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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Optional: Separate Region for Fast Model

export ANTHROPIC_SMALL_FAST_MODEL_AWS_REGION=us-west-2

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.