Show Available AWS Aurora MySQL Database Engines

To get a list of current AWS Aurora MySQL (compatible) Database Engines you can use the following command from the AWS CLI:

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions \
  --engine aurora-mysql \
  --query "DBEngineVersions[].{Engine:Engine,Version:EngineVersion}" \
  --output table

So you’ll get an output like:

---------------------------------------------
|         DescribeDBEngineVersions          |
+---------------+---------------------------+
|    Engine     |          Version          |
+---------------+---------------------------+
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.1  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.2  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.3  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.4  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.5  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.11.6  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.12.0  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.12.1  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.12.2  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.12.3  |
|  aurora-mysql |  5.7.mysql_aurora.2.12.4  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.04.0  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.04.1  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.04.2  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.04.3  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.05.2  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.06.0  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.06.1  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.07.0  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.07.1  |
|  aurora-mysql |  8.0.mysql_aurora.3.08.0  |
+---------------+---------------------------+

At the time of writing (05/02/25) the recommended/default version is: 8.0.mysql_aurora.3.05.2, but remember that the list of Database Engines that are provided will include ones that are on “extended support”, which you may not want to use depending on your requirement.

You can also specify different database engine types (with the same command above) to get the available versions for things like postgreSQL etc.