# Postgres backups under the hood

DevFeed: [Postgres backups under the hood](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/postgres-backups-under-the-hood-2330.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://planetscale.com/blog/postgres-backups-under-the-hood>)

Author: Josh Brown

Published: 2026-07-24T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Blog -- PlanetScale](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/blog-planetscale.md>)

Topics: [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [SQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/sql.md>), [IO](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/io.md>), [Filesystems](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/filesystems.md>)

Tags: [backup](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/backup.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/data.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/engineering.md>), [how-to](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/how-to.md>), [io](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/io.md>), [postgres](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/postgres.md>), [recovery](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/recovery.md>), [sql](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sql.md>)

## AI overview

This article explains how Postgres backups work, focusing on logical backups and their tradeoffs. It describes consistent snapshots, SQL or custom output formats, resource costs at large data volumes, the lack of point-in-time recovery, and the use of MVCC for online backups.

## Source excerpt

With backups being such a vital part of keeping your data safe, how do they actually work?