diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/aws_s3_async_fix.yaml b/changelogs/fragments/aws_s3_async_fix.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..ae049267173
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/aws_s3_async_fix.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+---
+bugfixes:
+- aws_s3 - add async support to the action plugin (https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/40826)
diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/aws_s3.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/aws_s3.py
index a2ee822ad39..a454922a101 100644
--- a/lib/ansible/plugins/action/aws_s3.py
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/action/aws_s3.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ import os
 from ansible.errors import AnsibleError, AnsibleAction, AnsibleActionFail, AnsibleFileNotFound
 from ansible.module_utils._text import to_text
 from ansible.plugins.action import ActionBase
+from ansible.utils.vars import merge_hash
 
 
 class ActionModule(ActionBase):
@@ -31,6 +32,8 @@ class ActionModule(ActionBase):
 
     def run(self, tmp=None, task_vars=None):
         ''' handler for aws_s3 operations '''
+        self._supports_async = True
+
         if task_vars is None:
             task_vars = dict()
 
@@ -55,8 +58,14 @@ class ActionModule(ActionBase):
                     except AnsibleError as e:
                         raise AnsibleActionFail(to_text(e))
 
-            # execute the aws_s3 module now, with the updated args
-            result.update(self._execute_module(module_args=new_module_args, task_vars=task_vars))
+            wrap_async = self._task.async_val and not self._connection.has_native_async
+            # execute the aws_s3 module with the updated args
+            result = merge_hash(result, self._execute_module(module_args=new_module_args, task_vars=task_vars, wrap_async=wrap_async))
+
+            if not wrap_async:
+                # remove a temporary path we created
+                self._remove_tmp_path(self._connection._shell.tmpdir)
+
         except AnsibleAction as e:
             result.update(e.result)
         return result
diff --git a/test/integration/targets/aws_s3/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/targets/aws_s3/tasks/main.yml
index 0b5562a3e52..5a19c952d75 100644
--- a/test/integration/targets/aws_s3/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/targets/aws_s3/tasks/main.yml
@@ -65,6 +65,23 @@
       - result.changed == True
       - result.msg == "PUT operation complete"
 # ============================================================
+- name: test using aws_s3 with async
+  aws_s3:
+    bucket: "{{ bucket_name }}"
+    mode: put
+    src: "{{ tmp1.path }}"
+    object: delete.txt
+    <<: *aws_connection_info
+  register: test_async
+  async: 30
+  poll: 0
+- name: ensure it completed
+  async_status:
+    jid: "{{ test_async.ansible_job_id }}"
+  register: status
+  until: status.finished
+  retries: 10
+# ============================================================
 - name: check that roles file lookups work as expected
   aws_s3:
     bucket: "{{ bucket_name }}"