Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL now supports major version 18

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL now supports major version 18, starting with PostgreSQL version 18.1. PostgreSQL 18 introduces several important community updates that improve query performance and database management.

PostgreSQL 18.0 includes "skip scan" support for multicolumn B-tree indexes and improved WHERE clause handling for OR and IN conditions enhance query optimization. Parallel Generalized Inverted Index (GIN) builds and updated join operations boost overall database performance. The introduction of Universally Unique Identifiers Version 7 (UUIDv7) combines timestamp-based ordering with traditional UUID uniqueness, particularly beneficial for high-throughput distributed systems. PostgreSQL 18 also improves observability by providing buffer usage counts, index lookup statistics during query execution, and per-connection I/O utilization metrics. This release also includes support for the new pgcollection extension, and updates to existing extensions such as pgaudit 18.0, pgvector 0.8.1, pg_cron 1.6.7, pg_tle 1.5.2, mysql_fdw 2.9.3, and tds_fdw 2.0.5.

You can upgrade your database using several options including RDS Blue/Green deployments, upgrade in-place, restore from a snapshot. Learn more about upgrading your database instances in the Amazon RDS User Guide.

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL makes it simple to set up, operate, and scale PostgreSQL deployments in the cloud. See Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL Pricing for pricing details and regional availability. Create or update a fully managed Amazon RDS database in the Amazon RDS Management Console.