diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1e27b455a16..8792aeeaa50 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ The version headers in this history reflect the versions of Apollo Server itself
 
 - `apollo-server-core`: Add optional argument to `ApolloServer.executeOperation` allowing the caller to manually specify an argument to the `config` function analogous to that provided by integration packages. [PR #4166](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/pull/4166) [Issue #2886](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/issues/2886)
 - `apollo-server-cache-redis`: New `BaseRedisCache` class which takes an `ioredis`-compatible Redis client as an argument. The existing classes `RedisCache` and `RedisClusterCache` (which pass their arguments to `ioredis` constructors) are now implemented in terms of this class. This allows you to use any of the `ioredis` constructor forms rather than just the ones recognized by our classes. This also fixes a long-standing bug where the Redis cache implementations returned a number from `delete()`; it now returns a number, matching what the `KeyValueCache` interface and the TypeScript types expect. [PR #5034](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/pull/5034) [PR #5088](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/pull/5088) [Issue #4870](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/issues/4870) [Issue #5006](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/issues/5006)
+- `apollo-server-core`: Fix type for `formatResponse` function. It never is called with a `null` argument, and is allowed to return `null`. [Issue #5009](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/issues/5009) [PR #5089](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/pull/5089)
 
 ## v2.22.2
 
diff --git a/docs/source/api/apollo-server.md b/docs/source/api/apollo-server.md
index e8f20f45ca2..3306e8481aa 100644
--- a/docs/source/api/apollo-server.md
+++ b/docs/source/api/apollo-server.md
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ Provide this function to transform the structure of error objects before they're
 </td>
 <td>
 
-Provide this function to transform the structure of GraphQL response objects before they're sent to a client. The function takes a [`GraphQLResponse`](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/blob/main/packages/apollo-server-types/src/index.ts#L77-L82) object and a [`GraphQLRequestContext`](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/blob/main/packages/apollo-server-types/src/index.ts#L95-L130) object, and it should return a `GraphQLResponse` object.
+Provide this function to transform the structure of GraphQL response objects before they're sent to a client. The function takes a [`GraphQLResponse`](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/blob/main/packages/apollo-server-types/src/index.ts#L77-L82) object and a [`GraphQLRequestContext`](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/blob/main/packages/apollo-server-types/src/index.ts#L95-L130) object, and it should return a `GraphQLResponse` object, or null to preserve the existing structure.
 </td>
 </tr>
 
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/graphqlOptions.ts b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/graphqlOptions.ts
index 8b5d11b2ade..9af8e6bad89 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/graphqlOptions.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/graphqlOptions.ts
@@ -50,9 +50,9 @@ export interface GraphQLServerOptions<
   validationRules?: Array<(context: ValidationContext) => any>;
   executor?: GraphQLExecutor;
   formatResponse?: (
-    response: GraphQLResponse | null,
+    response: GraphQLResponse,
     requestContext: GraphQLRequestContext<TContext>,
-  ) => GraphQLResponse
+  ) => GraphQLResponse | null;
   fieldResolver?: GraphQLFieldResolver<any, TContext>;
   debug?: boolean;
   tracing?: boolean;
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/requestPipeline.ts b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/requestPipeline.ts
index 080ce165aec..d1a43dfdb9b 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/requestPipeline.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/requestPipeline.ts
@@ -97,9 +97,9 @@ export interface GraphQLRequestPipelineConfig<TContext> {
 
   formatError?: (error: GraphQLError) => GraphQLFormattedError;
   formatResponse?: (
-    response: GraphQLResponse | null,
+    response: GraphQLResponse,
     requestContext: GraphQLRequestContext<TContext>,
-  ) => GraphQLResponse;
+  ) => GraphQLResponse | null;
 
   plugins?: ApolloServerPlugin[];
   documentStore?: InMemoryLRUCache<DocumentNode>;