Determine your user type - AWS Sign-In

Determine your user type

How you sign in depends on what type of AWS user you are. You can manage an AWS account as a root user, an IAM user, a user in IAM Identity Center, or a federated identity. You can use an AWS Builder ID profile to access certain AWS services and tools. The different user types are listed below.

Root user

Also referred to as the account owner or account root user. As the root user, you have complete access to all AWS services and resources in your AWS account. When you first create an AWS account, you begin with a single sign-in identity that has complete access to all AWS services and resources in the account. This identity is the AWS account root user. You can sign in as the root user using the email address and password that you used to create the account. Root users sign in with the AWS Management Console. For step by step instructions on how to sign in, see Sign in to the AWS Management Console as the root user.

Important

When you create an AWS account, you begin with one sign-in identity that has complete access to all AWS services and resources in the account. This identity is called the AWS account root user and is accessed by signing in with the email address and password that you used to create the account. We strongly recommend that you don't use the root user for your everyday tasks. Safeguard your root user credentials and use them to perform the tasks that only the root user can perform. For the complete list of tasks that require you to sign in as the root user, see Tasks that require root user credentials in the IAM User Guide.

For more information about IAM identities including the root user, see IAM Identities (users, user groups, and roles).

IAM user

An IAM user is an entity you create in AWS. This user is an identity within your AWS account that's granted specific custom permissions. Your IAM user credentials consist of a name and password used to sign in to the AWS Management Console. For step by step instructions on how to sign in, see Sign in to the AWS Management Console as an IAM user.

For more information about IAM identities including the IAM user, see IAM Identities (users, user groups, and roles).

IAM Identity Center user

An IAM Identity Center user is a member of AWS Organizations and can be granted access to multiple AWS accounts and applications through the AWS access portal. If their company has integrated Active Directory or another identity provider with IAM Identity Center, users in IAM Identity Center can use their corporate credentials to sign-in. IAM Identity Center can also be an identity provider where an administrator can create users. Regardless of the identity provider, users in IAM Identity Center sign in using the AWS access portal, which is a specific sign-in URL for their organization. IAM Identity Center users can't sign in through the AWS Management Console URL.

Human users in IAM Identity Center can get the AWS access portal URL from either:

  • A message from their administrator or help desk employee

  • An email from AWS with an invitation to join IAM Identity Center

Tip

All emails sent by the IAM Identity Center service originate from either the address no-reply@signin.aws or no-reply@login.awsapps.com. We recommend that you configure your email system so that it accepts emails from these sender email addresses and doesn't handle them as junk or spam.

For step by step instructions on how to sign in, see Sign in to the AWS access portal.

Note

We recommend you bookmark your organization's specific sign-in URL for the AWS access portal so that you can access it later.

For more information about IAM Identity Center, see What is IAM Identity Center?

Federated identity

A federated identity is a user who can sign in using a well-known external identity provider (IdP), such as Login with Amazon, Facebook, Google, or any other OpenID Connect (OIDC)-compatible IdP. With web identity federation, you can receive an authentication token, and then exchange that token for temporary security credentials in AWS that map to an IAM role with permissions to use the resources in your AWS account. You don't sign in with the AWS Management Console or AWS access portal. Instead, the external identity in use determines how you sign in.

For more information, see Sign in as a federated identity.

AWS Builder ID user

As an AWS Builder ID user, you specifically sign in to the AWS service or tool that you want to access. An AWS Builder ID user complements any AWS account you already have or want to create. An AWS Builder ID represents you as a person, and you can use it to access AWS services and tools without an AWS account. You also have a profile where you can see and update your information. For more information, see Sign in with AWS Builder ID.

AWS Builder ID is separate from your AWS Skill Builder subscription, an online learning center where you can learn from AWS experts and build cloud skills online. For more information about AWS Skill Builder, see AWS Skill Builder.