# Access to an AWS service
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Many AWS services require that you use roles to control what that service can access. A role that a service assumes to perform actions on your behalf is called a [service role](id_roles.md#iam-term-service-role). When a role serves a specialized purpose for a service, it can be categorized as a [service-linked role](id_roles.md#iam-term-service-linked-role). See the [AWS documentation](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/) for each service to see if it uses roles and to learn how to assign a role for the service to use.

For details about creating a role to delegate access to a service offered by AWS, see [Create a role to delegate permissions to an AWS service](id_roles_create_for-service.md).