Objective This study seeks to show how authoritarian secrecy complicates the reliable identification of the inner power configuration in dictatorships. This topic is relevant to recent research on autocratic regime subtypes and institutions. Methods The study pursues a theoretical and conceptual analysis of the implications of heteronomous structures of authoritarian power for: the opportunity and motive of autocrats to employ secrecy; the reliability of indirect types of evidence, such as the observable presence of institutions, legislation, or the regime's self‐presentation through media, speeches, and interviews; and the production and preservation of direct sources. Results I find that autocratic secrecy presents considerable obstacles for studying the highest levels of authoritarian power; that indirect forms of evidence are equivocal sources; and that, ultimately, we need to know how dictatorships actually operate to reliably classify regimes. Conclusions Secrecy creates methodological problems for the study of autocracies that are largely absent in the study of democracies.