News · written 7 November 2026. A summary for readers, not technical advice — check the sources at the end for the details.

PostgreSQL is one of the most widely used open-source databases: it stores the data behind countless websites and apps. A new major version arrives every autumn, and this year's is nearly ready.

When

The PostgreSQL project published PostgreSQL 19 RC 1 (release candidate 1) on 15 October 2026. It plans a second release candidate on 12 November 2026 and the final release on 19 November 2026 — in the project's words, "unless an issue is discovered that requires a delay or an additional release candidate". So the date can still move.

What is new

The release notes list these highlights:

• A new REPACK command reclaims disk space and reorganises tables, and REPACK (CONCURRENTLY) does it without blocking reads and writes to the table — maintenance that used to mean downtime or extra tools.
• Planner advice: the new pg_plan_advice extension lets you steer the query planner's decisions, and pg_stash_advice applies that advice automatically based on the query.
• Better performance in many areas, including automatic scaling of the number of I/O worker processes and quicker foreign-key checks.
• Logical replication can now be switched on without restarting the server (when wal_level is replica), and it can now copy sequence values too.
• A new WAIT command gives "read-your-writes" consistency on standby servers.
• Autovacuum can clean a table's indexes in parallel, and decides what to clean first with a new scoring system.

Check before you upgrade

Some defaults and old features change. Among the items in the release notes' migration section:

• standard_conforming_strings is now always on. Dumps made by an older pg_dump with it turned off will not load properly, so make dumps with the PostgreSQL 19 tools.
• JIT compilation is now off by default, and the default compression for large values (TOAST) changes from pglz to lz4.
• The default max_locks_per_transaction doubles from 64 to 128, and lock waits are now logged by default.
• RADIUS authentication is removed, and logging in with MD5 passwords now produces a warning.

As with every major version, moving existing data needs pg_upgrade, a dump and restore, or logical replication. Testing an upgrade on a copy of your database first is always wise.

PostgreSQL 14 reaches end of life

The project supports each major version for five years. PostgreSQL 14, first released in 2021, gets its final update on 12 November 2026; after that it receives no more fixes, including security fixes. If you still run 14, now is a good time to plan a move to a newer version.

Sources

• PostgreSQL — PostgreSQL 19 RC 1 released, 15 October 2026 (dates and the release-date caveat).
• PostgreSQL — PostgreSQL 19 release notes (highlights and migration notes; RC 1 version).
• PostgreSQL — Versioning policy (five-year support and PostgreSQL 14's final release).

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