# VPC Flow Logs

* VPC Flow Logs is a feature that enables you to **capture information about the IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in your VPC**.<br>

* Flow log data can be published to **CloudWatch Logs (query it using CloudWatch Logs Insights)** or **S3 (query it using Athena)**.<br>

* Flow logs can help you with a number of tasks, such as:

  * **Diagnosing overly restrictive security group** rules
  * **Monitoring the traffic** that is reaching your instance
  * **Determining the direction of the traffic** to and from the network interfaces

* Flow log data is **collected outside of the path of your network traffic**, and therefore **does not affect network throughput or latency**.
