Aurora PostgreSQL
- Docs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/Aurora.AuroraPostgreSQL.html
- Docs (llms.txt): https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraUserGuide/llms.txt
- Data model: Relational (full PostgreSQL)
- Query language: PostgreSQL SQL (full dialect + extensions)
- Compatibility: Full PostgreSQL (all extensions, stored procedures, triggers, FDWs)
- Serverless: Yes
- Serverless type: Capacity — you create and manage a cluster, while compute scales automatically within the supported capacity range (currently up to 256 ACUs on supported engine and platform versions). Patching, upgrades, and maintenance remain a shared responsibility, consistent with standard Aurora PostgreSQL
- Scale to zero: Conditional — requires an engine version that supports auto-pause and a minimum capacity of 0 ACUs; otherwise the minimum is 0.5 ACU. Enabled features and settings can require a higher effective floor or prevent auto-pause
- VPC required: Yes (unless Express Configuration — no VPC, PostgreSQL only, limited regions)
- Multi-region: Global Database for disaster recovery (<1s replication, single write region)
- Free Tier: new-account AWS Free Tier — $100 in credits at sign-up plus up to $100 more ($200 total), usable across eligible services including Aurora for up to 12 months. Free plan gives Aurora PostgreSQL serverless up to 4 ACUs and 1 GiB storage per cluster; upgrade to Paid for up to 256 ACUs / 256 TiB (per aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing)
- Min cost: ~$0 with auto-pause (storage only); ~$45/month always-on at 0.5 ACU (compute only; storage billed separately)
- Time to first query: ~90-120 seconds (Express Configuration) or 10-15 min (standard VPC setup)
- Key features: Express Configuration, I/O-Optimized, Managed Upgrades with Blue/Green Deployments, AWS Organizations for upgrade rollout policy, PostgreSQL extensions including pgvector, dynamic data masking (pg_columnmask), PostGIS, Zero ETL integrations to Redshift and Opensearch, up to 5x write and 3x read throughput vs RDS, faster failover (<30s vs 60-120s for RDS Multi-AZ)
- Limitations: Single write region, slightly higher cost than RDS for equivalent instance size, proprietary storage layer (not portable to community PostgreSQL without application-level export)
- Best for: Workloads requiring full PostgreSQL, pgvector/AI embeddings, migrations from PostgreSQL, refactors from Oracle/SQL Server
- Not for: Users who just need simple SQL without PG-specific features (DSQL is simpler)