Amazon Relational Database Service
Amazon Relational Database Service
Amazon RDS offers managed MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, MariaDB, and Aurora with automated backups, patching, and scaling.
Fully automated backups, patching, and engine upgrades
No OS-level access — no SSH/root
Call RDS.createDBInstance via SDK (specify engine, class, storage, network). When ready, connect from any standard client (mysql, psql, etc.) to the endpoint.
Uptime · 30-day window
GitHub activity
About this API
RDS turns database operations (backups, patching, failover, storage scaling) into managed services. Developers focus on schema design and query optimization instead of waking up to deal with full disks or broken replication. It supports many engines, but in recent years AWS has pushed its own Aurora — wire-compatible with MySQL/PostgreSQL, storage layer rewritten as distributed, up to 15 read replicas, failover time reduced from minutes to seconds.
Key choices are engine, instance type, and Multi-AZ. Single-AZ is cheaper but means minutes of unavailability during failures; Multi-AZ doubles the cost for seconds-level failover. Aurora Serverless v2 takes it further — the database itself bills by usage, scaling down to 0.5 ACU when idle and up automatically under load, ideal for unpredictable traffic. Note that OS-level access is not possible — workloads that need to manage the OS should run their database on EC2 instead.
What you can build
- 1Run managed MySQL/Postgres for your app without ops
- 2Get automated daily backups and point-in-time recovery
- 3Set up read replicas to offload read traffic
- 4Deploy multi-AZ for high availability
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
- Fully automated backups, patching, and engine upgrades
- Aurora is the AWS-built engine with strong performance and scaling
- IAM database authentication integration
Limitations
- No OS-level access — no SSH/root
- Engine upgrades require maintenance windows with brief downtime
- Less flexible than self-managed databases
Getting started
Call RDS.createDBInstance via SDK (specify engine, class, storage, network). When ready, connect from any standard client (mysql, psql, etc.) to the endpoint.
FAQ
Is there an RDS free tier?+
First 12 months: 750 hours/month of db.t2/t3.micro single-AZ + 20 GB storage. Production traffic is paid.
Is Aurora more expensive than RDS MySQL?+
Slightly more per unit, but with better performance and scaling. Aurora Serverless v2 can be cheaper on low traffic.
How long does failover take?+
Multi-AZ RDS is typically 60–120 seconds; Aurora under 30 seconds; Serverless v2 is near-imperceptible.
Technical details
- Auth type
- api_key
- Pricing
- paid
- Protocols
- REST
- SDKs
- python, javascript, java, go, ruby, csharp
- Response time
- 43 ms
- Last health check
- 6/26/2026, 6:22:16 AM
Endpoints
Parsed from the OpenAPI spec. Showing 12 of 282 non-deprecated endpoints.
/#Action=AddRoleToDBCluster/#Action=AddRoleToDBCluster/#Action=AddRoleToDBInstance/#Action=AddRoleToDBInstance/#Action=AddSourceIdentifierToSubscription/#Action=AddSourceIdentifierToSubscription/#Action=AddTagsToResource/#Action=AddTagsToResource/#Action=ApplyPendingMaintenanceAction/#Action=ApplyPendingMaintenanceAction/#Action=AuthorizeDBSecurityGroupIngress/#Action=AuthorizeDBSecurityGroupIngress270 more endpoints not shown. See the OpenAPI spec for the full list.
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