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IAM Policy Map

CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess

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Summary

Provides read only access to CloudWatch Logs. The Amazon CloudWatch Logs User Guide says it includes cloudwatch:GenerateQuery and cloudwatch:GenerateQueryResultsSummary, so users can generate a CloudWatch Logs Insights query string from a natural language prompt.

Permissions imported from the AWS Managed Policy Reference Guide; other sections reviewed against the listed AWS sources.

Identity

ARN
arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess
Default version
v12
Created
Last edited
Services
cloudwatch, logs, observabilityadmin

Control-plane actions (62)

By access level: 35 List, 27 Read.

Control-plane actions by service
ServiceGrantedAccess levels and limitsGranted by
CloudWatch2 of 1602 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalcloudwatch:GenerateQuery, cloudwatch:GenerateQueryResultsSummary
CloudWatch Logs57 of 13333 List, 24 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditionallogs:Describe*, logs:FilterLogEvents, logs:Get*, logs:List*, logs:StartLiveTail, logs:StartQuery, logs:StopLiveTail, logs:StopQuery, logs:TestMetricFilter
CloudWatch Observability Admin3 of 452 List, 1 Read; 0 restricted, 0 conditionalobservabilityadmin:GetS3TableIntegration, observabilityadmin:ListS3TableIntegrations, observabilityadmin:ListTelemetryPipelines
CloudWatch: 2 actions
  • cloudwatch:GenerateQuery (Read)
  • cloudwatch:GenerateQueryResultsSummary (Read)
CloudWatch Logs: 57 actions
  • logs:DescribeAccountPolicies (List)
  • logs:DescribeConfigurationTemplates (List)
  • logs:DescribeDeliveries (List)
  • logs:DescribeDeliveryDestinations (List)
  • logs:DescribeDeliverySources (List)
  • logs:DescribeDestinations (List)
  • logs:DescribeExportTasks (List)
  • logs:DescribeFieldIndexes (List)
  • logs:DescribeImportTaskBatches (List)
  • logs:DescribeImportTasks (List)
  • logs:DescribeIndexPolicies (List)
  • logs:DescribeLogGroups (List)
  • logs:DescribeLogStreams (List)
  • logs:DescribeLookupTables (List)
  • logs:DescribeMetricFilters (List)
  • logs:DescribeQueries (List)
  • logs:DescribeQueryDefinitions (List)
  • logs:DescribeResourcePolicies (List)
  • logs:DescribeSubscriptionFilters (List)
  • logs:FilterLogEvents (Read)
  • logs:GetDataProtectionPolicy (Read)
  • logs:GetDelivery (Read)
  • logs:GetDeliveryDestination (Read)
  • logs:GetDeliveryDestinationPolicy (Read)
  • logs:GetDeliverySource (Read)
  • logs:GetIntegration (Read)
  • logs:GetLogAnomalyDetector (Read)
  • logs:GetLogDelivery (Read)
  • logs:GetLogEvents (Read)
  • logs:GetLogFields (Read)
  • logs:GetLogGroupFields (Read)
  • logs:GetLogRecord (Read)
  • logs:GetLookupTable (Read)
  • logs:GetQueryResults (Read)
  • logs:GetScheduledQuery (Read)
  • logs:GetScheduledQueryHistory (Read)
  • logs:GetStorageTierPolicy (Read)
  • logs:GetTransformer (Read)
  • logs:ListAggregateLogGroupSummaries (List)
  • logs:ListAnomalies (List)
  • logs:ListEntitiesForLogGroup (List)
  • logs:ListIntegrations (List)
  • logs:ListLogAnomalyDetectors (List)
  • logs:ListLogDeliveries (List)
  • logs:ListLogGroups (List)
  • logs:ListLogGroupsForEntity (List)
  • logs:ListLogGroupsForQuery (List)
  • logs:ListScheduledQueries (List)
  • logs:ListSourcesForS3TableIntegration (List)
  • logs:ListSyslogConfigurations (List)
  • logs:ListTagsForResource (List)
  • logs:ListTagsLogGroup (List)
  • logs:StartLiveTail (Read)
  • logs:StartQuery (Read)
  • logs:StopLiveTail (Read)
  • logs:StopQuery (Read)
  • logs:TestMetricFilter (Read)
CloudWatch Observability Admin: 3 actions
  • observabilityadmin:GetS3TableIntegration (Read)
  • observabilityadmin:ListS3TableIntegrations (List)
  • observabilityadmin:ListTelemetryPipelines (List)

Data-plane actions (0)

By access level: none.

This policy grants no actions in this plane.

Excluded and conditional actions

No patterns are excluded by NotAction or Deny statements.

Resource scope and attachment

Resource scope across granted actions: all-resources.

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

Why this tier

  • Grants read access plus query or analysis actions that expose data.

Guidance

Practical scope

One statement, CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess, applies to Resource "*". It allows logs:Describe*, logs:Get*, logs:List*, logs:StartQuery, logs:StopQuery, logs:TestMetricFilter, logs:FilterLogEvents, logs:StartLiveTail and logs:StopLiveTail. It also allows cloudwatch:GenerateQuery, cloudwatch:GenerateQueryResultsSummary, observabilityadmin:ListS3TableIntegrations, observabilityadmin:GetS3TableIntegration and observabilityadmin:ListTelemetryPipelines.

Use cases

  • Let users view CloudWatch Logs, run Logs Insights queries and live tail sessions, and generate a query from a natural language prompt, without managing log groups.

Best practices

  • AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions. The IAM User Guide suggests using IAM Access Analyzer to see which permissions principals actually use, then writing a custom policy or generating one with only the required permissions.

Security considerations

  • The policy is described as read only, but it includes logs:StartQuery, logs:StopQuery, logs:StartLiveTail and logs:StopLiveTail, which start and stop queries and live tail sessions. It applies to Resource "*" and includes logs:Get* and logs:FilterLogEvents.
  • You cannot change the permissions in an AWS managed policy. If AWS updates the policy, the update affects every user, group and role it is attached to.

Assignment guidance

The CloudWatch Logs User Guide says you can attach its managed policies to users and roles in your account. The reference page says you can attach this policy to your users, groups and roles, and links to guidance on creating a permission set using AWS managed policies in IAM Identity Center.

Related policies

Same service

Same domain

Frequently asked questions

When should I attach CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess?
Attach it to users or roles that need read-only access to CloudWatch Logs, including running Logs Insights queries and live tail sessions. The CloudWatch Logs User Guide says it is a managed policy you can attach to users and roles in your account.
What does CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess grant?
On all resources it allows logs:Describe*, logs:Get*, logs:List*, logs:StartQuery, logs:StopQuery, logs:TestMetricFilter, logs:FilterLogEvents, logs:StartLiveTail and logs:StopLiveTail. It also allows two cloudwatch query generation actions and three observabilityadmin read actions.
What are the security risks of CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess?
It is read only in intent, but it starts and stops queries and live tail sessions and reads log events on all resources. AWS managed policies don't grant least privilege permissions, and an AWS update to the policy affects every identity it is attached to.

Policy JSON

Download policy.json

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:Describe*",
        "logs:Get*",
        "logs:List*",
        "logs:StartQuery",
        "logs:StopQuery",
        "logs:TestMetricFilter",
        "logs:FilterLogEvents",
        "logs:StartLiveTail",
        "logs:StopLiveTail",
        "cloudwatch:GenerateQuery",
        "cloudwatch:GenerateQueryResultsSummary",
        "observabilityadmin:ListS3TableIntegrations",
        "observabilityadmin:GetS3TableIntegration",
        "observabilityadmin:ListTelemetryPipelines"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Version history

Current version v12, edited by AWS on 2026-02-12. 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/CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-user-policy --user-name USER_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess
aws iam attach-group-policy --group-name GROUP_NAME --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/CloudWatchLogsReadOnlyAccess

CloudFormation

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

Terraform

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

CDK (TypeScript)

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

Sources