Aurora
AWS Aurora — commitment brief
Data sourced: March 2026. Verify current figures at the AWS Pricing Calculator.
Coverage summary
Amazon Aurora supports Standard Reserved DB Instances (1-yr and 3-yr terms) for both Aurora MySQL and Aurora PostgreSQL, and is also covered by Database Savings Plans (launched December 2025). Aurora reservations are purchased separately from standard RDS reservations — an Aurora RI does not apply to an RDS MySQL instance and vice versa. Instance size flexibility applies within the same instance class family (e.g., db.r5.large and db.r5.xlarge are in the same flexibility group). Database Savings Plans cover both provisioned Aurora instances and Aurora Serverless v2 ACU-hours (the latter has no RI option), providing up to 35% savings with flexibility across all eligible managed database services.
What is covered: Aurora DB instance compute charges (the vCPU/RAM cost of provisioned Aurora instances). A single RI covers the writer instance or any reader instance running in the same region within the matching instance class family.
What is not covered: Aurora storage (Aurora uses a distributed, auto-scaling storage layer billed per GB-month and per I/O), I/O charges (unless using Aurora I/O-Optimized pricing), data transfer, Aurora Global Database replication charges, Aurora Serverless v2 ACU-hours (covered by Database Savings Plans instead), and RDS Proxy.
RI types
Amazon Aurora offers Standard Reserved DB Instances only — there is no Convertible RI equivalent for Aurora. Payment options: All Upfront (highest discount, up to ~66% for 3-yr), Partial Upfront (up to ~60% for 3-yr), No Upfront (1-yr term only, lower discount). Instance size flexibility within a DB instance class family applies automatically.
Database Savings Plan
Aurora provisioned instances and Aurora Serverless v2 are both covered by Database Savings Plans (December 2025). Terms: 1-year only, No Upfront. Discount: up to ~35% vs. on-demand. The same commitment applies flexibly across Aurora, RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, DocumentDB, Neptune, and other eligible services — making it the right choice for teams with mixed database footprints or for covering Serverless v2 capacity that cannot be reserved.
Instance / node / tier coverage
Aurora MySQL — db.t3, db.t4g (burstable)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
Size flexibility within t-family
Aurora MySQL — db.r5, db.r6g, db.r7g (memory)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
Most common production class
Aurora MySQL — db.r8g
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
Latest-gen Graviton; check region availability
Aurora MySQL — db.x2g (memory extreme)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
High-memory; check region availability
Aurora PostgreSQL — db.t3, db.t4g (burstable)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
Size flexibility within t-family
Aurora PostgreSQL — db.r5, db.r6g, db.r7g (memory)
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
Aurora PostgreSQL Optimized Reads — db.r6gd
✅ Yes
✅ Yes
~40–45%
~60–66%
~35%
RI support added March 2024
Aurora Serverless v2
❌ No
✅ Yes
—
—
~35%
No RI option; Database SP is the only commitment instrument
Aurora Serverless v1 (legacy)
❌ No
❌ No
—
—
—
Not eligible for any commitment instrument
Regional availability
Commitment scope: Regional — Reserved DB Instances apply across all AZs within the purchased region; Database Savings Plans are region-flexible and apply across all covered services in any supported region.
Available in all commercial AWS regions where Aurora is offered. Aurora is one of AWS's core database services and is included in all standard region launches.
Partition notes: GovCloud (us-gov-) and China (cn-) regions support Aurora RDS features; however, some newer instance types (e.g., db.r8g, db.x2g) and features like Aurora I/O-Optimized may have delayed rollout to GovCloud and China regions — verify availability before purchasing. Database Savings Plans cannot be purchased from GovCloud accounts (they must be purchased in a linked standard account) and are not available in China regions.
⚠️ Regional and partition availability varies by instance type. Always verify at the AWS Pricing Console before purchasing.
Archera
Amazon Aurora is a core service within Archera's commitment management scope. Archera can automate Reserved DB Instance purchases for both Aurora MySQL and Aurora PostgreSQL, monitor utilization across size-flexible reservation groups, and wrap commitments in a GRI/GSP — eliminating downside risk on over-commitment while preserving the full RI discount. Archera handles Aurora reservations separately from standard RDS reservations.
Sources
⚠️ Discount percentages are approximate and region/instance-type-dependent. Always verify with the AWS Pricing Calculator.
Last updated
Was this helpful?