diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/tower_credential_ssh_key_data.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/tower_credential_ssh_key_data.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..578e92ef937
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/tower_credential_ssh_key_data.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+minor_changes:
+- tower_credential - Expect ssh_key_data to be the content of a ssh_key file instead of the path to the file (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/45158)
diff --git a/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_2.8.rst b/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_2.8.rst
index 1f2c4b576a5..1094e905c6d 100644
--- a/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_2.8.rst
+++ b/docs/docsite/rst/porting_guides/porting_guide_2.8.rst
@@ -51,6 +51,9 @@ The following modules will be removed in Ansible 2.12. Please update your playbo
 Noteworthy module changes
 -------------------------
 
+* The ``tower_credential`` module originally required the ``ssh_key_data`` to be the path to a ssh_key_file.
+  In order to work like Tower/AWX, ``ssh_key_data`` now contains the content of the file.
+  The previous behavior can be achieved with ``lookup('file', '/path/to/file')``.
 
 Plugins
 =======
diff --git a/lib/ansible/modules/web_infrastructure/ansible_tower/tower_credential.py b/lib/ansible/modules/web_infrastructure/ansible_tower/tower_credential.py
index d9c76141777..80fb76e227e 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/modules/web_infrastructure/ansible_tower/tower_credential.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/modules/web_infrastructure/ansible_tower/tower_credential.py
@@ -58,7 +58,8 @@ options:
         - Password for this credential. Use ASK for prompting. secret_key for AWS. api_key for RAX.
     ssh_key_data:
       description:
-        - Path to SSH private key.
+        - SSH private key content. To extract the content from a file path, use the lookup function (see examples).
+      required: False
     ssh_key_unlock:
       description:
         - Unlock password for ssh_key. Use ASK for prompting.
@@ -123,6 +124,17 @@ EXAMPLES = '''
     organization: test-org
     state: present
     tower_config_file: "~/tower_cli.cfg"
+
+- name: Create a valid SCM credential from a private_key file
+  tower_credential:
+    name: SCM Credential
+    organization: Default
+    state: present
+    kind: scm
+    username: joe
+    password: secret
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ lookup('file', '/tmp/id_rsa') }}"
+    ssh_key_unlock: "passphrase"
 '''
 
 import os
@@ -187,7 +199,7 @@ def main():
         host=dict(),
         username=dict(),
         password=dict(no_log=True),
-        ssh_key_data=dict(no_log=True, type='path'),
+        ssh_key_data=dict(no_log=True, type='str'),
         ssh_key_unlock=dict(no_log=True),
         authorize=dict(type='bool', default=False),
         authorize_password=dict(no_log=True),
@@ -254,13 +266,18 @@ def main():
                 params['team'] = team['id']
 
             if module.params.get('ssh_key_data'):
-                filename = module.params.get('ssh_key_data')
-                if not os.path.exists(filename):
-                    module.fail_json(msg='file not found: %s' % filename)
-                if os.path.isdir(filename):
-                    module.fail_json(msg='attempted to read contents of directory: %s' % filename)
-                with open(filename, 'rb') as f:
-                    module.params['ssh_key_data'] = to_text(f.read())
+                data = module.params.get('ssh_key_data')
+                if os.path.exists(data):
+                    module.deprecate(
+                        msg='ssh_key_data should be a string, not a path to a file. Use lookup(\'file\', \'/path/to/file\') instead',
+                        version="2.12"
+                    )
+                    if os.path.isdir(data):
+                        module.fail_json(msg='attempted to read contents of directory: %s' % data)
+                    with open(data, 'rb') as f:
+                        module.params['ssh_key_data'] = to_text(f.read())
+                else:
+                    module.params['ssh_key_data'] = data
 
             for key in ('authorize', 'authorize_password', 'client',
                         'security_token', 'secret', 'tenant', 'subscription',
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/tower_credential/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/targets/tower_credential/tasks/main.yml
index 77abf5a5ca4..9af78d95772 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/tower_credential/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/tower_credential/tasks/main.yml
@@ -5,6 +5,10 @@
 - name: Generate a local SSH key
   local_action: "shell ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t rsa -f {{ tempdir.stdout }}/id_rsa -q -N 'passphrase'"
 
+- name: Read the generated key
+  set_fact:
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ lookup('file', tempdir.stdout + '/id_rsa') }}"
+
 - name: Create a User-specific credential
   tower_credential:
     name: SSH Credential
@@ -43,7 +47,7 @@
     become_method: sudo
     become_username: superuser
     become_password: supersecret
-    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}/id_rsa"
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ ssh_key_data }}"
     ssh_key_unlock: "passphrase"
   register: result
 
@@ -51,53 +55,63 @@
     that:
       - "result is changed"
 
-- name: Create an invalid SSH credential (passphrase required)
+- name: Create a valid SSH credential from lookup source
   tower_credential:
-    name: SSH Credential
+    name: SSH Credential from lookup source
     organization: Default
     state: present
     kind: ssh
+    description: An example SSH credential from lookup source
     username: joe
-    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}/id_rsa"
-  ignore_errors: yes
+    password: secret
+    become_method: sudo
+    become_username: superuser
+    become_password: supersecret
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ lookup('file', tempdir.stdout + '/id_rsa') }}"
+    ssh_key_unlock: "passphrase"
   register: result
 
 - assert:
     that:
-      - "result is failed"
-      - "'must be set when SSH key is encrypted' in result.module_stderr"
+      - "result is changed"
 
-- name: Create an invalid SSH credential (ssh_key_data file is missing)
+- name: Create a valid SSH credential from file source
   tower_credential:
-    name: SSH Credential
+    name: SSH Credential from file source
     organization: Default
     state: present
     kind: ssh
+    description: An example SSH credential from file source
     username: joe
-    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}/not_a_valid_file"
-  ignore_errors: yes
+    password: secret
+    become_method: sudo
+    become_username: superuser
+    become_password: supersecret
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}/id_rsa"
+    ssh_key_unlock: "passphrase"
   register: result
 
 - assert:
     that:
-      - "result is failed"
-      - "'file not found' in result.msg"
+      - "result is changed"
+      - "result is not failed"
+      - "'ssh_key_data should be a string, not a path to a file.' in result.deprecations[0].msg"
 
-- name: Create an invalid SSH credential (ssh_key_data is a directory)
+- name: Create an invalid SSH credential (passphrase required)
   tower_credential:
     name: SSH Credential
     organization: Default
     state: present
     kind: ssh
     username: joe
-    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}"
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ ssh_key_data }}"
   ignore_errors: yes
   register: result
 
 - assert:
     that:
       - "result is failed"
-      - "'attempted to read contents of directory' in result.msg"
+      - "'must be set when SSH key is encrypted' in result.module_stderr"
 
 - name: Create an invalid SSH credential (Organization not found)
   tower_credential:
@@ -202,7 +216,7 @@
     kind: scm
     username: joe
     password: secret
-    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}/id_rsa"
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ ssh_key_data }}"
     ssh_key_unlock: "passphrase"
   register: result
 
@@ -338,7 +352,7 @@
     kind: gce
     username: joe
     project: ABC123
-    ssh_key_data: "{{ tempdir.stdout }}/id_rsa"
+    ssh_key_data: "{{ ssh_key_data }}"
   register: result
 
 - assert: