BRIN

Block summaries

BRIN indexes (a shorthand for Block Range INdexes) store summaries about the values stored in consecutive physical block ranges of a table. Thus, they are most effective for columns whose values are well-correlated with the physical order of the table rows. Like GiST, SP-GiST and GIN, BRIN can support many different indexing strategies, and the particular operators with which a BRIN index can be used vary depending on the indexing strategy. For data types that have a linear sort order, the indexed data corresponds to the minimum and maximum values of the values in the column for each block range. This supports indexed queries using these operators:

Reading PostgreSQL 18.6.

Capabilities · PostgreSQL 18.6

These are same-version documentary conclusions. Conditional capabilities depend on the operator class, indexed type or query; they are not universal guarantees.

Capability	Support	Conditions and evidence
Sorted output	No	Ordinary sorted output is distinct from ordering by an operator, such as nearest-neighbor distance. Same-version documentation In addition to simply finding the rows to be returned by a query, an index may be able to deliver them in a specific sorted order. This allows a query's ORDER BY specification to be honored without a separate sorting step. Of the index types currently supported by PostgreSQL , only B-tree can produce sorted output — the other index types return matching rows in an unspecified, implementation-dependent order. PostgreSQL 18.6 · indexes-ordering
Unique keys	No	This means a unique index. Exclusion constraints use a different contract. Same-version documentation Currently, only B-tree indexes can be declared unique. PostgreSQL 18.6 · indexes-unique
Multiple key columns	Yes	Multiple search keys are distinct from non-key INCLUDE payload columns. Same-version documentation Currently, only the B-tree, GiST, GIN, and BRIN index types support multiple-key-column indexes. Whether there can be multiple key columns is independent of whether INCLUDE columns can be added to the index. Indexes can have up to 32 columns, including INCLUDE columns. (This limit can be altered when building PostgreSQL ; see the file pg_config_manual.h .) PostgreSQL 18.6 · indexes-multicolumn
INCLUDE columns	No	Payload columns do not become search keys. Wide payloads can exceed the index tuple-size limit. Same-version documentation Currently, the B-tree, GiST and SP-GiST index access methods support this feature. In these indexes, the values of columns listed in the INCLUDE clause are included in leaf tuples which correspond to heap tuples, but are not included in upper-level index entries used for tree navigation. PostgreSQL 18.6 · sql-createindex
Index-only scans	No	The query must use covered values; visibility-map state determines whether heap visits can be avoided. Same-version documentation The index type must support index-only scans. B-tree indexes always do. GiST and SP-GiST indexes support index-only scans for some operator classes but not others. Other index types have no support. The underlying requirement is that the index must physically store, or else be able to reconstruct, the original data value for each index entry. As a counterexample, GIN indexes cannot support index-only scans because each index entry typically holds only part of the original data value. PostgreSQL 18.6 · indexes-index-only-scans
Distance ordering	Not established	Availability depends on the chosen operator class and ordering operator. The sampled source does not establish this capability. This is not a “no”.
Parallel index scan	No	A cooperating scan of one index is distinct from a parallel bitmap heap scan or separate serial scans under Parallel Append. Same-version documentation In a parallel index scan or parallel index-only scan , the cooperating processes take turns reading data from the index. Currently, parallel index scans are supported only for btree indexes. Each process will claim a single index block and will scan and return all tuples referenced by that block; other processes can at the same time be returning tuples from a different index block. The results of a parallel btree scan are returned in sorted order within each worker process. PostgreSQL 18.6 · parallel-plans
Parallel index build	Yes	Parallel construction is separate from parallel scans. Worker availability, settings and build phases also matter. Same-version documentation PostgreSQL can build indexes while leveraging multiple CPUs in order to process the table rows faster. This feature is known as parallel index build . For index methods that support building indexes in parallel (currently, B-tree, GIN, and BRIN), maintenance_work_mem specifies the maximum amount of memory that can be used by each index build operation as a whole, regardless of how many worker processes were started. Generally, a cost model automatically determines how many worker processes should be requested, if any. PostgreSQL 18.6 · sql-createindex

Queries, operators and limitations

CREATE INDEX name ON table_name USING brin (column_name);

Syntax template; replace the table and column placeholders with suitable objects and choose a compatible operator class.

<   <=   =   >=   >

The BRIN operator classes included in the standard distribution are documented in Table 65.4 . For more information see Section 65.5 .

Storage options

Set index options with CREATE INDEX … WITH or ALTER INDEX … SET. Defaults and effective behavior depend on the access method and selected PostgreSQL version.

`pages_per_range`

Defines the number of table blocks that make up one block range for each entry of a BRIN index (see Section 65.5.1 for more details). The default is 128 .

Same-version option definition

`autosummarize`

Defines whether a summarization run is queued for the previous page range whenever an insertion is detected on the next one (see Section 65.5.1.1 for more details). The default is off .

Same-version option definition

Version comparison

No differences in documented capability states or storage-option inventory between these samples.

This comparison covers capability states and the names of documented storage options. It does not compare every algorithm, performance characteristic, option definition or release-note change.

Documented history

PostgreSQL 16 → 17

Parallel index build: No → Yes

PostgreSQL 10 → 11

Parallel index build: Not established → No (source coverage changed)

PostgreSQL 9.6 → 10

Parallel index scan: Not established → No (source coverage changed)
Storage option recorded: autosummarize

PostgreSQL 9.5 → 9.6

Index-only scans: Not established → No (source coverage changed)

PostgreSQL 9.4 → 9.5

First present in this sampled inventory.

Sources and build identity

Extracted from the loaded English manual build 18.6. No runtime capability measurement is claimed.

Source fingerprints

Manual build: PostgreSQL 18.6 Documentation
Combined page SHA-256: 0e39ebd4fddbd990280e62f4503f0bd18765bbd990dccf4cba976b5d47da45e7
Source archive recorded by the manual manifest: 18.6
Archive SHA-256 recorded by the manual manifest: 555610c24d53e4316da5b7d3fc25c279d96856d5e0e23ee308c328c5fa881d9f

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Back to Index AM · Recorded in PostgreSQL 9.5 through 20; first presence in this sample does not establish first introduction.