AWS Secrets Manager review

AWS Secrets Manager is the natural default for teams already on AWS. It charges $0.40 per secret per month and $0.05 per 10,000 API calls, and AWS's own pricing example puts 15 secrets with about 4,000 calls at $6.02 a month. Secrets are encrypted with keys you own in AWS KMS, and access is controlled with IAM and resource-based policies, so it fits existing AWS permission models. Rotation is built in for Amazon RDS, Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Redshift, plus listed SaaS providers such as Salesforce and Snowflake, and you can extend it to other services with sample Lambda functions. Secrets can replicate automatically to other AWS Regions, although each replica is billed as its own secret. The trade-off is reach: it does not give developers the shared dashboard and local CLI workflow that Doppler or Infisical offer, and multi-cloud teams must handle AWS authentication from outside AWS.

Who it is for

teams running workloads on AWS

Price

$0.40 per secret per month plus $0.05 per 10,000 API calls.

@ $0.40 / secret / month
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 12, 2026.

Key features

• Encrypts secrets at rest with keys you own in AWS Key Management Service
• Native rotation for Amazon RDS, Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Redshift credentials
• Rotation for other services through customizable Lambda functions
• Automatic replication of secrets to multiple AWS Regions
• Fine-grained IAM policies and resource-based policies for access control

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Pay per secret with no seat fees: AWS's own example prices 15 secrets at $6.00 per month
• Strength: Native rotation for RDS, DocumentDB, Redshift and listed SaaS providers such as Salesforce and Snowflake
• Strength: New AWS customers get up to $200 in Free Tier credits that apply to Secrets Manager
• Weakness: Replica secrets in other Regions are billed as separate secrets
• Weakness: Best suited to AWS; workloads in other clouds need IAM credentials to reach it
• Weakness: No shared developer dashboard for local .env workflows like Doppler or Infisical

Key facts

• Secret price: $0.40 per secret per month
• API calls: $0.05 per 10,000 calls
• Encryption: AWS KMS keys you own
• Free credits: Up to $200 for new AWS customers

Where it ranks

AWS Secrets Manager is No. 3 in our Best Secrets Management Tools verdict.