Neo4j Aura Database September Release Update

The Neo4j Aura September release is now rolling out—starting with AuraDB Free and gradually extending to higher-tier instances.

This month's release introduces a new function in Cypher 25, performance improvements and better error messages.

Key updates

New
format()
Function in Cypher 25
: You can now format temporal values into a custom string pattern directly in your query.
Smarter Query Planner
: We’ve improved the query planner's logic to more frequently choose a faster index scan, boosting performance for certain queries.
Better Cypher Version Errors
: If you run a valid Cypher 25 query while in Cypher 5 mode, the error message will now inform you that the query would succeed in Cypher 25, making it easier to identify and resolve version-specific syntax issues.

Fixes

Fixed a very rare bug where a uniqueness constraint could incorrectly allow duplicate properties while the index was being populated.
Resolved an issue that could lead to incorrect results for queries using
shortestPath()
in combination with an
all()
predicate.
Addressed several bugs that could lead to errors, including NullPointerException during concurrent node deletions, OutOfMemoryError during query planning, and failures in queries using pipelined runtime.
Relationship indexes are now correctly displayed in the output of SHOW TRANSACTIONS.

For full details of all updates and fixes in this release, please visit: Release Notes: Neo4j Aura Database – September 2025