Account linking FAQ

The exact timing IAM is not yet determined, but we'll share information in the coming months. In the meantime, use the guidance above to identify and link to an appropriate AWS account before November 15th, 2025, when the APN fee policy change goes into effect.

To enhance user management capabilities, and eliminate the constraints of static permission sets and user role limits. Partners will no longer face restrictions such as having only one alliance lead or a maximum of 20 ACE users. Instead, they can assign user permissions based on their specific organizational needs and preferences, enabling precise role-based access control.

IAM integration also provides advanced security features, including enterprise single sign-on (SSO). This allows partners to connect their existing identity provider with Partner Central, creating a seamless SSO experience for their users.

You'll use IAM roles and policies to control access, authentication, and user permissions for Partner Central. To prepare for this change, you must link an appropriate AWS account to your APN account, and identify an IAM Administrator to manage users and permissions.

Alliance teams must directly engage with their IAM administrator. The administrator must complete the account linking process, establish IAM policies for users, and manage user IAM permissions over time. Partners should identify and involve these new personas to complete account linking and familiarize them with Partner Central.

The IAM administrator is the person who provides the alliance lead with the AWS account credentials, including the 12-digit AWS account ID. IAM administrators typically sit in IT security or information security departments, and sometimes in dedicated IAM teams or governance and compliance organizations. Typically, IAM administrators implement IAM policies, configure single sign-on solutions, handle compliance reviews, and maintain role-based access control structures.

You can unlink an AWS account, but doing so creates data persistence issues and requires manual reconciliation efforts. For more information about unlinking AWS accounts, refer to Unlinking AWS Partner Central and AWS accounts earlier in this guide.

You need a Paid account plan in order to link to your AWS account. Starting November 15, 2025, you won't be able to update your APN membership without a linked account. If you sell software or services on AWS Marketplace you also need a paid account to pay for the AWS services that you use.

You can create a paid account for free, and upgrade other accounts to the Paid account plan for free. For more information, refer to Choosing an AWS Free Tier plan in the AWS Billing User Guide.

For information about the Partner Network fee requirements, refer to Important Update: APN Fee Requirement Change for 2025.

Coordinate with your IAM administrator to identify the team responsible for account approval and provisioning. For instructions on setting up an AWS account, refer to Create an AWS account in the AWS Account Management Reference Guide. Be sure to select the Paid account plan.

Your IAM administrator should know the team responsible for account approval and provisioning. For information about setting up a new AWS account, refer to Create an AWS account in the AWS Account Management Reference Guide. During that process, be sure to select the Paid account plan. For more information about account plans, refer to Choosing an AWS Free Tier plan in the AWS Billing User Guide.

You use AWS managed policies for the account linking prerequisites. By default, account linking uses AWS managed policies to assign IAM roles during account linking. However, IT admins can use custom AWS Marketplace policies to assign IAM roles to AWS Partner Central users such as an ACE team. The roles enable users to link ACE opportunities with AWS Marketplace private offers. For more information, refer to Using custom policies to map users later in this guide.

The links in the following list take you to the AWS Managed Policy Reference.

For more information about the AWS Partner Central managed policies, refer to AWS managed policies for AWS Partner Central users later in this guide.

For more information about the AWS Marketplace managed policy, refer to AWS managed policies for AWS Marketplace sellers in the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.

For more information about the custom AWS Marketplace policies, refer to Policies and permissions for AWS Marketplace sellers in the AWS Marketplace Seller Guide.

You must have the alliance lead or cloud admin role, not the privileges.

Follow the steps in Unlinking AWS Partner Central and AWS accounts earlier in this guide.

If you unlink and re-link to a different AWS Marketplace seller or AWS account, linked objects disappear. If a partner re-links to the same AWS Marketplace seller or AWS account, linked objects remain.

Alliance leads use AWS Partner Central User Management to assign IAM roles to AWS Partner Central users and grant them access to a linked account. They can also remove the mapped roles to remove access a linked account.

In addition, each standard IAM role created during account linking comes with limited permissions. For more information about them, refer to Understanding the role permissions earlier in this guide.

You use that option to bulk assign IAM roles to the Alliance, Cloud Admin, and ACE teams. The linking process creates the roles. Partners can use the IAM console to delete unwanted roles.

For more information, refer to Updated Account Linking User Guide in AWS Partner Central.

Ensure you submitted an accurate account name. The AWS ID you select may already be in use, and it cannot be shared by multiple parties, especially if your company is merging. For guidance on what to during a merger, refer to:

The messages appear for the following reasons:

Yes, but you must link accounts first. You use AWS Partner Central to associate AWS Marketplace private offers with ACE opportunities. You use Partner Connections to associate Channel Partner private offers with ACE opportunities. Both methods require account linking before you can use them. For more information, refer to Partner Connections in the AWS Partner Central Sales Guide.