diff --git a/changelogs/551-ec2_ami-tag-on-create.yml b/changelogs/551-ec2_ami-tag-on-create.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..22403e449d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/551-ec2_ami-tag-on-create.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+minor_changes:
+- ec2_ami - when creating an AMI from an instance pass the tagging options at creation time (https://github.com/ansible-collections/amazon.aws/pull/551).
diff --git a/plugins/modules/ec2_ami.py b/plugins/modules/ec2_ami.py
index 5b13cbbf8a8..174e42963a2 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/ec2_ami.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/ec2_ami.py
@@ -372,9 +372,10 @@
 from ..module_utils.core import AnsibleAWSModule
 from ..module_utils.core import is_boto3_error_code
 from ..module_utils.ec2 import AWSRetry
-from ..module_utils.ec2 import boto3_tag_list_to_ansible_dict
 from ..module_utils.ec2 import ensure_ec2_tags
 from ..module_utils.ec2 import add_ec2_tags
+from ..module_utils.tagging import boto3_tag_list_to_ansible_dict
+from ..module_utils.tagging import boto3_tag_specifications
 from ..module_utils.waiters import get_waiter
 
 
@@ -494,6 +495,8 @@ def create_image(module, connection):
         if instance_id:
             params['InstanceId'] = instance_id
             params['NoReboot'] = no_reboot
+            if tags and module.botocore_at_least(1.19.30):
+                params['TagSpecifications'] = boto3_tag_specifications(tags, types=['image', 'snapshot'])
             image_id = connection.create_image(aws_retry=True, **params).get('ImageId')
         else:
             if architecture:
@@ -524,7 +527,7 @@ def create_image(module, connection):
         waiter = get_waiter(connection, 'image_available')
         waiter.wait(ImageIds=[image_id], WaiterConfig=dict(Delay=delay, MaxAttempts=max_attempts))
 
-    if tags:
+    if tags and 'TagSpecifications' not in params:
         image_info = get_image_by_id(module, connection, image_id)
         add_ec2_tags(connection, module, image_id, tags)
         if image_info and image_info.get('BlockDeviceMappings'):