The Aurora / RDS Version Availability Timeline Has Been Published, So I Looked into the Current Status as of May 2026
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Introduction
On May 21, 2026, the following article was published on the AWS Database Blog.
It clarifies, for each engine and release type, the target time from a community release to availability on AWS for the open-source engines of Aurora / RDS. In this article I call this a "commitment" for convenience, but it is not an SLA or a guarantee; it is strictly a target value.
The same timeline table is also reposted in the Aurora MySQL 8.4 GA blog published the same day. Aurora MySQL 8.4 itself is planned to be covered in a separate article, but I am introducing it here as a related announcement.
Here is a summary of the differences between before and now.
| Item | Before | From now on |
|---|---|---|
| Availability timing of new versions | Unknown (no target) | Timelines committed per engine and release type |
| Predictability | Waiting for AWS announcements | Upgrade plans can be made in advance based on the commitments |
Timeline targets presented by AWS
This is the list of timelines published in the blog. MariaDB is also included, but the verification of actual results in this article is limited to PostgreSQL and MySQL.
| Engine | Release type | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| RDS for PostgreSQL | Minor | Within 7 days |
| RDS for PostgreSQL | Major | Within 30 days |
| RDS for MySQL | Minor | Within 30 days |
| RDS for MySQL | Major | Within 6 months |
| RDS for MariaDB | Minor | Within 30 days |
| RDS for MariaDB | Major | Within 3 months |
| Aurora PostgreSQL | Minor | Within 3 months |
| Aurora PostgreSQL | Major | Within 8 months |
| Aurora PostgreSQL | Aurora LTS per major | Within 12 months of Aurora major GA |
| Aurora MySQL | Minor | Within 3 months |
| Aurora MySQL | Major | Within 12 months |
| Aurora MySQL | Aurora LTS per major | Within 12 months of Aurora major GA |
PostgreSQL: Community vs RDS vs Aurora (as of May 22, 2026)
The latest community minor release was on May 14, 2026 (17.10, 16.14, 15.18, 14.23). RDS started offering it on the same day, May 14, so against the 7-day commitment the result is same-day (0 days). For Aurora, the April 6 release (17.9, 16.13, 15.17, 14.22) is the latest, and the May 14 release is not yet available. Since the commitment is within 3 months, it is expected to be available by around August. PG 18 is listed not as minor tracking but as a reference for major version support status.
| Major | Community | Release date | RDS | Availability date | Day difference | Aurora | Availability date | Version difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | 18.4 | 5/14 | 18.4 | 5/14 | 0 days | Preview | — | — |
| 17 | 17.10 | 5/14 | 17.10 | 5/14 | 0 days | 17.9 | 4/6 | 1 minor behind |
| 16 | 16.14 | 5/14 | 16.14 | 5/14 | 0 days | 16.13 | 4/6 | 1 minor behind |
| 15 | 15.18 | 5/14 | 15.18 | 5/14 | 0 days | 15.17 | 4/6 | 1 minor behind |
| 14 | 14.23 | 5/14 | 14.23 | 5/14 | 0 days | 14.22 | 4/6 | 1 minor behind |
For RDS, the day difference (days elapsed since the community release) is listed, and for Aurora, the version difference (difference from the latest community version) is listed.
Note that this article uses the availability start date in the official AWS documentation / release notes as the baseline. The versions actually available may differ depending on the region and engine settings.
MySQL: Community vs RDS vs Aurora (as of May 22, 2026)
The latest community releases were on April 21, 2026 (8.4.9, 8.0.46, 9.7.0). RDS offered 8.4.9 and 8.0.46 on May 8, which is 17 days after the community release. Against the 30-day commitment, it was provided in about half that time.
Aurora MySQL offered an 8.4.7-compatible version on May 21. Previously Aurora MySQL used its own numbering scheme (3.x = MySQL 8.0 compatible), but from 8.4 it has changed to numbers that correspond directly to community versions. In the table below, both numbering schemes are mixed.
| Series | Community | Release date | RDS | Availability date | Difference | Aurora | Corresponding version | Availability date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9.7 | 9.7.0 | 4/21 | Preview | — | — | Not available | — | — |
| 8.4 | 8.4.9 | 4/21 | 8.4.9 | 5/8 | 17 days | 8.4.7 | MySQL 8.4.7 compatible | 5/21 |
| 8.0 | 8.0.46 (final release) | 4/21 | 8.0.46 | 5/8 | 17 days | 3.12 (≈8.0.44 compatible) | MySQL 8.0.44 compatible | 2/17 |
MySQL 9.7 appeared as the new LTS major of Oracle MySQL. It is only available as a Preview on RDS, but based on the 6-month commitment, around October 2026 is the guideline for GA.
MySQL 8.0.46 is the final release of the community 8.0 series. Oracle's Premier Support ended in April 2025 and Extended Support ended in April 2026 (MySQL Product Support EOL Announcements), and no new minor releases are planned. The successor LTS is the 9.7 series.
Analysis of the background and mechanisms behind the results
Regarding the reason RDS for PostgreSQL can provide releases on the same day, the official blog explains: "PostgreSQL and MariaDB communities develop in the open, which lets us start validation early".
Regarding the reason Aurora tends to lag behind RDS, it explains: "Aurora adds a distributed storage layer, Global Database, and serverless capabilities... Every new version goes through additional validation".
The most impactful point of this timeline is that "Aurora LTS per major: Within 12 months of Aurora major GA" has been made explicit. Aurora LTS itself is a mechanism that has existed since 2019, but it was unknown when it would come out. In the past, for Aurora MySQL 3 (GA in April 2022), designating LTS 3.04 took until October 2023, about 18 months (source: What's New 2023/10/25). With a target of within 12 months now presented, it has become possible to estimate when LTS will appear once an Aurora major reaches GA. Being able to draw up in advance the timeline for production adoption decisions that wait for LTS and for upgrade plans is a significant change.
The "Aurora LTS" referred to here means Aurora's own Long-Term Support release designation (e.g., Aurora MySQL 3.04 LTS). Aurora's target for supporting the LTS majors on the Oracle MySQL side (e.g., MySQL 8.4 LTS) is defined separately in the "Major" rows of the table above, so please be careful not to confuse them. Also, if you have selected Aurora LTS, the minor version is fixed, so you will receive the benefits of this timeline at the timing of the next LTS release.
Notes and Tips
Ways to detect releases
The following methods are available for tracking new version releases.
| Method | URL / Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| PostgreSQL News RSS | https://www.postgresql.org/news.rss |
Catch new community version releases on the same day |
| AWS What's New RSS | https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/recent/feed/ |
Catch the start of availability of new RDS/Aurora versions (can be filtered by category tags such as general:products/amazon-aurora) |
| RDS Event Subscriptions (SNS) | Subscribe to the maintenance category | Notifications that "a minor version upgrade is available" (RDS-EVENT-0155 / RDS-EVENT-0156) arrive for your own DB instances |
Since no official RSS feed could be found for MySQL, the practice would be to periodically check the AWS What's New RSS or the release notes page on dev.mysql.com.
For details on RDS Event Subscriptions, refer to the following.
Summary
Comparing the commitments against actual results, RDS has been providing releases in shorter periods than committed, and while Aurora takes longer because of the additional work on the AWS side, it has become realistic to make upgrade plans based on the targets presented this time, such as 3 months, 8 months, and 12 months. What is particularly practical about this commitment is that the target "Aurora LTS per major: Within 12 months of Aurora major GA" has been made explicit. If you want to wait for Aurora LTS before going to production, please use this announcement as a premise for your upgrade plan.
Reference links
- https://aws.amazon.com/jp/blogs/database/knowing-when-new-open-source-database-engine-versions-release-on-amazon-aurora-and-amazon-rds/
- https://aws.amazon.com/jp/blogs/database/amazon-aurora-mysql-8-4-is-now-generally-available/
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/PostgreSQLReleaseNotes/postgresql-release-calendar.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraPostgreSQLReleaseNotes/aurorapostgresql-release-calendar.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/MySQL.Concepts.VersionMgmt.html
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/AuroraMySQLReleaseNotes/AuroraMySQL.release-calendars.html
- https://www.postgresql.org/support/versioning/
- https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/
- https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_Events.Messages.html
