# Do you really need tsvector column?

DevFeed: [Do you really need tsvector column?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/do-you-really-need-tsvector-column-33668.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.depesz.com/2025/11/03/do-you-really-need-tsvector-column/>)

Author: depesz

Published: 2025-11-03T12:34:33Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [select \* from depesz;](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/select-from-depesz.md>)

Topics: [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [Query (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/query.md>), [Algorithm](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/algorithm.md>)

Tags: [algorithm](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/algorithm.md>), [benchmark](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/benchmark.md>), [comparison](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/comparison.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [function](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/function.md>), [gin](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gin.md>), [gist](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gist.md>), [index](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/index.md>), [postgresql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgresql.md>), [query](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/query.md>), [tsearch](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tsearch.md>), [tsvector](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/tsvector.md>), [uncategorized](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/uncategorized.md>)

## AI overview

This article tests whether a materialized tsvector column is necessary for full-text search. Using a large Wikipedia-derived dataset, it compares a tsvector column with an expression-based function index and reports that the tested query took about 4.5 minutes with the materialized column versus almost an hour with the function-based index.

## Source excerpt

When using tsearch one usually, often, creates a tsvector column to put data in, and then create index on it. But, do you really need the index? I wrote once already that you don't have to, but then a person talked with me on IRC, and pointed this section of docs: One advantage of the ... Continue reading "Do you really need tsvector column?"