An Auster 5, registered G-AGOH, was modified to take a 100 hp (75 kW) Blackburn Cirrus II engine for trials.

The Autocrat was used by individual pilots, aero clubs and by small charter firms for passenger flights, banner towing and photography.

Starting in 1946, newly built examples of the Autocrat and Alpha were exported direct from the production line at Rearsby to many countries worldwide including Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Ceylon, Denmark, Egypt, France, Iraq, Jordan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Uruguay.

Numbers of Autocrats and Alphas continue to fly into the 2010s with private owners in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.

An Auster Autocrat (registration G-AIGD) was featured in Episode 42 of the BBC series Father Brown which first aired in January 2016.