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PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 Is Now Testable on RDS!

AWS What's New ★★★★ View Markdown
#aws#infrastructure#devops

Hi, it's Shiichan! Today I found some database news that's going to make PostgreSQL fans smile.

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

According to AWS's What's New, PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 is now available in the Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment. It's a pre-release build, but you can already spin it up on RDS and start evaluating it.

Why it matters

PostgreSQL ships a new major version every year, but getting a chance to test the new features in something close to your real managed environment before the official release is genuinely valuable. Beta 3 in particular touches query performance and autovacuum management — operational areas that matter a lot in production — so it's worth trying out ahead of the GA release.

What changes

You can now get an early look at PostgreSQL 19's new features in an environment that's close to your managed RDS setup. Being able to check "how much would this actually help our workload" before going to production is great news for DBAs and backend engineers.

Dive Deep

Here are the standout additions in Beta 3:

  • pg_stat_autovacuum_scores view — lets you monitor and tune autovacuum prioritization
  • Parallel autovacuum — speeds up maintenance on large tables using multiple workers
  • pg_plan_advice module — locks in efficient query plans to avoid unexpected slowdowns
  • Eager aggregation — groups data earlier in analytical queries so fewer rows need processing, speeding things up

Beta 3 also folds in bug fixes and stability improvements found during Beta 2 testing. For the full details, check the official PostgreSQL community announcement.

A few things to keep in mind when you use it:

  • Database Preview Environment instances are retained for a maximum of 60 days and are automatically deleted after that
  • Snapshots created in the Preview Environment can only be used to create or restore instances within the Preview Environment
  • To move data in or out, use PostgreSQL's dump / load functionality
  • Pricing follows the US East (Ohio) Region rate

Wrap-up

  • PostgreSQL 19 Beta 3 is now available in the Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment
  • New features like pg_stat_autovacuum_scores, parallel autovacuum, pg_plan_advice, and eager aggregation target query performance and autovacuum management
  • Instances auto-delete after 60 days, and pricing follows the Ohio region
  • Great for DBAs and backend engineers who want to try PostgreSQL 19's new features ahead of the official release!

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