Types of Amazon SES credentials

To interact with Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES), you use security credentials to verify who you are and whether you have permission to interact with Amazon SES. There are different types of credentials, and the credentials you use depend on what you want to do. For example, you use AWS access keys when you send an email using the Amazon SES API, and SMTP credentials when you send an email using the Amazon SES SMTP interface.

The following table lists the types of credentials you might use with Amazon SES, depending on what you are doing.

If you want to access the...	Use these credentials	What the credentials consist of	How to get the credentials
Amazon SES API (You might access the Amazon SES API directly, or indirectly through an AWS SDK, the AWS Command Line Interface, or the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell.)	AWS access keys	Access key ID and secret access key	See Access Keys in the AWS General Reference. Note For security best practice, use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user access keys instead of AWS account access keys. Your AWS account credentials grant full access to all your AWS resources, so you should store them in a safe place and instead use IAM user credentials for day-to-day interaction with AWS. For more information, see Root Account Credentials vs. IAM User Credentials in the AWS General Reference.
Amazon SES SMTP interface	SMTP credentials	User name and password	See Obtaining Amazon SES SMTP credentials. Note Although your Amazon SES SMTP credentials are different than your AWS access keys and IAM user access keys, Amazon SES SMTP credentials are actually a type of IAM credentials. An IAM user can create Amazon SES SMTP credentials, but the root account owner must ensure that the IAM user's policy gives them permission to access the following IAM actions: "iam:ListUsers", "iam:CreateUser", "iam:CreateAccessKey", and "iam:PutUserPolicy".
Amazon SES console	IAM user name and password OR Email address and password	IAM user name and password OR Email address and password	See IAM User Name and Password and Email Address and Password of the AWS General Reference. Note For security best practice, use an IAM user name and password instead of an email address and password. The email address and password combination are for your AWS account, so you should store them in a safe place instead of using them for day-to-day interaction with AWS. For more information, see Root Account Credentials vs. IAM User Credentials in the AWS General Reference.

For more information about different types of AWS security credentials (except for SMTP credentials, which are used only for Amazon SES), see AWS Security Credentials in the AWS General Reference.