# Setting up Amazon SQS
<a name="sqs-setting-up"></a>

Before you can use Amazon SQS for the first time, you must complete the following steps:

## Step 1: Create an AWS account and IAM user
<a name="sqs-creating-aws-account"></a>

To access any AWS service, you first need to create an [AWS account](https://aws.amazon.com/), an Amazon.com account that can use AWS products. You can use your AWS account to view your activity and usage reports and to manage authentication and access.

To avoid using your AWS account root user for Amazon SQS actions, it is a best practice to create an IAM user for each person who needs administrative access to Amazon SQS.

### Sign up for an AWS account
<a name="sign-up-for-aws"></a>

To get started with AWS, you need an AWS account. For information about creating an AWS account, see [Getting started with an AWS account](https://docs.aws.amazon.com//accounts/latest/reference/getting-started.html) in the *AWS Account Management Reference Guide*.

## Step 2: Grant programmatic access
<a name="sqs-getting-access-key-id-secret-access-key"></a>

To use Amazon SQS actions (for example, using Java or through the AWS Command Line Interface), you need an access key ID and a secret access key.

**Note**  
The access key ID and secret access key are specific to AWS Identity and Access Management. Don't confuse them with credentials for other AWS services, such as Amazon EC2 key pairs.

Users need programmatic access if they want to interact with AWS outside of the AWS Management Console. The way to grant programmatic access depends on the type of user that's accessing AWS.

To grant users programmatic access, choose one of the following options.


****  

| Which user needs programmatic access? | To | By | 
| --- | --- | --- | 
| IAM | (Recommended) Use console credentials as temporary credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs. | Following the instructions for the interface that you want to use.[See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSSimpleQueueService/latest/SQSDeveloperGuide/sqs-setting-up.html) | 
| Workforce identity<br />(Users managed in IAM Identity Center) | Use temporary credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs. | Following the instructions for the interface that you want to use.[See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSSimpleQueueService/latest/SQSDeveloperGuide/sqs-setting-up.html) | 
| IAM | Use temporary credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs. | Following the instructions in [Using temporary credentials with AWS resources](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/id_credentials_temp_use-resources.html) in the IAM User Guide. | 
| IAM | (Not recommended)Use long-term credentials to sign programmatic requests to the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs, or AWS APIs. | Following the instructions for the interface that you want to use.[See the AWS documentation website for more details](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSSimpleQueueService/latest/SQSDeveloperGuide/sqs-setting-up.html) | 

## Step 3: Get ready to use the example code
<a name="sqs-get-ready-to-use-example-code"></a>

This guide includes examples that use the AWS SDK for Java. To run the example code, follow the set-up instructions in [Getting Started with AWS SDK for Java 2.0](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sdk-for-java/latest/developer-guide/). 

You can develop AWS applications in other programming languages, such as Go, JavaScript, Python and Ruby. For more information, see [Tools to Build on AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/developer/tools/#sdk).

**Note**  
You can explore Amazon SQS without writing code with tools such as the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) or Windows PowerShell. You can find AWS CLI examples in the [Amazon SQS section](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/sqs/index.html) of the *AWS CLI Command Reference*. You can find Windows PowerShell examples in the Amazon Simple Queue Service section of the *[AWS Tools for PowerShell Cmdlet Reference](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/powershell/latest/reference/)*.

## Next steps
<a name="sqs-next-steps-setting-up"></a>

You are now ready for [Getting started](sqs-getting-started.md) with managing Amazon SQS queues and messages using the AWS Management Console.