Benchmarking PostgreSQL Batch Ingest

This article explores different methods for batch ingestion in PostgreSQL, including INSERT...VALUES, INSERT...UNNEST, and COPY. The author built a custom benchmarking tool to measure the end-to-end performance of each method. Results show that binary COPY is substantially faster than other methods when using larger batch sizes due to its ability to bypass server-side parsing and use a dedicated ring buffer. However, text COPY can be a good middle-ground for flexibility and ease of use over larger batches. The choice of method depends on factors such as batch size, application requirements, and framework support.