diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/ApolloServer.ts b/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/ApolloServer.ts
index 0c91836de2f..31d958a3506 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/ApolloServer.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/ApolloServer.ts
@@ -101,7 +101,7 @@ export class ApolloServer extends ApolloServerBase {
     return (
       event: APIGatewayProxyEvent,
       context: LambdaContext,
-      callback: APIGatewayProxyCallback,
+      callback?: APIGatewayProxyCallback,
     ) => {
       // We re-load the headers into a Fetch API-compatible `Headers`
       // interface within `graphqlLambda`, but we still need to respect the
@@ -150,14 +150,20 @@ export class ApolloServer extends ApolloServerBase {
       }, {});
 
       if (event.httpMethod === 'OPTIONS') {
-        context.callbackWaitsForEmptyEventLoop = false;
-        return callback(null, {
+        const result = {
           body: '',
           statusCode: 204,
           headers: {
             ...requestCorsHeadersObject,
           },
-        });
+        };
+
+        if (callback) {
+          context.callbackWaitsForEmptyEventLoop = false;
+          return callback(null, result);
+        } else {
+          return Promise.resolve(result);
+        }
       }
 
       if (this.playgroundOptions && event.httpMethod === 'GET') {
@@ -173,41 +179,51 @@ export class ApolloServer extends ApolloServerBase {
             ...this.playgroundOptions,
           };
 
-          return callback(null, {
+          const result = {
             body: renderPlaygroundPage(playgroundRenderPageOptions),
             statusCode: 200,
             headers: {
               'Content-Type': 'text/html',
               ...requestCorsHeadersObject,
             },
-          });
+          };
+
+          if (callback) {
+            return callback(null, result);
+          } else {
+            return Promise.resolve(result);
+          }
         }
       }
 
-      const callbackFilter: APIGatewayProxyCallback = (error, result) => {
-        callback(
-          error,
-          result && {
-            ...result,
-            headers: {
-              ...result.headers,
-              ...requestCorsHeadersObject,
-            },
-          },
-        );
-      };
+      if (callback) {
+        // Maintain existing behavior
+        context.callbackWaitsForEmptyEventLoop = false;
+      }
 
-      graphqlLambda(async () => {
-        // In a world where this `createHandler` was async, we might avoid this
-        // but since we don't want to introduce a breaking change to this API
-        // (by switching it to `async`), we'll leverage the
-        // `GraphQLServerOptions`, which are dynamically built on each request,
-        // to `await` the `promiseWillStart` which we kicked off at the top of
-        // this method to ensure that it runs to completion (which is part of
-        // its contract) prior to processing the request.
-        await promiseWillStart;
-        return this.createGraphQLServerOptions(event, context);
-      })(event, context, callbackFilter);
+      const resultPromise = promiseWillStart.then(() => {
+        return this.createGraphQLServerOptions(event, context).then(options => {
+          return graphqlLambda(options)(event, context).then(result => {
+            return result && {
+              ...result,
+              headers: {
+                ...result.headers,
+                ...requestCorsHeadersObject,
+              },
+            };
+          });
+        });
+      });
+
+      if (callback) {
+        resultPromise.then(result => {
+          callback(null, result);
+        }).catch(error => {
+          callback(error);
+        })
+      } else {
+        return resultPromise;
+      }
     };
   }
 }
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/lambdaApollo.ts b/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/lambdaApollo.ts
index 2ce5be47853..77bdde11a13 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/lambdaApollo.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-lambda/src/lambdaApollo.ts
@@ -4,17 +4,17 @@ import {
   HttpQueryError,
   runHttpQuery,
 } from 'apollo-server-core';
-import { Headers, ValueOrPromise } from 'apollo-server-env';
+import { Headers } from 'apollo-server-env';
 
-export interface LambdaGraphQLOptionsFunction {
-  (event: lambda.APIGatewayProxyEvent, context: lambda.Context): ValueOrPromise<
-    GraphQLOptions
+export interface APIGatewayProxyAsyncHandler {
+  (event: lambda.APIGatewayProxyEvent, context: lambda.Context): Promise<
+    lambda.APIGatewayProxyResult
   >;
 }
 
 export function graphqlLambda(
-  options: GraphQLOptions | LambdaGraphQLOptionsFunction,
-): lambda.APIGatewayProxyHandler {
+  options: GraphQLOptions,
+): APIGatewayProxyAsyncHandler {
   if (!options) {
     throw new Error('Apollo Server requires options.');
   }
@@ -25,48 +25,51 @@ export function graphqlLambda(
     );
   }
 
-  const graphqlHandler: lambda.APIGatewayProxyHandler = (
+  const graphqlHandler: APIGatewayProxyAsyncHandler = async (
     event,
-    context,
-    callback,
-  ): void => {
-    context.callbackWaitsForEmptyEventLoop = false;
-
+    context
+  ) => {
     if (event.httpMethod === 'POST' && !event.body) {
-      return callback(null, {
+      return {
         body: 'POST body missing.',
         statusCode: 500,
-      });
+      };
     }
-    runHttpQuery([event, context], {
-      method: event.httpMethod,
-      options: options,
-      query:
-        event.httpMethod === 'POST' && event.body
-          ? JSON.parse(event.body)
-          : event.queryStringParameters,
-      request: {
-        url: event.path,
+
+    try {
+      const {
+        graphqlResponse,
+        responseInit
+      } = await runHttpQuery([event, context], {
         method: event.httpMethod,
-        headers: new Headers(event.headers),
-      },
-    }).then(
-      ({ graphqlResponse, responseInit }) => {
-        callback(null, {
-          body: graphqlResponse,
-          statusCode: 200,
-          headers: responseInit.headers,
-        });
-      },
-      (error: HttpQueryError) => {
-        if ('HttpQueryError' !== error.name) return callback(error);
-        callback(null, {
+        options: options,
+        query:
+          event.httpMethod === 'POST' && event.body
+            ? JSON.parse(event.body)
+            : event.queryStringParameters,
+        request: {
+          url: event.path,
+          method: event.httpMethod,
+          headers: new Headers(event.headers),
+        },
+      });
+
+      return {
+        body: graphqlResponse,
+        statusCode: 200,
+        headers: responseInit.headers,
+      };
+    } catch (error) {
+      if (error instanceof HttpQueryError) {
+        return {
           body: error.message,
           statusCode: error.statusCode,
           headers: error.headers,
-        });
-      },
-    );
+        };
+      }
+
+      throw error;
+    }
   };
 
   return graphqlHandler;