The PostgreSQL Global Development Group announces that the first release candidate of PostgreSQL 18 is now available for download. As a release candidate, PostgreSQL 18 RC 1 will be mostly identical to the initial release of PostgreSQL 18, though some more fixes may be applied prior to the general availability of PostgreSQL 18.
The planned date for the general availability of PostgreSQL 18 is September 25, 2025. Please see the "Release Schedule" section for more details.
Upgrading to PostgreSQL 18 RC 1
To upgrade to PostgreSQL 18 RC 1 from earlier versions of PostgreSQL, you will need to use a major version upgrade strategy, e.g. pg_upgrade or pg_dump / pg_restore. For more information, please visit the documentation section on upgrading:
Several bug fixes were applied for PostgreSQL 18 during the Beta 3 period. These include:
Skip vacuuming virtual generated columns when using vacuumdb --missing-stats-only.
Added recommendation on when to reindex full-text search and pg_trgm indexes after using pg_upgrade.
For a detailed list of fixes, please visit the open items page.
Release Schedule
This is the first release candidate for PostgreSQL 18. Unless an issue is discovered that warrants a delay or to produce an additional release candidate, PostgreSQL 18 should be made generally available on September 25, 2025.
For further information please see the Beta Testing page.
