Features

How CrateDB Works

One database for real-time analytics, search, and AI.

Diagram of CrateDB architecture showing ingestion of multiple data types, distributed storage and querying, security, deployment options, and outputs like fast queries, aggregations, and AI/ML integrations for applications and visualization tools.

Time-series data: CrateDB handles high-volume time series data, enabling fast trend analysis, monitoring, and real-time insights based on when events occur.
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JSON data: CrateDB natively stores and queries JSON, supporting flexible schemas while delivering fast filtering and real-time analytics.
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Relational data: CrateDB manages relational data with distributed SQL, providing structured schemas and powerful queries for reliable analytics.
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Geospatial data: CrateDB stores and queries geospatial data, enabling fast distance calculations, spatial filtering, and real-time location analytics at scale.
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Text data: CrateDB stores and analyzes text data at scale, enabling fast search, filtering, and pattern detection across large volumes of unstructured content.
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Vector data: CrateDB stores and queries vector embeddings, enabling similarity search, recommendations, and AI-driven retrieval beyond exact keyword matching.
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Streaming ingestion: CrateDB continuously ingests and processes streaming data, enabling real-time analytics on fresh events without batch delays.
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Batch ingestion: CrateDB supports efficient batch ingestion for historical backfills, scheduled updates, and large-volume data imports at scale.
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High throughput: CrateDB ingests massive data volumes in real time, handling large-scale event streams without compromising query performance.
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Auto-indexing in milliseconds: CrateDB automatically indexes data within milliseconds, making it queryable almost instantly for low-latency analytics and search on fresh data.
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Connectivity: CrateDB offers multiple access options, including the PostgreSQL wire protocol, HTTP endpoints, native drivers and clients, and MCP servers, making integration with applications simple and flexible.
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Execution: CrateDB executes queries in parallel across distributed nodes, delivering fast analytics and predictable performance as data and workloads scale.
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Storage: CrateDB combines columnar and row storage with sharding, partitioning, and replication to scale reliably, while built-in compression, data tiering, and backup ensure durable data management.
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Deployment: CrateDB runs consistently across public cloud, private cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. This lets teams deploy analytics close to their data while keeping the same architecture and capabilities everywhere.
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Querying: CrateDB uses native SQL with built-in functions and CTEs to express complex analytics clearly. Teams can query real-time and historical data using familiar, powerful constructs.
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Data: CrateDB supports multi-model data with a dynamic schema that adapts as data evolves. Automatic indexing ensures new data is queryable immediately without manual tuning.
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Infrastructure: CrateDB runs on a distributed, shared-nothing architecture that spreads data and workloads across nodes, with self-balancing, high availability, and horizontal scalability for resilient performance as you grow.
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Security: CrateDB delivers authentication and authorization controls, along with encryption, audit logging, and compliance certifications to protect data and meet regulatory requirements.
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Analytics & AI: CrateDB powers real-time aggregations, ad-hoc analytics, hybrid search, and AI-driven workloads on live data.
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Query results in milliseconds: CrateDB returns query results in milliseconds, even on large datasets, enabling interactive analytics and real-time decision-making.

Thousands of concurrent users: CrateDB supports high concurrency, maintaining stable performance even under heavy query loads.

Visualization tools: CrateDB integrates with popular BI and visualization tools using SQL. This makes it easy to explore data, build dashboards, and share real-time insights.

Applications: CrateDB powers real-time applications built on fresh, high-volume data using SQL. It supports analytics-driven features, operational dashboards, and AI-enabled user experiences.

AI and ML platforms: CrateDB integrates with AI and machine learning platforms using SQL to feed models with fresh, high-volume data. This supports RAG, recommendations, anomaly detection, and real-time inference.

All data types, one SQL engine

Time-series, JSON, relational, geospatial, full-text, and vector data are all first-class citizens in CrateDB. Query across all of them in a single statement; no separate pipelines, no synchronization overhead, no storage layer per type.

Time-series
JSON / document
Relational
Geospatial
Full-text
Vector
Dynamic schema
Automatic indexing

Ingestion at any velocity

CrateDB ingests millions of records per second from streaming sources, batch imports, and everything in between. Data is indexed automatically on arrival and queryable within milliseconds. No manual indexing step, no batch delay before you can query fresh data.

Streaming ingestion
Batch ingestion
Auto-indexing in milliseconds
High-throughput ingest

Query execution and performance

Queries execute in parallel across all nodes simultaneously. CrateDB returns sub-second results on billions of records — complex aggregations, ad-hoc joins, hybrid search, and vector queries — without pre-aggregation or manual query tuning.

Distributed SQL engine
Aggregations
Ad-hoc queries
Hybrid search
AI feature queries
High-cardinality analytics

Standard SQL, no new language to learn

CrateDB uses standard SQL throughout — joins, aggregations, subqueries, CTEs, and user-defined functions. The PostgreSQL wire protocol means your existing tools, drivers, and BI platforms connect without modification.

Native SQL syntax
Functions and UDFs
CTEs
SQL examples
PostgreSQL wire protocol

Storage built for analytics at scale

CrateDB combines columnar and row-based storage, choosing the optimal format per query type automatically. Data is sharded across the cluster, compressed, partitioned by time or dimension, and replicated for durability — without manual configuration.

Columnar and row storage
Sharding
Partitioning
Replication
Compression
Data tiering
Backup and restore
Consistency and durability

Infrastructure that manages itself

CrateDB runs on a shared-nothing architecture where every node is equal. The cluster self-balances as data grows, detects and recovers from node failures automatically, and scales horizontally without downtime. Add nodes while the database stays live.

Shared-nothing architecture
Self-balancing cluster
High availability
Horizontal scalability
Node architecture

Connect anything, deploy anywhere

CrateDB connects to your existing stack through the PostgreSQL wire protocol, HTTP endpoint, native drivers, and an MCP server for AI tool integration. Deploy on AWS, Azure, or GCP as a managed service, on your own infrastructure, or at the edge.

PostgreSQL wire protocol
HTTP endpoint
Drivers and clients
MCP server
Deployment options
Integrations

Security and compliance

Authentication, role-based access control, encryption at rest and in transit, and audit logging are built into every deployment. CrateDB Cloud is ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant on AWS and Azure.

Authentication
Authorization and RBAC
Encryption
Audit logging
Compliance and certifications

Deploy on your terms

CrateDB runs the same way everywhere. Use CrateDB Cloud for a fully managed service on AWS, Azure, or GCP — operated by the engineers who built it. Deploy on your own infrastructure with CrateDB Enterprise for on-premises, private cloud, or edge environments. Or start with the open-source edition and self-manage. The same database, the same SQL, across all three models.

CrateDB Cloud
CrateDB Enterprise
CrateDB OSS
Deployment options
Pricing

Support when it matters

CrateDB Cloud subscriptions include Standard support. Monitoring, operations, and direct access to the team that built the database are all included. Upgrade to Premium support for contractual SLAs, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, and hands-on engineering expertise for optimization and cost management.

For self-managed deployments, Standard and Premium support plans are available with the same SLA and CSM options.

Support plans
Support overview
CrateDB Academy
Community

CrateDB Academy – Free Courses

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CrateDB Architecture Guide

Whitepaper: "Architecture Guide: CrateDB Key Concepts"

CrateDB Architecture Guide

This comprehensive guide covers all the key concepts you need to know about CrateDB's architecture. It will help you gain a deeper understanding of what makes it performant, scalable, flexible and easy to use. Armed with this knowledge, you will be better equipped to make informed decisions about when to leverage CrateDB for your data projects.

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Latest Release Announcements

The image represents the CrateDB 6.0 release

Performance

Real-Time Analytics

Scalable SQL Database

PostgreSQL Compatibility

Product Release

New Release: CrateDB 6.0

2025-10-02

We’re excited to announce our latest release, CrateDB 6.0. With faster queries, stronger PostgreSQL compatibility, smarter monitoring tools, and a foundation for future AI-powered features, this ...

New release of Distributed Hash Inner & Outer Joins and Reduced Storage Size.

Product Release

CrateDB v5.10 Release: 50% storage space reduction and fast outer joins

2025-02-21

A new feature release of CrateDB, version 5.10, has been released today, featuring:

Two databases of different size next to each other

Product Release

How CrateDB Minimizes Data Footprints Without Compromising Performance

2025-02-21

As businesses generate and analyze ever-growing datasets, managing storage costs becomes a critical concern. Without proper optimization, storage costs can escalate due to increasing data volume, ...

How CrateDB Works

All data types, one SQL engine

Ingestion at any velocity

Query execution and performance

Standard SQL, no new language to learn

Storage built for analytics at scale

Infrastructure that manages itself

Connect anything, deploy anywhere

Security and compliance

Deploy on your terms

Support when it matters

CrateDB Academy – Free Courses

Enroll for free, Learn, and Get Certified

CrateDB Architecture Guide

CrateDB Architecture Guide

Want to Explore Further?

What CrateDB Users Say

Company

Ecosystem

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