In this article I present several ways to check your PostgreSQL version.

Option 1: SELECT version()

If you’re already connected to PostgreSQL, run the following query to return the PostgreSQL server’s version information:

SELECT version();

Here’s the result when using PostgreSQL 12.1:

                                                   version                                                   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 PostgreSQL 12.1 on x86_64-apple-darwin16.7.0, compiled by Apple LLVM version 8.1.0 (clang-802.0.42), 64-bit
(1 row)

This option is handy for when you’re connected to a PostgreSQL database using a GUI such as PgAdmin, DBeaver, Azure Data Studio, etc.

But you can run the same query when you’re connected to a PostgreSQL database using the psql command line interface (CLI).

Option 2: SHOW server_version

If you only want the version number, run SHOW server_version:

SHOW server_version;

Here’s the result when using PostgreSQL 12.1:

server_version 
----------------
12.1

You can also use the server_version_num command to return the version number as an integer:

SHOW server_version_num;

Here’s the result when using PostgreSQL 12.1

server_version_num 
--------------------
120001

Option 3: Using the CLI

Here are a couple of handy Command Line Interface (CLI) options.

The pg_config Utility

The pg_config utility retrieves information about the installed version of PostgreSQL.

Running it with the --version option returns the PostgreSQL server’s version number:

pg_config --version

Here’s the result when using version 12.1:

PostgreSQL 12.1

Another way to do it is to use postgres -V.

postgres -V

Result:

postgres (PostgreSQL) 12.1

The psql Client

psql is a terminal-based front-end to PostgreSQL.

Running psql --version returns the psql version number:

psql --version

Here’s the result when using version 12.1:

psql (PostgreSQL) 12.1

You can also use a shortened syntax psql -V to return the same result.

psql -V

Result:

psql (PostgreSQL) 12.1