# Welcome
<a name="Welcome"></a>

 AWS provides AWS Security Token Service (AWS STS) as a web service that enables you to request temporary, limited-privilege credentials for users. This guide describes the AWS STS API. For more information, see [Temporary Security Credentials](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.

**Note**  
As an alternative to using the API, you can use one of the AWS SDKs, which consist of libraries and sample code for various programming languages and platforms such as Java, Ruby, .NET, iOS, Android, and others. The SDKs provide a convenient way to create programmatic access to AWS STS. For example, the SDKs can cryptographically sign requests, manage errors, and retry requests automatically. For information about the AWS SDKs, see [Tools to Build on AWS](http://aws.amazon.com/tools/).

For information about setting up signatures and authorization through the API, see [Signing AWS API Requests](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/signing_aws_api_requests.html) in the * AWS General Reference*. For general information about the Query API, see [Making Query Requests](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/IAM_UsingQueryAPI.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. For information about using security tokens with other AWS products, see [AWS Services That Work with IAM](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_aws-services-that-work-with-iam.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.

For information about AWS STS endpoints, see [AWS STS Regions and endpoints](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp_region-endpoints.html) in the *IAM User Guide*. For information about logging AWS STS API calls, see [Logging IAM and AWS STS API calls with AWS CloudTrail](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/cloudtrail-integration.html) in the *IAM User Guide*.

This document was last published on April 21, 2026.