# InfluxDB vs PostgreSQL: which do AI models recommend for time series dbs, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Time series databases. Three of fourteen models named InfluxDB first on the direct prompt; zero named PostgreSQL. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/time-series-databases/influxdb-vs-postgresql/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| InfluxDB | 16% | #2 of 9 | 19% | 70 | 14 of 14 |
| PostgreSQL | 2% | #6 of 9 | 58% | 12 | 10 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Claude Haiku 4.5: influxdb first (first choices: InfluxDB, TimescaleDB) (alternatives: Prometheus)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: influxdb first (first choices: InfluxDB) (alternatives: ClickHouse Cloud, TimescaleDB)
- MiniMax M2.5: influxdb first (first choices: InfluxDB, TimescaleDB) (alternatives: Amazon Timestream, QuestDB)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: Amazon Timestream, InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- Mistral Small: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- Kimi K2: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, Prometheus)
- Muse Glimmer 30B: neither first, one named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: InfluxDB, QuestDB)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: TimescaleDB) (alternatives: ClickHouse Cloud, QuestDB)

## What the models said about InfluxDB

- "Older versions (v1) reached end-of-life years ago, with no security patches or support—avoid for new projects." (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Still risky for production; consider newer versions or alternatives." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "For new projects, avoid InfluxDB 1/2." (GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "Start with InfluxDB Cloud if you're new to TSDBs or focused on monitoring/IoT—it's the most adopted, user-friendly for mid-market" (Grok 4.1 Fast, direct prompt, first choice)
- "InfluxDB Cloud or TimescaleDB are often ideal because they balance ease of use, scalability, and cost-effectiveness" (Claude Haiku 4.5, direct prompt, first choice)
- "I'd recommend InfluxDB for most mid-sized B2B companies that need to store and analyze metrics and sensor data." (Mistral Small, paraphrase prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about PostgreSQL

- "they are not optimized for large volumes... making them poor choices for serious time series workloads" (Mistral Small, negative prompt, hard negative)
- "PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server are fine for *small-scale* time-series workloads, but ... they become a poor fit as ingest volume, retention, and query complexity grow." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "General-purpose databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL can handle time-series workloads at small scale, but performance degrades" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt, soft negative)
- "Start with PostgreSQL + TimescaleDB if your scale is modest. It minimizes new tooling and hiring complexity." (GPT-5.4 mini, budget prompt, first choice)

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.