Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) now support tag-on-create and tag-based access control

Amazon EC2 now allows you to add tags to your Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) and EBS Snapshots during AMI creation. Tags are simple key-value pairs that you can assign to resources to easily organize, search, and identify resources, create cost allocation reports, and control access to resources. You can define fine-grained access controls using tags and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies to control access to resources and actions.  

Previously, you had to tag AMIs after their creation, which required additional API calls and had the possibility of missing untagged AMIs when tag-based controls are used. Upon creation, you can now tag your AMIs and EBS snapshots through the CreateImage API or the console. By tagging resources at the time of creation, you can eliminate the need to run custom tagging scripts after resource creation.

This capability is available at no additional cost in all AWS Regions, except AWS GovCloud (US) and AWS China Regions. Click here to learn more about tagging. To learn more about how to tag AMIs during creation, please visit our documentation.