---
id: 'timescaledb'
title: 'timescaledb: Time-Series data'
description: 'Scalable time-series data storage and analysis'
---

[timescaledb](https://docs.timescale.com/timescaledb/latest/) is a PostgreSQL extension designed for improved handling of time-series data. It provides a scalable, high-performance solution for storing and querying time-series data on top of a standard PostgreSQL database.

`timescaledb` uses a time-series-aware storage model and indexing techniques to improve performance of PostgreSQL in working with time-series data. The extension divides data into chunks based on time intervals, allowing it to scale efficiently, especially for large data sets. The data is then compressed, optimized for write-heavy workloads, and partitioned for parallel processing. `timescaledb` also includes a set of functions, operators, and indexes that work with time-series data to reduce query times, and make data easier to work with.

<Admonition type="note">

Supabase projects come with [TimescaleDB Apache 2 Edition](https://docs.timescale.com/about/latest/timescaledb-editions/#timescaledb-apache-2-edition). Functionality only available under the Community Edition is not available.

</Admonition>

## Enable the extension

<Tabs
  scrollable
  size="small"
  type="underlined"
  defaultActiveId="dashboard"
  queryGroup="database-method"
>
<TabPanel id="dashboard" label="Dashboard">

1. Go to the [Database](https://supabase.com/dashboard/project/_/database/tables) page in the Dashboard.
2. Click on **Extensions** in the sidebar.
3. Search for "timescaledb" and enable the extension.

</TabPanel>
<TabPanel id="sql" label="SQL">

{/* prettier-ignore */}
```sql
-- Enable the "timescaledb" extension
create extension timescaledb;

-- Disable the "timescaledb" extension
drop extension if exists timescaledb;
```

</TabPanel>
</Tabs>

## Usage

To demonstrate how `timescaledb` works, let's consider a simple example where we have a table that stores temperature data from different sensors. We will create a table named "temperatures" and store data for two sensors.

First we create a hypertable, which is a virtual table that is partitioned into chunks based on time intervals. The hypertable acts as a proxy for the actual table and makes it easy to query and manage time-series data.

{/* prettier-ignore */}
```sql
create table temperatures (
  time timestamptz not null,
  sensor_id int not null,
  temperature double precision not null
);

select create_hypertable('temperatures', 'time');
```

Next, we can populate some values

{/* prettier-ignore */}
```sql
insert into temperatures (time, sensor_id, temperature)
values
    ('2023-02-14 09:00:00', 1, 23.5),
    ('2023-02-14 09:00:00', 2, 21.2),
    ('2023-02-14 09:05:00', 1, 24.5),
    ('2023-02-14 09:05:00', 2, 22.3),
    ('2023-02-14 09:10:00', 1, 25.1),
    ('2023-02-14 09:10:00', 2, 23.9),
    ('2023-02-14 09:15:00', 1, 24.9),
    ('2023-02-14 09:15:00', 2, 22.7),
    ('2023-02-14 09:20:00', 1, 24.7),
    ('2023-02-14 09:20:00', 2, 23.5);
```

And finally we can query the table using `timescaledb`'s `time_bucket` function to divide the time-series into intervals of the specified size (in this case, 1 hour) averaging the `temperature` reading within each group.

{/* prettier-ignore */}
```sql
select
    time_bucket('1 hour', time) AS hour,
    avg(temperature) AS average_temperature
from
    temperatures
where
    sensor_id = 1
    and time > NOW() - interval '1 hour'
group by
    hour;
```

## Resources

- Official [`timescaledb` documentation](https://docs.timescale.com/timescaledb/latest/)