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# Watch Out Elasticsearch! Tiger Data's PostgreSQL BM25 Search Extension Goes Open Source
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/tiger-data-pg-textsearch/
- Published: 2025-12-20T01:46:38.000Z
- Updated: 2025-12-20T01:46:38.000Z
- Description: Previously proprietary PostgreSQL extension is now freely available on GitHub.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: News, Enterprise

[Tiger Data](https://www.tigerdata.com/?ref=itsfoss.com) is the company behind [TimescaleDB](https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb?ref=itsfoss.com), a popular time-series database extension for PostgreSQL. The company builds tools that enhance PostgreSQL for time-series data, real-time analytics, and AI applications.

They have now open-sourced pg\_textsearch, their [PostgreSQL](https://www.postgresql.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) extension that brings modern search capabilities to the database. Let's check it out! 😃

## pg\_textsearch Goes Open

Tiger Data has released pg\_textsearch under [The PostgreSQL License](https://opensource.org/license/postgresql?ref=itsfoss.com) on [GitHub](https://tsdb.co/itsfoss%5Fpg%5Ftextsearch?ref=itsfoss.com). The extension **was previously available only on Tiger Cloud**, their managed database platform.

Announcing this move, [Michael Freedman](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mfreed%5Fpostgres-activity-7406358783196758016-itPq/?ref=itsfoss.com), the CTO of Tiger Data, stated that:

> If you care about fast, relevance-ranked keyword search without leaving Postgres – or hybrid retrieval by combining pg\_textsearch with pgvector/pgvectorscale – this is for you.

The extension **lets developers run BM25 relevance-ranked keyword searches directly in PostgreSQL** without them needing to set up an external search system like [Elasticsearch](https://www.elastic.co/elasticsearch?ref=itsfoss.com).

BM25 is the industry-standard ranking algorithm behind modern search engines. With pg\_textsearch, you can now run it inside Postgres for relevance-ranked text search. pg\_textsearch pairs naturally with pgvector to support keyword + semantic search in a single database.

Some additional details can be [found in this blog post](https://www.tigerdata.com/blog/introducing-pg%5Ftextsearch-true-bm25-ranking-hybrid-retrieval-postgres?ref=itsfoss.com).

[From ts\_rank to BM25\. Introducing pg\_textsearch: True BM25 Ranking and Hybrid Retrieval Inside Postgres | Tiger Datapg\_textsearch brings BM25 ranking to enable hybrid search to Postgres. Build RAG systems with keyword precision and vector semantics in one database.![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/icon/icon.ico)Tiger Data BlogTodd J. Green![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/thumbnail/Thumbnail-for-pg_textsearch-article-2.png)](https://www.tigerdata.com/blog/introducing-pg%5Ftextsearch-true-bm25-ranking-hybrid-retrieval-postgres?ref=itsfoss.com)

Some **key features** of [pg\_textsearch](https://www.tigerdata.com/docs/use-timescale/latest/extensions/pg-textsearch?ref=itsfoss.com) include:

- Support for 29+ languages.
- Works with partitioned tables.
- Simple SQL syntax with the `<@>` operator.
- Memtable architecture for efficient indexing.
- [BM25](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okapi%5FBM25?ref=itsfoss.com) ranking with configurable ranking parameters (k1, b).

Tiger Data positions this as the first step toward their **Postgres Search Stack**, aimed at Postgres developers, infrastructure engineers, and AI app builders. The stack will combine keyword search via `pg_textsearch` with vector search through `pgvector` and `pgvectorscale`, giving teams a complete search solution inside PostgreSQL.

[pg\_textsearch on GitHub](https://tsdb.co/itsfoss%5Fpg%5Ftextsearch?ref=itsfoss.com)

**Suggested Read 📖:** [Is SysAdmin Still a Good Career Choice in 2026?](https://itsfoss.com/news/is-sysadmin-good-career-choice/)

[Is SysAdmin Still a Good Career Choice in 2026?Insights from an Interview with Hirdaypal Singh Lamba, Salesforce Consultant.![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/icon/android-chrome-512x512-119.png)It's FOSSAbhishek Prakash![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/thumbnail/sysadmin-career.png)](https://itsfoss.com/news/is-sysadmin-good-career-choice/)