pgvector is a PostgreSQL extension, released in 2021, that adds a vector data type and similarity-search operators. It offers a practical "can I just keep using my database?" answer, letting the same table serve both SQL and Embedding queries. It supports approximate nearest-neighbor search via HNSW and IVF index types. Managed Postgres providers like Supabase, Neon, and AWS RDS now bundle it by default, and choosing pgvector over a dedicated Vector Database for small-to-mid RAG workloads has become a noticeable trend over the past two years.
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