Serverless type: Capacity — you still create and manage a cluster, but compute scales automatically (including to zero with auto-pause)
Scale to zero: Yes, via auto-pause
VPC required: Yes (no Express Configuration for MySQL)
Multi-region: Global Database for disaster recovery
Free Tier: new-account AWS Free Tier — $100 at sign-up plus up to $100 more ($200 total), usable across eligible services including Aurora for up to 12 months (per aws.amazon.com/rds/aurora/pricing). Note: the named “Free plan” 4-ACU/1-GiB-per-cluster allowance is documented for Aurora PostgreSQL serverless; MySQL workloads draw on the same credits
Min cost: ~$0 with auto-pause; ~$45/month always-on at 0.5 ACU (compute only; storage billed separately)
Time to first query: 10-15 min (VPC + cluster setup)
Key features: Serverless, Global Database, I/O-Optimized, parallel query
Migration tooling: Aurora MySQL power for Kiro (AI-assisted RDS MySQL → Aurora MySQL migration via the Kiro IDE; a migration aid, not an engine feature)
Limitations: No Express Configuration, no pgvector equivalent
Best for: Existing MySQL workloads, teams with MySQL expertise