diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index abe87e7f253..41241f3e505 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ All of the packages in the `apollo-server` repo are released with the same versi
 
 ### vNEXT
 
+- Fix [#1439](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/issues/1439), use `formatError` if passed in options to `runHttpQuery`.
 - Core: Allow context to be passed to all GraphQLExtension methods. [PR #1547](https://github.com/apollographql/apollo-server/pull/1547)
 
 ### v2.0.7
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts
index cfed6b76d19..04cc06b32a6 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/ApolloServer.ts
@@ -33,8 +33,6 @@ import {
   FileUploadOptions,
 } from './types';
 
-import { FormatErrorExtension } from './formatters';
-
 import { gql } from './index';
 
 import {
@@ -212,21 +210,9 @@ export class ApolloServerBase {
     }
 
     // Note: doRunQuery will add its own extensions if you set tracing,
-    // or cacheControl.
+    // formatError, or cacheControl.
     this.extensions = [];
 
-    // Error formatting should happen after the engine reporting agent, so that
-    // engine gets the unmasked errors if necessary
-    if (this.requestOptions.formatError) {
-      this.extensions.push(
-        () =>
-          new FormatErrorExtension(
-            this.requestOptions.formatError!,
-            this.requestOptions.debug,
-          ),
-      );
-    }
-
     if (engine || (engine !== false && process.env.ENGINE_API_KEY)) {
       this.engineReportingAgent = new EngineReportingAgent(
         engine === true ? {} : engine,
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/__tests__/runQuery.test.ts b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/__tests__/runQuery.test.ts
index f2b6729eda4..ee27654370f 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/__tests__/runQuery.test.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/__tests__/runQuery.test.ts
@@ -419,4 +419,20 @@ describe('runQuery', () => {
       expect(ids.length).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(2);
     });
   });
+
+  describe('formatError', () => {
+    it('is called with errors if passed in options', () => {
+      const formatError = jest.fn();
+      const query = `query { testError }`;
+      return runQuery({
+        schema,
+        queryString: query,
+        variables: { base: 1 },
+        request: new MockReq(),
+        formatError,
+      }).then(() => {
+        expect(formatError).toBeCalledTimes(1);
+      });
+    });
+  });
 });
diff --git a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/runQuery.ts b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/runQuery.ts
index 516750dfd78..c41b9dd40e4 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-server-core/src/runQuery.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-server-core/src/runQuery.ts
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ import {
   SyntaxError,
 } from 'apollo-server-errors';
 
+import { FormatErrorExtension } from './formatters';
+
 export interface GraphQLResponse {
   data?: object;
   errors?: Array<GraphQLError & object>;
@@ -98,6 +100,12 @@ function doRunQuery(options: QueryOptions): Promise<GraphQLResponse> {
   // objects.
   const extensions = options.extensions ? options.extensions.map(f => f()) : [];
 
+  // Error formatting should happen after the engine reporting agent, so that
+  // engine gets the unmasked errors if necessary
+  if (options.formatError) {
+    extensions.unshift(new FormatErrorExtension(options.formatError, debug));
+  }
+
   // If you're running behind an engineproxy, set these options to turn on
   // tracing and cache-control extensions.
   if (options.tracing) {