PostgreSQL 18 Beta 1 is now available in Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment

Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL 18 Beta 1 is now available in the Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment, allowing you to evaluate the pre-release of PostgreSQL 18 on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. You can deploy PostgreSQL 18 Beta 1 in the Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment that has the benefits of a fully managed database.

PostgreSQL 18 includes significant updates to query execution and I/O operations. Query execution is enhanced with "skip scan" support for multicolumn B-tree indexes and optimized WHERE clause handling for OR and IN (...) conditions. Parallel execution capabilities are expanded through parallel GIN index builds and enhanced join operations. Observability improvements include detailed buffer access statistics in EXPLAIN ANALYZE and enhanced I/O utilization monitoring capabilities. Please refer to the PostgreSQL community announcement for more details.

Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment database instances are retained for a maximum period of 60 days and are automatically deleted after the retention period. Amazon RDS database snapshots that are created in the preview environment can only be used to create or restore database instances within the preview environment. You can use the PostgreSQL dump and load functionality to import or export your databases from the preview environment.

Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment database instances are priced as per the pricing in the US East (Ohio) Region.