CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess

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Summary

Grants permissions to call CloudWatch using API key authentication.

Permissions imported from the AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide; other sections pending editorial review.

Identity

ARN: arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess
Default version: v3
Created: 2026-05-08
Last edited: 2026-11-03
Services: cloudwatch, kms

Control-plane actions (3)

By access level: 3 Write.

Control-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
CloudWatch	2 of 160	2 Write; 1 restricted, 0 conditional	cloudwatch:CallWithBearerToken, cloudwatch:PutProfileRecords
KMS	1 of 58	1 Write; 1 restricted, 1 conditional	kms:Decrypt

CloudWatch: 2 actions

cloudwatch:CallWithBearerToken (Write)
cloudwatch:PutProfileRecords (Write)

KMS: 1 actions

kms:Decrypt (Write)

Data-plane actions (1)

By access level: 1 Write.

Data-plane actions by service
Service	Granted	Access levels and limits	Granted by
CloudWatch	1 of 5	1 Write; 0 restricted, 0 conditional	cloudwatch:PutMetricData

CloudWatch: 1 actions

cloudwatch:PutMetricData (Write)

Excluded and conditional actions

No patterns are excluded by NotAction or Deny statements.

Resource scope and attachment

Resource scope across granted actions: mixed.

Can be attached: Yes, to users, groups and roles.

Why this tier

Grants 4 write, tagging or permissions-management actions, short of full control of any service.

Guidance

Pending editorial review. The permission data on this page comes straight from AWS; this section will be filled in once a reviewed guide exists.

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

Pending editorial review. The permission data on this page comes straight from AWS; this section will be filled in once a reviewed guide exists.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchMetricsAPIs",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:CallWithBearerToken",
        "cloudwatch:PutMetricData"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchProfilesAPIs",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:PutProfileRecords"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:cloudwatch:*:*:dataset/*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "KMSDecryptForCMKDatasets",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kms:Decrypt"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:kms:*:*:key/*",
      "Condition": {
        "StringLike": {
          "kms:ViaService": "cloudwatch.*.amazonaws.com",
          "kms:EncryptionContext:aws:cloudwatch:arn": "arn:aws:cloudwatch:*:*:dataset/*"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v3, edited by AWS on 2026-11-03. Version history is recorded from 2026-11-11. Earlier versions are in the IAM console under Policy versions.

Attach snippets

AWS CLI

aws iam attach-role-policy --role-name ROLE_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess

CloudFormation

Resources:
  ExampleRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument: {}  # replace with your trust policy
      ManagedPolicyArns:
        - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess

Terraform

resource "aws_iam_role_policy_attachment" "cloudwatchapikeyaccess" {
  role       = aws_iam_role.example.name
  policy_arn = "arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess"
}

CDK (TypeScript)

role.addManagedPolicy(
  iam.ManagedPolicy.fromAwsManagedPolicyName("CloudWatchAPIKeyAccess"),
);

Sources

Pending editorial review. No editorial sources are listed yet.