sqs scaling, what is queueLength exactly?

[gdoron]

We had a little debate at work, is queueLength the number of messages a pod can handle concurrently, or the number of messages a pod can handle in a minute?

queueLength - Target value for queue length passed to the scaler. Example: if one pod can handle 10 messages, set the queue length target to 10. If the actual messages in the SQS Queue is 30, the scaler scales to 3 pods. (default: 5)

https://keda.sh/docs/2.14/scalers/aws-sqs/

[rickbrouwer]

I explain it as by how many messages do you need an extra pod. So suppose you want a pod for every 500 messages on a queue, then you set that as queueLenght (500). If there are 2000 messages on a queue, you get 4 pods (2000 / 500). If there are 1400 messages on the next check, it scales down and you are left with 3 pods).