Migrate API keys to service account tokens

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 19:43:06 +0000

Migrate API keys to service account tokens

Note
API keys are deprecated. Service accounts now replace API keys for authenticating with the HTTP APIs and interacting with Grafana.

API keys specify a role—either Admin, Editor, or Viewer—that determine the permissions associated with interacting with Grafana.

Compared to API keys, service accounts have limited scopes that provide more security. For more information on the benefits of service accounts, refer to service account benefits.

When you migrate an API key to a service account, a service account is created with a service account token. Your existing API key—now migrated to a service account token—will continue working as before.

To find the migrated API keys, click Administration in the left-side menu, then Users and access -> Service Accounts, select the service account, and locate the Token.

Migrate API keys using the Grafana user interface

This section shows you how to migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using the Grafana user interface. You can choose to migrate a single API key or all API keys. When you migrate all API keys, you can no longer create API keys and must use service accounts instead.

Before you begin

To follow these instructions, you need at least one of the following:

Administrator permissions
Editor permissions
Service account writer

For more information about permissions, refer to Roles and permissions.

Steps

To migrate all API keys to service accounts, complete the following steps:

Sign in to Grafana, point to Administration, Users and access, and click API Keys.
In the top of the page, find the section which says Switch from API keys to service accounts
Click Migrate to service accounts now.
A confirmation window will appear, asking to confirm the migration. Click Yes, migrate now if you are willing to continue.
Once migration is successful, you can choose to forever hide the API keys page. Click Hide API keys page forever if you want to do that.

To migrate a single API key to a service account, complete the following steps:

Sign in to Grafana.
Click Administration in the left-side menu, Users and access, and select API Keys.
Find the API Key you want to migrate.
Click Migrate to service account.

Migrate API keys using the HTTP API

This section shows you how to programmatically migrate API keys to Grafana service accounts using the HTTP API. For API additional information, refer to Service account HTTP APIs.

Before you begin

To follow these instructions, you need one of the following:

Administrator permissions
Editor permissions
Service account writer

Steps

Complete the following steps to migrate from API keys to service accounts for API:

Call the POST /api/serviceaccounts endpoint and the POST /api/serviceaccounts/<id>/tokens.

This action generates a service account token.
Store the ID and secret that the system returns to you.
Pass the token in the Authorization header, prefixed with Bearer.

This action authenticates API requests.
SATs used for authentication
Remove code that handles the old /api/auth/keys endpoint.
Track the API keys in use and migrate them to SATs.

Example

Your current setup

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "my-api-key", "role": "Viewer"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/auth/keys

# response from the api
{"id":2,"name":"my-api-key","key":"eyJrIjoiTFRSN1RBOVc3SGhjblc0bWZodXZ3MnNDcU92Um5VZUIiLKJuIjoibXktYXBpLWtleSIsImlkIjoxfQ=="}%

New setup

# create a service account
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "my-service-account", "role": "Viewer"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/serviceaccounts

# response with the created service account id,name, login
{"id":1,"name":"my-service-account","login":"sa-my-service-account","orgId":1,"isDisabled":false,"role":"Viewer","tokens":0,"avatarUrl":""}%

# create the service account token with the service account id 1 - /serviceaccounts/{id} returned from the previous step
curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"name": "my-service-account-token"}' http://admin:admin@localhost:3000/api/serviceaccounts/1/tokens

# response with the created SAT id,name and key.
{"id":2,"name":"my-service-account-token","key":"glsa_iNValIdinValiDinvalidinvalidinva_5b582697"}%

# now you can authenticate the same way as you did with the API key
curl --request GET --url http://localhost:3000/api/folders --header 'Authorization: Bearer glsa_iNValIdinValiDinvalidinvalidinva_5b582697'

# response
[{"id":1,"uid":"a5261a84-eebc-4733-83a9-61f4713561d1","title":"gdev dashboards"}]%

Migrate API keys using Terraform

Note
The terraform resource api_key is removed from the Grafana Terraform Provider in v3.0.0. Before you migrate and remove the use of the resource, you should pin your terraform version to a version less-than or equal-to v2.19.0. For more information, refer to the Grafana Terraform Provider release notes.

To pin the Grafana Terraform Provider to v2.19.0:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    grafana = {
      source  = "grafana/grafana"
      version = "2.19.0"
    }
  }
}

This section shows you how to migrate your Terraform configuration for API keys to Grafana service accounts. For additional information, refer to Grafana Service Accounts in Terraform.

Steps

Complete the following steps to migrate from API keys to service accounts using Terraform:

Generate grafana_service_account and grafana_service_account_token resources.
Specify the desired scopes and expiration date when creating the service account.
Use the token returned from grafana_service_account_token to authenticate the API requests.
Remove the terraform configuration for creating your grafana_api_key resources.

Example: your current Terraform configuration

terraform {
  required_providers {
    grafana = {
      source  = "grafana/grafana"
    }
  }
}

# configure the provider with basic auth
provider "grafana" {
  url  = "http://localhost:3000"
  auth = "admin:admin"
}

resource "grafana_api_key" "foo" {
  name = "key_foo"
  role = "Viewer"
}

resource "grafana_api_key" "bar" {
  name            = "key_bar"
  role            = "Admin"
  seconds_to_live = 30
}

Your new Terraform configuration

Note: you can create multiple tokens using one service account.

terraform {
  required_providers {
    grafana = {
      source  = "grafana/grafana"
    }
  }
}

# configure the provider with basic auth
provider "grafana" {
  url  = "http://localhost:3000"
  auth = "admin:admin"
}

# Creating a service account in Grafana instance to be used as auth and attach tokens
# notice we can attach multiple tokens to one service account
resource "grafana_service_account" "sa-admin" {
  name             = "sa-admin"
  role             = "Admin"
}

# Creating a service account token in Grafana instance to be used for creating resources in Grafana instance
resource "grafana_service_account_token" "sat-bar" {
  name           = "sat-bar"
  service_account_id = grafana_service_account.sa-admin.id
}

# Creating a service account token in Grafana instance to be used for creating resources in Grafana instance
resource "grafana_service_account_token" "sat-foo" {
  name           = "sat-foo"
  service_account_id = grafana_service_account.sa-admin.id
  seconds_to_live    = 30
}

Migrate Cloud Stack API keys using Terraform

This section shows you how to migrate your Terraform configuration for Grafana cloud stack API keys to Grafana cloud stack service accounts.

For migration your cloud stack api keys, use the grafana_cloud_stack_service_account and gafana_cloud_stack_service_account_token resources. For additional information, refer to Grafana Cloud Stack Service Accounts in Terraform.

Note
This is only relevant for Grafana Cloud Stack API keys grafana_cloud_stack_api_key. Grafana Cloud API keys resource grafana_cloud_api_key are not deprecated and should be used for authentication for managing your Grafana cloud.

Steps

Complete the following steps to migrate from cloud stack API keys to cloud stack service accounts using Terraform:

Generate grafana_cloud_stack_service_account and grafana_cloud_stack_service_account_token resources.
Specify the desired scopes and expiration date when creating the service account.
Use the token returned from grafana_cloud_stack_service_account_token to authenticate the API requests.
Remove the Terraform configuration for creating your grafana_cloud_stack_api_key resources.

Example: Your current Terraform configuration

terraform {
  required_providers {
    grafana = {
      source = "grafana/grafana"
    }
  }
}

# Declaring the first provider to be only used for creating the cloud-stack
provider "grafana" {
  alias = "cloud"

  cloud_api_key = "<API-Key>"
}

resource "grafana_cloud_stack" "my_stack" {
  provider = grafana.cloud

  name        = "my_stack"
  slug        = "my_stack"
  region_slug = "eu" # Example “us”,”eu” etc
}

# Creating a Grafana API key to be used as auth
resource "grafana_cloud_stack_api_key" "management" {
  provider = grafana.cloud

  stack_slug = grafana_cloud_stack.my_stack.slug
  name       = "management-key"
  role       = "Admin"
}

Your new Terraform configuration

terraform {
  required_providers {
    grafana = {
      source = "grafana/grafana"
    }
  }
}

# Declaring the first provider to be only used for creating the cloud-stack
provider "grafana" {
  alias = "cloud"

  cloud_api_key = "<API-Key>"
}

resource "grafana_cloud_stack" "my_stack" {
  provider = grafana.cloud

  name        = "my_stack"
  slug        = "my_stack"
  region_slug = "eu" # Example “us”,”eu” etc
}

# Creating a grafana cloud stack service account
resource "grafana_cloud_stack_service_account" "mystack_cloud-stack_service_account" {
  provider   = grafana.cloud
  stack_slug = grafana_cloud_stack.my_stack.slug

  name = "mystack-cloud-stack-sa"
  role = "Admin"
}

# Creating a grafana cloud stack service account token
resource "grafana_cloud_stack_service_account_token" "mystack_cloud-stack_service-account_token" {
  provider   = grafana.cloud
  stack_slug = grafana_cloud_stack.my_stack.slug

  name               = "mystack-cloud-stack-sa-token"
  service_account_id = grafana_cloud_stack_service_account.mystack_cloud-stack_service_account.id
}

Service accounts on Grafana Labs

Migrate API keys to service account tokens

Migrate API keys to service account tokens

Migrate API keys using the Grafana user interface

Before you begin

Steps

Migrate API keys using the HTTP API

Before you begin

Steps

Example

Migrate API keys using Terraform

Steps

Migrate Cloud Stack API keys using Terraform

Steps