Managed relational databases · September 2026 Edition
Google Cloud SQL vs Amazon Aurora
One of twelve models named Google Cloud SQL first on the direct prompt; four named Amazon Aurora. Google Cloud SQL was named by twelve of the twelve models and Amazon Aurora by eleven and Google Cloud SQL carries 53 labels and Amazon Aurora 30, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
First-choice share11%11%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate15%17%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#3A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels5330A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Google Cloud SQL reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Amazon RDS was named alongside these two in eleven of the twelve direct answers. Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL · Amazon RDS vs Amazon Aurora
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the managed relational databases page.
By framing
How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Google Cloud SQLFirst choices, of twelve modelsAmazon Aurora
Direct14
Paraphrase42
Comparative20
Budget-constrained002 against Google Cloud SQL
Scale-constrained101 against Amazon Aurora
Negative116 against Google Cloud SQL · 4 against Amazon Aurora
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Google Cloud SQL and Amazon Aurora stood in it.
Google Cloud SQL first, Amazon Aurora not the choice
1 of 12 modelsAmazon Aurora was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Claude Haiku 4.5Amazon RDS, Google Cloud SQL alternatives: Azure Database for PostgreSQL/MySQL
Amazon Aurora first, Google Cloud SQL an alternative
4 of 12 modelsGoogle Cloud SQL was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Gemini 3.5 FlashAmazon Aurora, PlanetScale alternatives: AlloyDB for PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, Neon
DeepSeek V4 FlashAmazon Aurora, Amazon RDS alternatives: Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Crunchy Bridge, Google Cloud SQL
Llama 4 MaverickAmazon Aurora, Amazon RDS, PostgreSQL alternatives: Ntirety, Rackspace Technology
Qwen 3.7 FlashAmazon Aurora, Amazon RDS alternatives: DigitalOcean Managed Databases, Supabase
Neither was the first choice, one was named
7 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.GPT-5.4 miniAmazon RDS alternatives: Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL
Perplexity SonarAmazon RDS alternatives: Amazon Aurora, Azure SQL Database
Grok 4.1 FastAmazon RDS alternatives: Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL
Mistral SmallAmazon RDS alternatives: Google Cloud SQL, Kyndryl, Rackspace Technology
Kimi K2Amazon RDS alternatives: Azure Database, Google Cloud SQL
GLM 4.7 FlashXAmazon RDS alternatives: Azure SQL Database, Google Cloud SQL, Scaleway
MiniMax M2.5Amazon RDS, Azure SQL Database alternatives: Google Cloud SQL, Ntirety, Rackspace Technology
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Google Cloud SQL leads by seven points.
Google Cloud SQL11%#5 of 9Amazon Aurora4%#8 of 9Mid-marketThe figures above
Level: the same share of first choices.
Google Cloud SQL11%#2 of 9Amazon Aurora11%#3 of 9Enterprise
The order flips: Amazon Aurora leads at enterprise.
Amazon Aurora30%#2 of 6Google Cloud SQL8%#4 of 6What the models said about Google Cloud SQL
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“it may not be suitable for applications that require globally distributed transactional writes across multiple regions with strong consistency” Llama 4 Maverick · negative prompt · soft negative
“Google Cloud SQL is great for simplicity, but it is cautionary for applications requiring high throughput or extreme elasticity.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL/MySQL: generally reputable, but version lifecycle/deprecation policy matters a lot.” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“AWS RDS with PostgreSQL or Google Cloud SQL are solid choices due to their balance of features, reliability, ease of management, and cost-effectiveness” Claude Haiku 4.5 · direct prompt · first choice
“Google Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL) offers the best balance of managed simplicity, cost, and reliability for a mid-sized B2B company” DeepSeek V4 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Often the most cost-effective for mid-tier workloads... Google Cloud SQL is often the most cost-effective at mid-tier levels.” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about Amazon Aurora
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid v2 for hobby projects, staging/dev environments, or low-traffic applications.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · hard negative
“While Aurora is SQL-compatible, its underlying storage and protocol layers are proprietary to AWS. Migrating a complex, highly optimized Aurora schema ... can be difficult and expensive.” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · soft negative
“*Proprietary (e.g., Amazon Aurora, Cosmos DB):* Faster performance for complex workloads, but extremely difficult and expensive to migrate away from” Qwen 3.7 Flash · scale prompt · soft negative
“The Corporate Standard: AWS RDS / Amazon Aurora ... Amazon Aurora (preferred over standard RDS for higher performance and scalability)” Qwen 3.7 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“If you are on AWS and want a zero-friction, incredibly robust infrastructure: Choose AWS Aurora PostgreSQL.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL is the industry standard that will grow with you from $10M to $100M+ in revenue” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Also compared
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.