diff --git a/changelogs/fragments/1475-rds_instance-promotion-tier.yml b/changelogs/fragments/1475-rds_instance-promotion-tier.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..a7eee21c53b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelogs/fragments/1475-rds_instance-promotion-tier.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+bugfixes:
+ - rds_instance - fix type of ``promotion_tier`` as passed to the APIs (https://github.com/ansible-collections/amazon.aws/pull/1475).
diff --git a/plugins/modules/rds_instance.py b/plugins/modules/rds_instance.py
index 07fc479b55e..871dc8df3bc 100644
--- a/plugins/modules/rds_instance.py
+++ b/plugins/modules/rds_instance.py
@@ -334,7 +334,7 @@
         description:
           - An integer that specifies the order in which an Aurora Replica is promoted to the primary instance after a failure of
             the existing primary instance.
-        type: str
+        type: int
     publicly_accessible:
         description:
           - Specifies the accessibility options for the DB instance. A value of true specifies an Internet-facing instance with
@@ -1434,7 +1434,7 @@ def main():
         preferred_backup_window=dict(aliases=["backup_window"]),
         preferred_maintenance_window=dict(aliases=["maintenance_window"]),
         processor_features=dict(type="dict"),
-        promotion_tier=dict(),
+        promotion_tier=dict(type='int'),
         publicly_accessible=dict(type="bool"),
         restore_time=dict(),
         s3_bucket_name=dict(),