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Jun 1, 2026 · Databases

Why a 2 TB PostgreSQL Instance Still Runs Out of Memory: Hidden work_mem Pitfalls

Even with 2 TB of RAM, PostgreSQL can hit OOM because work_mem is a per‑operation budget that multiplies across sorts, hashes, parallel workers and long‑lived memory contexts, so blindly raising it often hides deeper query‑design and statistics issues.