This assumes you are familar with the basic configurations needed to connect to Amazon Web Services (AWS) using Python boto3. If not, check out my article Python (Scripting) - Getting Started with Amazon Web Services (AWS) boto3.

This also assumes you are familiar with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Simple Queue Service (SQS). If not, check out my article Amazon Web Services (AWS) - Getting Started with Simple Queue Service (SQS).

You will need the URL of the queue you want to consume messages on. This can be done using list_queues or get_queue_url. And then receive_message can be used to get/consumes the messages in a queue. This will not delete the message in the queue. Instead, delete_message can be used to delete the message from the queue.

#!/usr/bin/python3
import boto3
client = boto3.client('sqs')

response = client.get_queue_url(QueueName='my-first-queue')

print(f"queue URL = {response['QueueUrl']}")

receive_message_response = client.receive_message(QueueUrl=response['QueueUrl'])

print(receive_message_response)

client.close()

If you re-issue this command multiple times without waiting between requests, the first request for a first message in the queue should return the message (assuming there is at least one message in the queue), but subsequent requests made 30 seconds or less after the first request will not return any messages in the queue due to the visibility timeout. By default, a queues visibility timeout will be set to 30 seconds, which means that after you submit a request to receive a message in the queue, the message will be flagged as acknowledged for 30 seconds. If you simply wait 30 seconds (or longer) and you did not delete the message, then the same message should be returned. If you wait 30 seconds (or longer) and you did delete the message, the next message in the queue should be returned. Or you can adjust the visibility timeout of the queue.

By default, only one message will be returned. MaxNumberOfMessages can be used to return multiple messages.

receive_ten_messages = client.receive_message(
  QueueUrl=response['QueueUrl'],
  MaxNumberOfMessages=10,
  WaitTimeSeconds=10
)

If the queues receive message wait time is 0 seconds, then the queue is using short polling. On the other hand, if the queues receive message wait time is 1 or more seconds, then the queue is using long polling.

When you consume messages from a queue using short polling, Amazon Simple Queue Service samples a subset of its servers and returns messages from only those servers. Thus, a request to receive a message may not return all of your message because you may hit servers "a" and "b" but the message may be on server "c". If you have 1000 or less messages in your queue, a subsequent request should hit the "other" servers that were not hit in the prior request and return the messages.

Or you can set receive message wait time to 1 or more seconds to use long polling. With long polling, all servers are queried for the messages. This can be done on the queue itself.

Or you can use the WaitTimeSeconds option.

receive_ten_messages = client.receive_message(
  QueueUrl=response['QueueUrl'],
  MaxNumberOfMessages=10,
  WaitTimeSeconds=10
)

Optionally, you can include QueueOwnerAWSAccountId.

#!/usr/bin/python3
import boto3
client = boto3.client('sqs')

response = client.get_queue_url(
  QueueName='my-first-queue',
  QueueOwnerAWSAccountId='123456789012'
)

print(f"queue URL = {response['QueueUrl']}")

receive_message_response = client.receive_message(QueueUrl=response['QueueUrl'])

print(receive_message_response)

client.close()

Here is a more practical example, with try/except/else error handling.

#!/usr/bin/python3
import boto3
import sys

try:
  client = boto3.client('sqs')
except Exception as exception:
  print(exception)
  sys.exit(1)

try:
  response = client.get_queue_url(
    QueueName='my-first-queue',
    QueueOwnerAWSAccountId='123456789012'
  )
except Exception as exception:
  print(exception)
  sys.exit(1)
else:
  print(f"queue URL = {response['QueueUrl']}")

try:
  receive_message_response = client.receive_message(QueueUrl=response['QueueUrl'])
except Exception as exception:
  print(exception)
  sys.exit(1)
else:
  print(receive_message_response)

try:
  client.close()
except Exception as exception:
  print(exception)

Something like this should be returned.

{'Messages': 
  [
    {'MessageId': '5508026b-e650-45d8-8482-8d13623d6a6b', 
    'ReceiptHandle': 'AQEBhKT34C9mo3M/q66DSMCafeqm/D78npzFBI1zkUU/fd+tXl94DXxc9mmG4UnBLOHl82bZZ+6TUaOEJPMBastJLlg0fBjiTP09uxDrVIWVFOSmt+g099Qqpc+aRhxBcbAWL8sq/Y4Jjt9f7ElElZ+dzZzgL6L/Pc8pOLzZctsF7LVIaaCujFaH7NdmeK+rd0Nup55dB88bT2SS3PwSGQ9prQTnkU/rvKUFRHcKOwh2X2kc1f0CA+CotoYf6ahZrLUCw9ywikBc00extJxDbWyJd9ssXWbgIZ/7PiG5kk9Br9i26fo5bIzrkEG93svWLIIxnq6FBkOMf1jR2nSz9a6DuGVAQoXI4lxzjJRLjnI7MiQyGV3i8lPsL3XJxsMC7IKFozORKLFqseOuFo5PRh3JuQ==', 
    'MD5OfBody': '5d41402abc4b2a76b9719d911017c592', 
    'Body': 'hello'}
  ], 
  'ResponseMetadata': {
    'RequestId': '5cd074c1-041b-57b3-ba18-2abd21414cf8', 
    'HTTPStatusCode': 200, 
    'HTTPHeaders': {
      'x-amzn-requestid': '5cd074c1-041b-57b3-ba18-2abd21414cf8', 
      'date': 'Tue, 26 Mar 2024 01:21:30 GMT', 
      'content-type': 'text/xml', 
      'content-length': '856', 
      'connection': 'keep-alive'}, 
    'RetryAttempts': 0
  }
}

You probably just want to get the message body. Here is a basic example with try except else finally error handling.

#!/usr/bin/python3
import boto3
client = boto3.client('sqs')

response = client.get_queue_url(
  QueueName='my-first-queue',
  QueueOwnerAWSAccountId='123456789012'
)

receive_message_response = client.receive_message(QueueUrl=response['QueueUrl'])

try:
  receive_message_response['Messages']
except KeyError:
  print(f"there are no messages in queue {response['QueueUrl']}")
else:
  for message in receive_message_response['Messages']:
    print(f"message['Body'] = {message['Body']}")

client.close()

If there are no messages in the queue, then "there are no messages in queue" should be printed. On the other hand, if there are messages in the queue, something like this should be returned.

message['Body'] = Hello World