---
title: "AWS metrics scrape jobs | Grafana Labs"
description: "Collect AWS CloudWatch metrics using scrape jobs."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# AWS metrics: scrape jobs

[![AWS scrape jobs architecture: Grafana Cloud pulls metrics from CloudWatch API](cp-olly-aws-scrape-jobs-light.svg)](cp-olly-aws-scrape-jobs-light.svg "AWS scrape jobs architecture: Grafana Cloud pulls metrics from CloudWatch API")

**Complexity:** Simple | **Infrastructure:** None | **Latency:** 5 min default

Create an IAM role that Grafana Cloud assumes; you don’t hand over access keys. Choose which regions and CloudWatch namespaces to scrape, such as EC2, RDS, or Lambda. Each listed service includes a default set of metrics. A custom namespace is not in that list: you add the namespace and enter its metrics. Grafana Cloud queries the CloudWatch API on a schedule, pulls the metrics in, and converts them to Prometheus format so you can query them with PromQL.

## Considerations

- Configured entirely in the Grafana Cloud UI, with no AWS infrastructure to deploy
- 60+ AWS services supported
- Metrics in Prometheus format for PromQL
- Default scrape interval of 5 minutes (configurable)
- CloudWatch API cost and rate limits at scale
- IAM setup for cross-account access
- Resources must be tagged; scrape jobs export only tagged resources
- A scrape job has a resource limit per service across regions. Split the job by region, or ask Grafana support to raise the limit
- Metrics for a deleted resource can keep appearing for about three hours. Remove its tags before you delete it

## When to use

- Quick start and evaluation
- Proof-of-concept setups
- Small environments with moderate metric volume

For ongoing production monitoring, use [metric streams](/docs/learning-hub/intro-to-cp-olly/01-cloud-metrics/07-aws-metrics-metric-streams/) instead.

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## Set it up

Open this path in your Grafana Cloud stack for a fully interactive experience, or read through it to understand the process first. You’ll need access to your AWS account with permissions to create IAM roles.

Learning path

#### Monitor AWS resources

Monitor AWS resources with Grafana Cloud Provider Observability by collecting Amazon CloudWatch metrics through pre-built dashboards.

14 min

Beginner

Docs & blog posts

#### Open in Grafana Cloud

Complete this learning path directly in your Grafana Cloud stack with an interactive learning experience.

[Open in Grafana Cloud]()

[View on website](/docs/learning-paths/monitor-aws-resources/)