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

 Amazon provides Amazon Security Token Service (Amazon STS) as a web service that enables you to request temporary, limited-privilege credentials for users. This guide describes the Amazon STS API. For more information, see [Temporary Security Credentials](https://docs.amazonaws.cn/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 Amazon 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 Amazon STS. For example, the SDKs can cryptographically sign requests, manage errors, and retry requests automatically. For information about the Amazon SDKs, see [Tools to Build on Amazon](http://www.amazonaws.cn/tools/).

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

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

This document was last published on May 4, 2026.