Tag basics Tag your resources Tag restrictions Tags and access management Tag your resources for billing Work with tags using the console Work with tags using the command line Work with instance tags in instance metadata Add tags to a resource using CloudFormation

Tag your Amazon EC2 resources

To help you manage your instances, images, and other Amazon EC2 resources, you can assign your own metadata to each resource in the form of tags. Tags enable you to categorize your AWS resources in different ways, for example, by purpose, owner, or environment. This is useful when you have many resources of the same type—you can quickly identify a specific resource based on the tags that you've assigned to it. This topic describes tags and shows you how to create them.

Warning

Tag keys and their values are returned by many different API calls. Denying access to DescribeTags doesn’t automatically deny access to tags returned by other APIs. As a best practice, we recommend that you do not include sensitive data in your tags.

Contents

Tag basics
Tag your resources
Tag restrictions
Tags and access management
Tag your resources for billing
Work with tags using the console
Work with tags using the command line
Work with instance tags in instance metadata
Add tags to a resource using CloudFormation

Tag basics

A tag is a label that you assign to an AWS resource. Each tag consists of a key and an optional value, both of which you define.

Tags enable you to categorize your AWS resources in different ways, for example, by purpose, owner, or environment. For example, you could define a set of tags for your account's Amazon EC2 instances that helps you track each instance's owner and stack level.

The following diagram illustrates how tagging works. In this example, you've assigned two tags to each of your instances—one tag with the key Owner and another with the key Stack. Each tag also has an associated value.

We recommend that you devise a set of tag keys that meets your needs for each resource type. Using a consistent set of tag keys makes it easier for you to manage your resources. You can search and filter the resources based on the tags you add. For more information about how to implement an effective resource tagging strategy, see the AWS whitepaper Tagging Best Practices.

Tags don't have any semantic meaning to Amazon EC2 and are interpreted strictly as a string of characters. Also, tags are not automatically assigned to your resources. You can edit tag keys and values, and you can remove tags from a resource at any time. You can set the value of a tag to an empty string, but you can't set the value of a tag to null. If you add a tag that has the same key as an existing tag on that resource, the new value overwrites the old value. If you delete a resource, any tags for the resource are also deleted.

Note

After you delete a resource, its tags might remain visible in the console, API, and CLI output for a short period. These tags will be gradually disassociated from the resource and be permanently deleted.

Tag your resources

You can tag most Amazon EC2 resources that already exist in your account. The following table lists the resources that support tagging.

If you're using the Amazon EC2 console, you can apply tags to resources by using the Tags tab on the relevant resource screen, or you can use the Tags screen. Some resource screens enable you to specify tags for a resource when you create the resource; for example, a tag with a key of Name and a value that you specify. In most cases, the console applies the tags immediately after the resource is created (rather than during resource creation). The console may organize resources according to the Name tag, but this tag doesn't have any semantic meaning to the Amazon EC2 service.

If you're using the Amazon EC2 API, the AWS CLI, or an AWS SDK, you can use the CreateTags EC2 API action to apply tags to existing resources. Additionally, some resource-creating actions enable you to specify tags for a resource when the resource is created. If tags cannot be applied during resource creation, we roll back the resource creation process. This ensures that resources are either created with tags or not created at all, and that no resources are left untagged at any time. By tagging resources at the time of creation, you can eliminate the need to run custom tagging scripts after resource creation. For more information about enabling users to tag resources on creation, see Grant permission to tag resources during creation.

The following table describes the Amazon EC2 resources that can be tagged, and the resources that can be tagged on creation using the Amazon EC2 API, the AWS CLI, or an AWS SDK.

Tagging support for Amazon EC2 resources
Resource	Supports tags	Supports tagging on creation
AFI	Yes	Yes
AMI	Yes	Yes
Bundle task	No	No
Capacity Reservation	Yes	Yes
Carrier gateway	Yes	Yes
Client VPN endpoint	Yes	Yes
Client VPN route	No	No
Customer gateway	Yes	Yes
Dedicated Host	Yes	Yes
Dedicated Host Reservation	Yes	Yes
DHCP options	Yes	Yes
EBS snapshot	Yes	Yes
EBS volume	Yes	Yes
EC2 Fleet	Yes	Yes
Egress-only internet gateway	Yes	Yes
Elastic IP address	Yes	Yes
Elastic Graphics accelerator	Yes	No
Instance	Yes	Yes
Instance event window	Yes	Yes
Instance store volume	N/A	N/A
Internet gateway	Yes	Yes
IP address pool (BYOIP)	Yes	Yes
Key pair	Yes	Yes
Launch template	Yes	Yes
Launch template version	No	No
Local gateway	Yes	No
Local gateway route table	Yes	No
Local gateway virtual interface	Yes	No
Local gateway virtual interface group	Yes	No
Local gateway route table VPC association	Yes	Yes
Local gateway route table virtual interface group association	Yes	No
NAT gateway	Yes	Yes
Network ACL	Yes	Yes
Network interface	Yes	Yes
Placement group	Yes	Yes
Prefix list	Yes	Yes
Reserved Instance	Yes	No
Reserved Instance listing	No	No
Route table	Yes	Yes
Spot Fleet request	Yes	Yes
Spot Instance request	Yes	Yes
Security group	Yes	Yes
Security group rule	Yes	No
Subnet	Yes	Yes
Traffic Mirror filter	Yes	Yes
Traffic Mirror session	Yes	Yes
Traffic Mirror target	Yes	Yes
Transit gateway	Yes	Yes
Transit gateway multicast domain	Yes	Yes
Transit gateway route table	Yes	Yes
Transit gateway VPC attachment	Yes	Yes
Virtual private gateway	Yes	Yes
VPC	Yes	Yes
VPC endpoint	Yes	Yes
VPC endpoint service	Yes	Yes
VPC endpoint service configuration	Yes	Yes
VPC flow log	Yes	Yes
VPC peering connection	Yes	Yes
VPN connection	Yes	Yes

You can tag instances, volumes, elastic graphics, network interfaces, and Spot Instance requests on creation using the Amazon EC2 launch instance wizard in the Amazon EC2 console. You can tag your EBS volumes on creation using the Volumes screen, or EBS snapshots using the Snapshots screen. Alternatively, use the resource-creating Amazon EC2 APIs (for example, RunInstances) to apply tags when creating your resource.

You can apply tag-based resource-level permissions in your IAM policies to the Amazon EC2 API actions that support tagging on creation to implement granular control over the users and groups that can tag resources on creation. Your resources are properly secured from creation—tags are applied immediately to your resources, therefore any tag-based resource-level permissions controlling the use of resources are immediately effective. Your resources can be tracked and reported on more accurately. You can enforce the use of tagging on new resources, and control which tag keys and values are set on your resources.

You can also apply resource-level permissions to the CreateTags and DeleteTags Amazon EC2 API actions in your IAM policies to control which tag keys and values are set on your existing resources. For more information, see Example: Tag resources.

For more information about tagging your resources for billing, see Using cost allocation tags in the AWS Billing User Guide.

Tag restrictions

The following basic restrictions apply to tags:

Maximum number of tags per resource – 50
For each resource, each tag key must be unique, and each tag key can have only one value.
Maximum key length – 128 Unicode characters in UTF-8
Maximum value length – 256 Unicode characters in UTF-8
Allowed characters
- Although EC2 allows for any character in its tags, other services are more restrictive. The allowed characters across services are: letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9), and spaces representable in UTF-8, and the following characters: + - = . _ : / @.
- If you enable instance tags in instance metadata, instance tag keys can only use letters (a-z, A-Z), numbers (0-9), and the following characters: + - = . , _ : @. Instance tag keys can't contain spaces or /, and can't comprise only . (one period), .. (two periods), or _index. For more information, see Work with instance tags in instance metadata.
Tag keys and values are case-sensitive.
The aws: prefix is reserved for AWS use. If a tag has a tag key with this prefix, then you can't edit or delete the tag's key or value. Tags with the aws: prefix do not count against your tags per resource limit.

You can't terminate, stop, or delete a resource based solely on its tags; you must specify the resource identifier. For example, to delete snapshots that you tagged with a tag key called DeleteMe, you must use the DeleteSnapshots action with the resource identifiers of the snapshots, such as snap-1234567890abcdef0.

When you tag public or shared resources, the tags you assign are available only to your AWS account; no other AWS account will have access to those tags. For tag-based access control to shared resources, each AWS account must assign its own set of tags to control access to the resource.

You can't tag all resources. For more information, see Tagging support for Amazon EC2 resources.

Tags and access management

If you're using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), you can control which users in your AWS account have permission to create, edit, or delete tags. For more information, see Grant permission to tag resources during creation.

You can also use resource tags to implement attribute-based control (ABAC). You can create IAM policies that allow operations based on the tags for the resource. For more information, see Control access to EC2 resources using resource tags.

Tag your resources for billing

You can use tags to organize your AWS bill to reflect your own cost structure. To do this, sign up to get your AWS account bill with tag key values included. For more information about setting up a cost allocation report with tags, see Monthly cost allocation report in the AWS Billing User Guide. To see the cost of your combined resources, you can organize your billing information based on resources that have the same tag key values. For example, you can tag several resources with a specific application name, and then organize your billing information to see the total cost of that application across several services. For more information, see Using cost allocation tags in the AWS Billing User Guide.

Note

If you've just enabled reporting, data for the current month is available for viewing after 24 hours.

Cost allocation tags can indicate which resources are contributing to costs, but deleting or deactivating resources doesn't always reduce costs. For example, snapshot data that is referenced by another snapshot is preserved, even if the snapshot that contains the original data is deleted. For more information, see Amazon Elastic Block Store volumes and snapshots in the AWS Billing User Guide.

Note

Elastic IP addresses that are tagged do not appear on your cost allocation report.

Work with tags using the console

Using the Amazon EC2 console, you can see which tags are in use across all of your Amazon EC2 resources in the same Region. You can view tags by resource and by resource type, and you can also view how many items of each resource type are associated with a specified tag. You can also use the Amazon EC2 console to apply or remove tags from one or more resources at a time.

For more information about using filters when listing your resources, see List and filter your resources.

For ease of use and best results, use Tag Editor in the AWS Management Console, which provides a central, unified way to create and manage your tags. For more information, see Tag Editor in Getting Started with the AWS Management Console.

Tasks

Display tags
Add and delete tags on an individual resource
Add and delete tags to a group of resources
Add a tag when you launch an instance
Filter a list of resources by tag

Display tags

You can display tags in two different ways in the Amazon EC2 console. You can display the tags for an individual resource or for all resources.

Display tags for individual resources

When you select a resource-specific page in the Amazon EC2 console, it displays a list of those resources. For example, if you select Instances from the navigation pane, the console displays your Amazon EC2 instances. When you select a resource from one of these lists (for example, an instance), if the resource supports tags, you can view and manage its tags. On most resource pages, you can view the tags by choosing the Tags tab.

You can add a column to the resource list that displays all values for tags with the same key. You can use this column sort and filter the resource list by the tag.

Display tags for all resources

You can display tags across all resources by selecting Tags from the navigation pane in the Amazon EC2 console. The following image shows the Tags pane, which lists all tags in use by resource type.

Add and delete tags on an individual resource

You can manage tags for an individual resource directly from the resource's page.

To add a tag to an individual resource

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
From the navigation bar, select the Region that meets your needs. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. For more information, see Resource locations.
In the navigation pane, select a resource type (for example, Instances).
Select the resource from the resource list and choose the Tags tab.
Choose Manage tags, Add tag. Enter the key and value for the tag. When you are finished adding tags, choose Save.

To delete a tag from an individual resource

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
From the navigation bar, select the Region that meets your needs. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. For more information, see Resource locations.
In the navigation pane, choose a resource type (for example, Instances).
Select the resource from the resource list and choose the Tags tab.
Choose Manage tags. For each tag, choose Remove. When you are finished removing tags, choose Save.

Add and delete tags to a group of resources

To add a tag to a group of resources

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
From the navigation bar, select the Region that meets your needs. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. For more information, see Resource locations.
In the navigation pane, choose Tags.
At the top of the content pane, choose Manage Tags.
For Filter, select the type of resource (for example, instances).
In the resources list, select the check box next to each resource.
Under Add Tag, enter the tag key and value and choose Add Tag.

Note
If you add a new tag with the same tag key as an existing tag, the new tag overwrites the existing tag.

To remove a tag from a group of resources

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
From the navigation bar, select the Region that meets your needs. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. For more information, see Resource locations.
In the navigation pane, choose Tags, Manage Tags.
To view the tags in use, select the Show/Hide Columns gear-shaped icon, and in the Show/Hide Columns dialog box, select the tag keys to view and choose Close.
For Filter, select the type of resource (for example, instances).
In the resource list, select the check box next to each resource.
Under Remove Tag, enter the tag key and choose Remove Tag.

Add a tag when you launch an instance

To add a tag using the Launch Wizard

From the navigation bar, select the Region for the instance. This choice is important because some Amazon EC2 resources can be shared between Regions, while others can't. Select the Region that meets your needs. For more information, see Resource locations.
Choose Launch Instance.
The Choose an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) page displays a list of basic configurations called Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). Select the AMI to use and choose Select. For more information, see Find a Linux AMI.
On the Configure Instance Details page, configure the instance settings as necessary, and then choose Next: Add Storage.
On the Add Storage page, you can specify additional storage volumes for your instance. Choose Next: Add Tags when done.
On the Add Tags page, specify tags for the instance, the volumes, or both. Choose Add another tag to add more than one tag to your instance. Choose Next: Configure Security Group when you are done.
On the Configure Security Group page, you can choose from an existing security group that you own, or let the wizard create a new security group for you. Choose Review and Launch when you are done.
Review your settings. When you're satisfied with your selections, choose Launch. Select an existing key pair or create a new one, select the acknowledgment check box, and then choose Launch Instances.

Filter a list of resources by tag

You can filter your list of resources based on one or more tag keys and tag values.

To filter a list of resources by tag

In the navigation pane, select a resource type (for example, Instances).
Choose the search field.
Choose the tag key from in the list.
Choose the corresponding tag value from the list.
When you are finished, remove the filter.

For more information about filters, see List and filter your resources.

Work with tags using the command line

You can add tags to many EC2 resource when you create them, using the tag specifications parameter for the create command. You can view the tags for a resource using the describe command for the resource. You can also add, update, or delete tags for your existing resources using the following commands.

Task	AWS CLI	AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell
Add or overwrite one or more tags	create-tags	New-EC2Tag
Delete one or more tags	delete-tags	Remove-EC2Tag
Describe one or more tags	describe-tags	Get-EC2Tag

Tasks

Add tags on resource creation
Add tags to an existing resource
Describe tagged resources

Add tags on resource creation

The following examples demonstrate how to apply tags when you create resources.

Note

The way you enter JSON-formatted parameters on the command line differs depending on your operating system.

Linux, macOS, or Unix and Windows PowerShell – Use single quotes (') to enclose the JSON data structure.
Windows – Omit the single quotes when using the commands with the Windows command line.

For more information, see Specifying parameter values for the AWS CLI.

Example: Launch an instance and apply tags to the instance and volume

The following run-instances command launches an instance and applies a tag with the key webserver and the value production to the instance. The command also applies a tag with the key cost-center and the value cc123 to any EBS volume that's created (in this case, the root volume).


aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-abc12345 \
    --count 1 \
    --instance-type t2.micro \
    --key-name MyKeyPair \
    --subnet-id subnet-6e7f829e \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=webserver,Value=production}]' 'ResourceType=volume,Tags=[{Key=cost-center,Value=cc123}]'

You can apply the same tag keys and values to both instances and volumes during launch. The following command launches an instance and applies a tag with a key of cost-center and a value of cc123 to both the instance and any EBS volume that's created.


aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-abc12345 \
    --count 1 \
    --instance-type t2.micro \
    --key-name MyKeyPair \
    --subnet-id subnet-6e7f829e \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=cost-center,Value=cc123}]' 'ResourceType=volume,Tags=[{Key=cost-center,Value=cc123}]'

Example: Create a volume and apply a tag

The following create-volume command creates a volume and applies two tags: purpose=production and cost-center=cc123.


aws ec2 create-volume \
    --availability-zone us-east-1a \
    --volume-type gp2 \
    --size 80 \
    --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=volume,Tags=[{Key=purpose,Value=production},{Key=cost-center,Value=cc123}]'

Add tags to an existing resource

The following examples demonstrate how to add tags to an existing resource using the create-tags command.

Example: Add a tag to a resource

The following command adds the tag Stack=production to the specified image, or overwrites an existing tag for the AMI where the tag key is Stack. If the command succeeds, no output is returned.


aws ec2 create-tags \
    --resources ami-78a54011 \
    --tags Key=Stack,Value=production

Example: Add tags to multiple resources

This example adds (or overwrites) two tags for an AMI and an instance. One of the tags contains just a key (webserver), with no value (we set the value to an empty string). The other tag consists of a key (stack) and value (Production). If the command succeeds, no output is returned.


aws ec2 create-tags \
    --resources ami-1a2b3c4d i-1234567890abcdef0 \
    --tags Key=webserver,Value=  Key=stack,Value=Production

Example: Add tags with special characters

This example adds the tag [Group]=test to an instance. The square brackets ([ and ]) are special characters, which must be escaped.

If you are using Linux or OS X, to escape the special characters, enclose the element with the special character with double quotes ("), and then enclose the entire key and value structure with single quotes (').


aws ec2 create-tags \
    --resources i-1234567890abcdef0 \
    --tags 'Key="[Group]",Value=test'

If you are using Windows, to escape the special characters, enclose the element that has special characters with double quotes ("), and then precede each double quote character with a backslash (\) as follows:


aws ec2 create-tags ^
    --resources i-1234567890abcdef0 ^
    --tags Key=\"[Group]\",Value=test

If you are using Windows PowerShell, to escape the special characters, enclose the value that has special characters with double quotes ("), precede each double quote character with a backslash (\), and then enclose the entire key and value structure with single quotes (') as follows:


aws ec2 create-tags `
    --resources i-1234567890abcdef0 `
    --tags 'Key=\"[Group]\",Value=test'

Describe tagged resources

The following examples show you how to use filters with the describe-instances to view instances with specific tags. All EC2 describe commands use this syntax to filter by tag across a single resource type. Alternatively, you can use the describe-tags command to filter by tag across EC2 resource types.

Example: Describe instances with the specified tag key

The following command describes the instances with a Stack tag, regardless of the value of the tag.


aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --filters Name=tag-key,Values=Stack

Example: Describe instances with the specified tag

The following command describes the instances with the tag Stack=production.


aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --filters Name=tag:Stack,Values=production

Example: Describe instances with the specified tag value

The following command describes the instances with a tag with the value production, regardless of the tag key.


aws ec2 describe-instances \
    --filters Name=tag-value,Values=production

Example: Describe all EC2 resources with the specified tag

The following command describes all EC2 resources with the tag Stack=Test.


aws ec2 describe-tags \
    --filters Name=key,Values=Stack Name=value,Values=Test

Work with instance tags in instance metadata

You can access an instance's tags from the instance metadata. By accessing tags from the instance metadata, you no longer need to use the DescribeInstances or DescribeTags API calls to retrieve tag information, which reduces your API transactions per second, and lets your tag retrievals scale with the number of instances that you control. Furthermore, local processes that are running on an instance can view the instance's tag information directly from the instance metadata.

By default, tags are not available from the instance metadata; you must explicitly allow access. You can allow access at instance launch, or after launch on a running or stopped instance. You can also allow access to tags by specifying this in a launch template. Instances that are launched by using the template allow access to tags in the instance metadata.

If you add or remove an instance tag, the instance metadata is updated while the instance is running for instances built on the Nitro System, without needing to stop and then start the instance. For all other instances, to update the tags in the instance metadata, you must stop and then start the instance.

Topics

Allow access to tags in instance metadata
Turn off access to tags in instance metadata
Retrieve tags from instance metadata

Allow access to tags in instance metadata

By default, there is no access to instance tags in the instance metadata. For each instance, you must explicitly allow access by using one of the following methods.

To allow access to tags in instance metadata using the console

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
In the left navigation pane, choose Instances.
Select an instance, and then choose Actions, Instance settings, Allow tags in instance metadata.
To allow access to tags in instance metadata, select the Allow check box.
Choose Save.

To allow access to tags in instance metadata at launch using the AWS CLI

Use the run-instances command and set InstanceMetadataTags to enabled.


aws ec2 run-instances \
    --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 \
    --instance-type c3.large \
    ...
    --metadata-options "InstanceMetadataTags=enabled"

To allow access to tags in instance metadata on a running or stopped instance using the AWS CLI

Use the modify-instance-metadata-options command and set --instance-metadata-tags to enabled.


aws ec2 modify-instance-metadata-options \
    --instance-id i-123456789example \
    --instance-metadata-tags enabled

Turn off access to tags in instance metadata

To turn off access to instance tags in the instance metadata, use one of the following methods. You don't need to turn off access to instance tags on instance metadata at launch because it's turned off by default.

To turn off access to tags in instance metadata using the console

Open the Amazon EC2 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/.
In the left navigation pane, choose Instances.
Select an instance, and then choose Actions, Instance settings, Allow tags in instance metadata.
To turn off access to tags in instance metadata, clear the Allow check box.
Choose Save.

To turn off access to tags in instance metadata using the AWS CLI

Use the modify-instance-metadata-options command and set --instance-metadata-tags to disabled.


aws ec2 modify-instance-metadata-options \
    --instance-id i-123456789example \
    --instance-metadata-tags disabled

Retrieve tags from instance metadata

If instance tags are allowed in the instance metadata, the tags/instance category is accessible from the instance metadata. For examples on how to retrieve tags from the instance metadata, see Get the instance tags for an instance.

Add tags to a resource using CloudFormation

With Amazon EC2 resource types, you specify tags using either a Tags or TagSpecifications property.

The following examples add the tag Stack=Production to AWS::EC2::Instance using its Tags property.

Example: Tags in YAML


Tags:
  - Key: "Stack"
    Value: "Production"

Example: Tags in JSON


"Tags": [
    {
        "Key": "Stack",
        "Value": "Production"
    }
]

The following examples add the tag Stack=Production to AWS::EC2::LaunchTemplate LaunchTemplateData using its TagSpecifications property.

Example: TagSpecifications in YAML


TagSpecifications:
  - ResourceType: "instance"
    Tags:
    - Key: "Stack"
      Value: "Production"

Example: TagSpecifications in JSON


"TagSpecifications": [
    {
        "ResourceType": "instance",
        "Tags": [
            {
                "Key": "Stack",
                "Value": "Production"
            }
        ]
    }
]

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Document Conventions

List and filter your resources

Service quotas