UUIDv7 functions

UUIDv7 is a time-ordered UUID that includes a Unix timestamp with millisecond precision in its first 48 bits. Like other UUIDs it uses 6 bits for version and variant info. The remaining 74 bits are random.

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UUIDv7 is ideal anywhere you create lots of records over time. Advantages are:

• No extra column required to partition by time with sortability: you can sort UUIDv7 instances by their value. This is useful for ordering records by creation time without the need for a separate timestamp column.
• Indexing performance: UUIDv7s increase with time, so new rows are appended near the end of a B-tree. This results in fewer page splits, less fragmentation, faster inserts, and efficient time-range scans.
• Easy keyset pagination: WHERE id > :cursor and natural sharding.
• UUID: safe across services, replicas, and unique across distributed systems.

UUIDv7 also increases query speed by reducing the number of chunks scanned during queries. For example, in a database with 25 million rows, the following query runs in 25 seconds:

WITH ref AS (SELECT now() AS t0)
SELECT count(*) AS cnt_ts_filter
FROM events e, ref
WHERE uuid_timestamp(e.event_id) >= ref.t0 - INTERVAL '2 days';

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Using UUIDv7 means that chunks are excluded at startup, and the query time is reduced to 550 ms:

WITH ref AS (SELECT now() AS t0)
SELECT count(*) AS cnt_boundary_filter
FROM events e, ref
WHERE e.event_id >= to_uuidv7_boundary(ref.t0 - INTERVAL '2 days')

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You use UUIDvs for events, orders, messages, uploads, runs, jobs, spans, and more.

• High-rate event logs for observability and metrics:

  UUIDv7 gives you globally unique IDs for traceability and time windows such as “last hour”, without the need for a separate created_at column. UUIDv7 creates less churn because inserts land at the end of the index, and you can filter by time using UUIDv7 objects.

  • Last hour:

    SELECT count(*) FROM logs WHERE id >= to_uuidv7_boundary(now() - interval '1 hour');

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  • Keyset pagination

    SELECT * FROM logs WHERE id > to_uuidv7($last_seen'::timestamptz, true) ORDER BY id LIMIT 1000;

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• Workflow / durable execution runs:

  Each run needs a stable ID for joins and retries. UUIDs help by serving both as the primary key and a time cursor. For example:

  SELECT run_id, status
  FROM runs
  WHERE run_id >= to_uuidv7_boundary(now() - interval '5 minutes')

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• Orders / activity feeds / messages (SaaS apps):

  Human-readable timestamps are not mandatory in a table. However, you still need time-ordered pages and day/week ranges. UUIDv7 enables clean date windows and cursor pagination with just the ID. For example:

  SELECT * FROM orders
  WHERE id >= to_uuidv7('2025-08-01'::timestamptz, true)
  AND id < to_uuidv7('2025-08-02'::timestamptz, true)
  ORDER BY id;

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• generate_uuidv7(): generate a version 7 UUID based on the current time
• to_uuidv7(): create a version 7 UUID from a Postgres timestamp
• to_uuidv7_boundary(): create a version 7 "boundary" UUID from a Postgres timestamp
• uuid_timestamp(): extract a Postgres timestamp from a version 7 UUID
• uuid_timestamp_micros(): extract a Postgres timestamp with microsecond precision from a version 7 UUID
• uuid_version(): extract the version of a UUID