AWS rolls out metadata filtering before S3 vector searches

AWS is rolling out metadata pre-filtering for Amazon S3 Vectors, evaluating filters before similarity searches rather than after them. The company says selective filters can return up to 5x more matching vectors. A new prefix operator also supports filtering values such as paths and URLs. Indexes in new vector buckets use pre-filtering by default; existing indexes can be updated in place or tested with a per-query setting. The feature carries no additional cost in supported commercial and China regions. AWS expects deployment to finish in the coming days.