random_page_cost in Postgres - why the default is 4.0 and should you lower it? | POSETTE 2026
A Postgres talk examines whether random_page_cost's 25-year-old default of 4.0 should be lowered for modern SSD storage.
“Sequential I/O is much faster, like, than random I/O. And that is true even on SSDs.”
A POSETTE 2026 conference talk by Tomas Vondra explores the history and rationale behind Postgres's random_page_cost default of 4.0 and whether it should be reduced on modern flash storage. While a solid database engineering deep-dive, it contains no meaningful AI industry signal.