How to Use Claude Code with AWS Bedrock

This guide shows how to run Claude Code using Anthropic models hosted on Amazon Bedrock, instead of Anthropic’s direct API.

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Overview

Claude Code supports Amazon Bedrock as a backend. When enabled, it:

• Uses AWS credentials instead of an Anthropic API key
• Calls Bedrock’s InvokeModel / Inference Profiles
• Works with Claude Sonnet, Haiku, etc. available in your AWS Region

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Prerequisites

1. AWS Account with Bedrock Enabled

• Ensure Amazon Bedrock is enabled in your AWS account
• Enable Anthropic models in the Bedrock console

👉 AWS Bedrock Console
https://console.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/

Important: The first time you use Anthropic models, AWS requires you to submit a use-case form in the Bedrock playground.

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2. Install Claude Code

Follow the official Claude Code installation guide:

👉 Claude Code Docs
https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code

Verify installation:

claude --version

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3. AWS Credentials

Claude Code uses the standard AWS SDK credential chain.

Supported options:

• aws configure (access keys)
• AWS SSO
• Environment variables
• EC2 / ECS / EKS IAM roles

Example: AWS CLI credentials

aws configure

Example: AWS SSO

aws sso login --profile my-profile
export AWS_PROFILE=my-profile

👉 AWS Credentials Documentation
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/cli-configure-files.html

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Enable Bedrock in Claude Code

Set the following environment variables before running Claude Code.

Required

export CLAUDE_CODE_USE_BEDROCK=1
export AWS_REGION=us-east-1

⚠️ AWS_REGION must be set explicitly, even if your AWS config file has a default region.

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Optional: Separate Region for Fast Model

export ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL_AWS_REGION=us-west-2

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Choose Claude Models (Optional)

Claude Code provides defaults, but you can override them.

Example model overrides

export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="global.anthropic.claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929-v1:0"
export ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL="us.anthropic.claude-haiku-4-5-20251001-v1:0"

Using an inference profile

You can also set an inference profile ARN:

export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="arn:aws:bedrock:us-east-1:123456789012:inference-profile/my-profile"

👉 Bedrock Inference Profiles
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/inference-profiles.html

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Recommended Token Settings

Anthropic recommends these settings for Claude Code on Bedrock:

export CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS=4096
export MAX_THINKING_TOKENS=1024

To disable prompt caching:

export DISABLE_PROMPT_CACHING=1

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Run Claude Code

Once everything is set:

claude

Authentication is handled entirely by AWS credentials.

/login and /logout commands are not used when running via Bedrock.

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IAM Permissions

Your IAM user or role needs (at minimum):

{
  "Effect": "Allow",
  "Action": [
    "bedrock:InvokeModel",
    "bedrock:InvokeModelWithResponseStream",
    "bedrock:ListInferenceProfiles"
  ],
  "Resource": "*"
}

👉 Bedrock IAM Permissions
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/security-iam.html

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Troubleshooting

List available models / inference profiles

aws bedrock list-inference-profiles --region us-east-1

Common issues

Issue	Fix
Model not found	Use a Region where the model is available
On-demand throughput error	Use an inference profile
Auth errors	Verify AWS credentials and IAM permissions
/login doesn’t work	Expected when using Bedrock

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Useful Links

• Claude Code Documentation
  https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code
• Amazon Bedrock Documentation
  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/
• Anthropic Models on Bedrock
  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/bedrock/latest/userguide/model-ids-arns.html

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Summary

Using Claude Code with AWS Bedrock lets you:

• Avoid direct API keys
• Centralize billing and security in AWS
• Use IAM, SSO, and inference profiles

Once the environment variables are set, Claude Code works exactly the same—just backed by Bedrock.