Step 1: Set Up an AWS Account and Create an IAM User - Amazon Textract
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Step 1: Set Up an AWS Account and Create an IAM User

Before you use Amazon Textract for the first time, complete the following tasks:

  1. Sign Up for AWS.

  2. Create an IAM User.

Sign Up for AWS

When you sign up for Amazon Web Services (AWS), your AWS account is automatically signed up for all released services in AWS. You're charged only for the services that you use.

With Amazon Textract, you pay only for the resources you use. For more information about Amazon Textract usage rates, see Amazon Textract pricing. If you're a new AWS customer, you can get started with Amazon Textract for free. For more information, see AWS Free Usage Tier.

If you already have an AWS account, skip to the next task. If you don't have an AWS account, perform the steps in the following procedure to create one.

To create an AWS account

  1. Open https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup.

  2. Follow the online instructions.

    Part of the sign-up procedure involves receiving a phone call and entering a verification code on the phone keypad.

Note your AWS account ID because you'll need it for the next task.

Create an IAM User

Services in AWS, such as Amazon Textract, require that you provide credentials when you access them. This is so that the service can determine whether you have permissions to access the resources owned by that service. The console requires your password. You can create access keys for your AWS account to access the AWS CLI or API. However, we don't recommend that you access AWS by using the credentials for your AWS account. Instead, we recommend that you:

  • Use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to create an IAM user.

  • Add the user to an IAM group with administrative permissions.

You can then access AWS by using a special URL and that IAM user's credentials.

If you signed up for AWS, but you haven't created an IAM user for yourself, you can create one by using the IAM console. Follow the procedure to create an IAM user in your account.

To create an IAM user and sign in to the console

  1. Create an IAM user with administrator permissions in your AWS account. For instructions, see Creating Your First IAM User and Administrators Group in the IAM User Guide.

  2. As the IAM user, sign in to the AWS Management Console by using a special URL. For more information, see How Users Sign In to Your Account in the IAM User Guide.

Note

An IAM user with administrator permissions has unrestricted access to the AWS services in your account. The code examples in this guide assume that you have a user with the AmazonTextractFullAccess permissions. AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess is required for examples that access documents that are stored in an Amazon S3 bucket. Depending on your security requirements, you might want to use an IAM group that's limited to these permissions. For more information, see Creating IAM Groups.

For more information about IAM, see the following:

Next Step

Step 2: Set Up the AWS CLI and AWS SDKs