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    compareiam-identity-center-vs-iam-users
    IDENTITY & ACCESSPublished 2026-09-22
    AWS IAM Identity CenterAWS IAM Identity Center
    vs
    IAM UsersIAM Users

    IAM Identity Center vs IAM Users

    Both are free. One of them AWS itself recommends you stop using for people.

    IAM users were the original way to give a person access to AWS. IAM Identity Center is what AWS now recommends instead. Here is exactly why, and when a long-lived IAM user is still the right call.

    Service Overview

    AWS IAM Identity Center

    AWS IAM Identity Center

    Identity & Access Management

    Temporary, short-lived credentials issued per session, one identity across every account in the Organization

    TypeCentralized workforce SSO across an AWS Organization
    PricingNo additional charge
    IAM Users

    IAM Users

    Identity & Access Management

    Simple, works in a single account with no Organizations setup required

    TypeLong-lived credentials created directly in a single AWS account
    PricingNo additional charge

    Side-by-Side Comparison

    $ diff --side-by-side
    CriteriaIAM Identity CenterIAM Users
    Credential LifetimeShort-lived, temporary session credentialsLong-lived access keys and passwords until manually rotated or deleted
    ScopeOne identity, centrally managed, usable across every account in an AWS OrganizationScoped to a single AWS account by default
    AWS's Current Recommendation for PeopleYes, this is AWS's recommended approach for human/workforce accessNo, AWS recommends against long-lived IAM user credentials for human access where avoidable
    External Identity Provider IntegrationYes, connects to Okta, Entra ID, Google Workspace, and other SAML/SCIM providersNot natively, requires federation setup done separately
    Requires AWS OrganizationsYesNo, works in a standalone account
    Good Fit ForHuman users, especially across multiple accountsSpecific machine-to-machine or legacy use cases where a role or Identity Center login genuinely can't be used
    PricingNo additional chargeNo additional charge

    When to Use What

    $ cat DECISION_GUIDE.md
    IFYou're giving a person (employee, contractor) access to AWS
    THENIAM Identity Center
    WHYThis is exactly the case AWS built it for: centralized, short-lived credentials, one login across every account they need, and easy offboarding by removing one identity instead of hunting down IAM users across accounts.
    IFYou manage more than one AWS account
    THENIAM Identity Center
    WHYA single Identity Center identity can be granted access across every account in your Organization, instead of creating and managing a separate IAM user, and separate credentials, in each account individually.
    IFYou already use Okta, Entra ID, or another SSO provider company-wide
    THENIAM Identity Center
    WHYIt connects directly to your existing identity provider, so AWS access follows the same login and offboarding process as every other company system, instead of being a separate credential to manage.
    IFYou have a genuine machine-to-machine or legacy application that can't assume a role
    THENIAM user, as a last resort, scoped tightly
    WHYMost machine access should use an IAM role instead of a long-lived IAM user. Where a specific legacy tool truly can't use role-based temporary credentials, a tightly-scoped IAM user with access key rotation is the fallback, not the default.
    IFYou're auditing an existing account and find dozens of IAM users with console access
    THENMigrate to IAM Identity Center
    WHYLong-lived IAM users for human access are exactly the pattern AWS itself now recommends moving away from, and it's one of the most common findings in a real security assessment.

    Security Insights

    Long-lived credentials are a persistent, exportable liability

    An IAM user's access key doesn't expire on its own. If it leaks, in a public GitHub repo, a laptop breach, a misconfigured CI pipeline, it remains valid until someone notices and manually revokes it. Identity Center's short-lived session credentials shrink that exposure window dramatically by design.

    Offboarding is where IAM users quietly go wrong

    When someone leaves, disabling their IAM Identity Center identity once cuts off access everywhere. Disabling access for someone with individual IAM users scattered across several accounts requires remembering to find and act on every one of them, and it's a common gap a real audit finds.

    Both are genuinely free, this isn't a cost decision

    Neither option carries an AWS service charge on its own. The real tradeoff is operational and security posture, not budget, which makes the recommendation to prefer Identity Center for human access an easy call in almost every case.

    Key Takeaways

    $ cat SUMMARY.md
    1.For human access, AWS itself now recommends IAM Identity Center over creating individual IAM users.
    2.Identity Center gives one identity, short-lived credentials, and access across every account in an Organization.
    3.IAM users still have a place for specific machine access that genuinely can't assume a role, but that should be the exception, not the default.
    4.Both are free, this is a security and operational decision, not a cost one.
    IAMIdentity and Access ManagementMulti-AccountSSO

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