AWS IAM Access Analyzer

Overview

AWS IAM Access Analyzer is an AWS service for examining permissions and moving workloads toward least privilege. It suits security and compliance teams responsible for AWS access controls; its strongest case is a set of focused analysis and policy tools, with some capabilities available at no additional charge.

Key features

Access findings and monitoring

Access Analyzer identifies external, internal, and unused access. Its external analyzer continuously watches for new or updated resource permissions that allow public or cross-account access, making it useful for ongoing exposure monitoring rather than occasional manual review. Internal findings identify users and roles with access to S3, DynamoDB, or RDS; that defined resource coverage is useful, but does not amount to a view of every internal AWS resource.

Unused-access findings cover roles, IAM user access keys and passwords, and unused services and actions. Last-accessed information for services and actions from select AWS services adds context when teams are deciding what permissions may no longer be necessary. Unused-access analysis is charged per IAM role or user, so its cost grows with the identities analyzed.

Policy generation and validation

Policy generation uses access activity captured in AWS CloudTrail logs to create fine-grained IAM policies. That can help teams replace broader permissions with policies grounded in observed activity, though it depends on having relevant activity in those logs. Policy validation flags security errors and warnings, general warnings, and IAM best-practice suggestions before policies are used.

Custom policy checks can run through the APIs and fit into CI/CD pipelines, letting teams review policies before deployment. They are billed per API call, so frequent automated checks have a direct usage cost. Automated reasoning applies mathematical logic to assess AWS permissions, a focused way to evaluate access rather than a general identity-management feature.

Integrations and identity controls

Findings can feed AWS Security Hub CSPM and Amazon EventBridge for analysis and notification workflows. Access Analyzer supports policy simulation. Its SaaS deployment and AWS-only cloud support make it a natural fit for AWS environments, not a cross-cloud permissions console.

Pricing

The free plan includes IAM policy validation, policy generation, and external access analysis at no additional charge. These capabilities cover core policy review and public or cross-account findings without a per-seat fee in the stated pricing.

• IAM policy validation: 0.00 USD per free; provided at no additional charge and validates policies against IAM best practices.
• Policy generation: 0.00 USD per free; provided at no additional charge and generates policies from logged access activity.
• External access analyzer: 0.00 USD per free; public and cross-account access findings for AWS resources.
• Custom policy checks: 0.00 USD per month, billed at $0.0020 per API call. The monthly figure is not the full cost when checks are run.
• Unused access analyzer: 0.20 USD per month, billed at $0.20 per IAM role or IAM user per month. One analyzer can cover all Regions in a partition because IAM roles and users are global.
• Internal access analyzer: 9.00 USD per month, billed at $9.00 per resource monitored per Region per month. This is aimed at monitoring business-critical AWS resources within an AWS organization, and costs scale with both resources and Regions.

The paid analysis options are usage-based rather than seat-based. Teams that need only validation, generation, or external findings can stay with the no-additional-charge capabilities; broad internal monitoring or checks run frequently through APIs introduce ongoing usage costs.

Platforms

Access Analyzer is a SaaS service for AWS. It is also listed for web, API, Android, and iOS platforms, but its supported cloud is AWS. It supports SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OIDC, along with FIDO2 authenticators, virtual authenticator apps, and RADIUS MFA. Directory sync and lifecycle provisioning are supported; adaptive access policies and adaptive access are not.

Who it's for

Security teams reviewing and refining AWS permissions are the clearest fit, particularly when they need ongoing exposure findings, policy checks, or a path from observed CloudTrail activity to tighter policies. Compliance teams can use its access-control findings to support audit requirements. Organizations seeking broad identity management, adaptive access, or analysis across clouds should look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pro: External findings are provided at no additional charge and continuously monitor public and cross-account access changes.
• Pro: Policy generation and validation cover both refinement and review, with no additional charge for those capabilities.
• Pro: Custom checks can be incorporated into CI/CD, and findings can flow into Security Hub CSPM and EventBridge.
• Con: Internal analysis costs $9.00 per resource monitored per Region per month, which can add up for broad, multi-Region coverage.
• Con: Custom checks cost $0.0020 per API call, so high-volume pipeline use carries recurring usage charges.
• Con: Internal findings cover S3, DynamoDB, and RDS, and the service supports AWS only; it is not a general-purpose or cross-cloud access analyzer.

Alternatives

For a broader identity product rather than AWS permission analysis, compare the Identity and Access Management Software category and the Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management Software category. Teams evaluating sign-on capabilities can also browse Single Sign-On Software.

• Descope is a freemium option with open-source SDKs and a free plan that includes 7,500 MAUs, 10 monthly active tenants, and 3 SSO connections; consider it when those identity-building capabilities are the priority.
• FusionAuth offers a free, self-hosted Community plan with unlimited use and core authentication features; choose it when self-hosting authentication is a better fit than AWS permission analysis.
• miniOrange Identity and Access Management has a freemium model, a free trial, and a free Customer IAM plan with 2–3 social logins; it is an option for customer identity use cases.
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Secret Management has a free plan with limits of 5,000 secrets per tenancy and 30 active secret versions per secret; consider it for secret management within OCI.
• Amazon Cognito uses pay-as-you-go pricing based on monthly active users, with 10,000 MAUs free monthly for eligible direct or social sign-ins; it fits teams looking for AWS customer sign-in rather than permission analysis.
• Frontegg has a free Pay as you go plan with 7,500 monthly active users, five enterprise connections, unlimited organizations, and a custom domain; consider it when those application identity capabilities match the need.
• Google Cloud Identity offers a Premium annual or fixed-term plan at 6.00 USD per month, with enterprise security features and automated user provisioning; it is an option for teams evaluating Google identity services.
• Saviynt Enterprise Identity Cloud offers Essentials and Pro plans with custom pricing; consider it when evaluating identity governance and administration.

Verdict

Choose AWS IAM Access Analyzer if your team needs to see and refine permissions in AWS, especially public or cross-account exposure, and wants useful policy validation and generation without additional charge. Its focused scope and paid per-resource internal analysis are the main reasons to look elsewhere if you need broad identity management, cross-cloud coverage, or expansive internal monitoring.