Auguste was born in Aschaffenburg as the ninth child of the imperial army commander Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, and of his wife Princess Sibylle of Saxe-Lauenburg, who was twenty years younger than her husband.

Her aunt Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg was the Grand Duchess of Tuscany as wife of Gian Gastone de' Medici, her husbands own distant cousin.

Her mother preferred the French match as it would strengthen ties with a powerful neighbour who prior to Auguste's birth, had ravaged Baden-Baden.

[1] Auguste, however gave into her mother and agreed to the match with Louis d'Orléans and there was a proxy ceremony held at the Schloss Rastatt before she was married on 13 July 1724, at the age of 19.

[2] Her marriage to the First Prince of the Blood allowed her to use the style of Madame la Princesse, and made her one of the most important ladies at the court of the young Louis XV of France.

The couple were never actually married and in 1725 she was sent back to Spain then making Auguste and her mother in law the Dowager Duchess of Orléans the most senior women at court.

In 1725, Louis XV married Marie Leszczyńska, making Auguste one step behind the new queen in terms of rank and etiquette.