is returned which you'll need for rendering.

8. Deploy a website

CLI

Run the following command to deploy your Remotion project to an S3 bucket. Pass as the last argument the entry file of the project - this is the file where registerRoot() is called.

bash
npx remotion lambda sites create src/index.tsx

bash
npx remotion lambda sites create src/index.tsx

A URL will be printed pointing to the deployed project.

Node.JS

First, you need to create an S3 bucket in your preferred region. If one already exists, it will be used instead:

ts
import path from "path";
import { deploySite, getOrCreateBucket } from "@remotion/lambda";
 
const { bucketName } = await getOrCreateBucket({
  region: "us-east-1",
});

ts
import path from "path";
import { deploySite, getOrCreateBucket } from "@remotion/lambda";
 
const { bucketName } = await getOrCreateBucket({
  region: "us-east-1",
});

Next, upload your Remotion project to an S3 bucket. Specify the entry point of your Remotion project, this is the file where registerRoot() is called.

ts
const { serveUrl } = await deploySite({
  bucketName,
  entryPoint: path.resolve(process.cwd(), "src/index.tsx"),
  region: "us-east-1",
});

ts
const { serveUrl } = await deploySite({
  bucketName,
  entryPoint: path.resolve(process.cwd(), "src/index.tsx"),
  region: "us-east-1",
});

You are now ready to render a video.

9. Check AWS concurrency limit

Check the concurrency limit that AWS has given to your account:

npx remotion lambda quotas

npx remotion lambda quotas

By default, it is 1000 concurrent invocations per region. However, new accounts might have a limit as low as 10. Each Remotion render may use as much as 200 functions per render concurrently, so if your assigned limit is very low, you might want to request an increase right away.

10. Render a video

CLI

Take the URL you received from the previous step and run the following command. Also pass in the ID of the composition you'd like to render.

bash
npx remotion lambda render <serve-url> <composition-id>

bash
npx remotion lambda render <serve-url> <composition-id>

Progress will be printed until the video finished rendering. Congrats! You rendered your first video using Remotion Lambda 🚀

Node.JS

You already have the function name from a previous step. But since you only need to deploy a function once, it's useful to retrieve the name of your deployed function programmatically before rendering a video in case your Node.JS program restarts. We can call getFunctions() with the compatibleOnly flag to get only functions with a matching version.

ts
import {
  getFunctions,
  renderMediaOnLambda,
  getRenderProgress,
} from "@remotion/lambda";
 
const functions = await getFunctions({
  region: "us-east-1",
  compatibleOnly: true,
});
 
const functionName = functions[0].functionName;

ts
import {
  getFunctions,
  renderMediaOnLambda,
  getRenderProgress,
} from "@remotion/lambda";
 
const functions = await getFunctions({
  region: "us-east-1",
  compatibleOnly: true,
});
 
const functionName = functions[0].functionName;

We can now trigger a render using the renderMediaOnLambda() function.

ts
const { renderId, bucketName } = await renderMediaOnLambda({
  region: "us-east-1",
  functionName,
  serveUrl: url,
  composition: "HelloWorld",
  inputProps: {},
  codec: "h264-mkv",
  imageFormat: "jpeg",
  maxRetries: 1,
  framesPerLambda: 20,
  privacy: "public",
});

ts
const { renderId, bucketName } = await renderMediaOnLambda({
  region: "us-east-1",
  functionName,
  serveUrl: url,
  composition: "HelloWorld",
  inputProps: {},
  codec: "h264-mkv",
  imageFormat: "jpeg",
  maxRetries: 1,
  framesPerLambda: 20,
  privacy: "public",
});

The render will now run and after a while the video will be available in your S3 bucket. You can at any time get the status of the video render by calling getRenderProgress().

ts
while (true) {
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 1000));
  const progress = await getRenderProgress({
    renderId,
    bucketName,
    functionName,
    region: "us-east-1",
  });
  if (progress.done) {
    console.log("Render finished!", progress.outputFile);
    process.exit(0);
  }
  if (progress.fatalErrorEncountered) {
    console.error("Error enountered", progress.errors);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

ts
while (true) {
  await new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, 1000));
  const progress = await getRenderProgress({
    renderId,
    bucketName,
    functionName,
    region: "us-east-1",
  });
  if (progress.done) {
    console.log("Render finished!", progress.outputFile);
    process.exit(0);
  }
  if (progress.fatalErrorEncountered) {
    console.error("Error enountered", progress.errors);
    process.exit(1);
  }
}

This code will poll every second to check the progress of the video and exit the script if the render is done. Congrats! Check your S3 Bucket - you just rendered your first video using Remotion Lambda 🚀

Next steps

• Select which region(s) you want to run Remotion Lambda in.
• Familiarize yourself with the CLI and the Node.JS APIs (list in sidebar).
• Learn how to upgrade Remotion Lambda.
• Before going live, go through the Production checklist.
• If you have any questions, go through the FAQ or ask in our Discord channel