Jonathan Katz posted Updated PostgreSQL RC / GA dates to pgsql-hackers on 10 October 2026. The archive timestamps the message 2026-10-10 15:52:42. He writes that the release team is keeping PostgreSQL 19 RC1 on 15 October, adding an RC2 on 12 November, and moving general availability to 19 November.
A release candidate is a near-final build published for testing. General availability is the date of the finished major release. Back branches are the older supported major versions.
What the mail says
“The release team has a few updates to the PostgreSQL 19 release schedule to share.” RC1 “is continuing as planned for October 15.” The team “decided to move the PostgreSQL 19 GA to November 19, one week after the planned scheduled update release.” The footnote is the PostgreSQL roadmap. Its next minor-release date is “November 12th, 2026”, the same day as RC2, and seven days before 19 November.
He gives this reason: “Given the volume of fixes that have been added to the back branches, the release team wanted to make those available in a PostgreSQL 19 RC2 that would be scheduled for November 12 before proceeding with the GA.”
He closes with: “We know this has been an atypical major release cycle, but we want to ensure we keep delivering a PostgreSQL that’s stable and reliable, and we’ve made these decisions around that goal.” The whole-thread page, opened on 11 October 2026, lists this message alone.
The Open Items page now matches the mail
Opened on 11 October 2026, the PostgreSQL 19 Open Items page lists “GA: (Planned) November 19, 2026”, “RC 2: November 12, 2026”, and “RC 1: October 15, 2026”. The wiki says it was last edited on 10 October 2026, at 15:50.
The diff shows what that edit changed. The previous revision, 22:24 on 9 October 2026, read “GA: (Planned) October 29, 2026” and “RC 1: October 15, 2026”, with no RC2. The new lines put general availability on 19 November and add “RC 2: November 12, 2026”. RC1 stays. Wiki user Jkatz05 made the edit, and the user page names Jonathan Katz. The 29 October date is that previous line, 21 days before 19 November.
The roadmap page had not been updated
The roadmap still said the 19 release “is planned for October 2026,” with no day of the month. It lists “November 12th, 2026” as the next minor release. Minor releases target the second Thursday of February, May, August, and November unless otherwise stated. The general-availability day is in the mail and on the updated Open Items page.
Earlier talk of a one-month delay
On 9 October, Why PostgreSQL 19 lost features late in beta, from a committer who lost some covered Peter Eisentraut’s account of features pulled in beta. It quotes his count of about 8 to 10 significant features reverted, some late, and his note that the causes were his opinions: architectural defects, LLM-assisted review, and security work from about April through the August security release. It also quotes him that “the community preferred trying to stick to the release schedule rather than delaying to get more fixes in,” and it records an X claim of a one-month postponement as unconfirmed. The Open Items dates in that post are the 9 October lines: RC1 on 15 October and general availability planned for 29 October.
The 10 October mail is narrower than that one-month claim: RC1 stays on 15 October, general availability moves to 19 November, and RC2 on 12 November is for the back-branch fixes. The reverts stay in the 9 October account.
A self-funded check of Postgres 19 beta finds a small OLTP gain reported one person’s beta runs, about a 3 percent shorter test duration, while the roadmap still placed version 19 in October.
What this means if you planned an upgrade
If your window was 29 October 2026, move production to 19 November 2026.
- Test on RC1, on 15 October, on a spare server outside production. Restore a backup, run your tests, and check extensions, drivers, and backup tools. Leave production on your current major version.
- Retest on RC2 on 12 November, including tests that passed.
- Upgrade production on 19 November, one week later. That is general availability in the mail and on Open Items.
If a hosted service quoted 29 October, ask which build it will offer. A date copied only from the roadmap, as that page stood on 11 October 2026, will still say October.
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