Why is a gin index on a jsonb column slowing down my query and what I can do about it?

Initialize test data:

CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS pgcrypto;
CREATE TABLE docs (data JSONB NOT NULL DEFAULT '{}');
-- generate 200k documents, ~half with type: "type1" and another half with type: "type2", unique incremented index and random uuid per each row
INSERT INTO docs (data)
SELECT json_build_object('id', gen_random_uuid(), 'type', (CASE WHEN random() > 0.5 THEN 'type1' ELSE 'type2' END) ,'index', n)::JSONB
FROM generate_series(1, 200000) n;
-- inset one more row with explicit uuid to query by it later
INSERT INTO docs (data) VALUES (json_build_object('id', '30e84646-c5c5-492d-b7f7-c884d77d1e0a', 'type', 'type1' ,'index', 200001)::JSONB);

First query - filter by data->type and limit:

-- FAST ~19ms
EXPLAIN ANALYZE
SELECT * FROM docs
WHERE data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::JSONB
LIMIT 25;
/* "Limit  (cost=0.00..697.12 rows=25 width=90) (actual time=0.029..0.070 rows=25 loops=1)"
   "  ->  Seq Scan on docs  (cost=0.00..5577.00 rows=200 width=90) (actual time=0.028..0.061 rows=25 loops=1)"
   "        Filter: (data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::jsonb)"
   "        Rows Removed by Filter: 17"
   "Planning time: 0.069 ms"
   "Execution time: 0.098 ms" 
*/

Second query - filter by data->type, order by data->index and limit

```
-- SLOW ~250ms
EXPLAIN ANALYZE
SELECT * FROM docs
WHERE data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::JSONB
ORDER BY data->'index' -- added ORDER BY
LIMIT 25;

/* "Limit (cost=5583.14..5583.21 rows=25 width=90) (actual time=236.750..236.754 rows=25 loops=1)"
" -> Sort (cost=5583.14..5583.64 rows=200 width=90) (actual time=236.750..236.750 rows=25 loops=1)"
" Sort Key: ((data -> 'index'::text))"
" Sort Method: top-N heapsort Memory: 28kB"
" -> Seq Scan on docs (cost=0.00..5577.50 rows=200 width=90) (actual time=0.020..170.797 rows=100158 loops=1)"
" Filter: (data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::jsonb)"
" Rows Removed by Filter: 99842"
"Planning time: 0.075 ms"
"Execution time: 236

It looks like you've run into the issue that jsonb columns have a flat 1% statistics rate, as reported here Working around jsonb's lack of stats?. Looking at your query plans, the differences between the estimates and the actual executions are huge. The estimates say there are probably 200 rows, and the actual return 100158 rows, which causes the planner to favor certain strategies over others.

Since the choice in the sixth query seems to come down to favoring a bitmap index scan over an index scan, you can nudge the planner along with SET enable_bitmapscan=off to try and get it to revert to the behavior you had in your third example.

Here's how it worked for me:

postgres@[local]:5432:postgres:=# EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS)
SELECT * FROM docs
WHERE data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::JSONB
ORDER BY data->'index'
LIMIT 25;
                                                                QUERY PLAN                                                                 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Limit  (cost=656.06..656.12 rows=25 width=90) (actual time=117.338..117.343 rows=25 loops=1)
   Buffers: shared hit=3096
   ->  Sort  (cost=656.06..656.56 rows=200 width=90) (actual time=117.336..117.338 rows=25 loops=1)
         Sort Key: ((data -> 'index'::text))
         Sort Method: top-N heapsort  Memory: 28kB
         Buffers: shared hit=3096
         ->  Bitmap Heap Scan on docs  (cost=17.55..650.41 rows=200 width=90) (actual time=12.838..80.584 rows=99973 loops=1)
               Recheck Cond: (data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::jsonb)
               Heap Blocks: exact=3077
               Buffers: shared hit=3096
               ->  Bitmap Index Scan on docs_data_idx  (cost=0.00..17.50 rows=200 width=0) (actual time=12.469..12.469 rows=99973 loops=1)
                     Index Cond: (data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::jsonb)
                     Buffers: shared hit=19
 Planning time: 0.088 ms
 Execution time: 117.405 ms
(15 rows)

Time: 117.813 ms
postgres@[local]:5432:postgres:=# SET enable_bitmapscan = off;
SET
Time: 0.130 ms
postgres@[local]:5432:postgres:=# EXPLAIN (ANALYZE, BUFFERS)
SELECT * FROM docs
WHERE data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::JSONB
ORDER BY data->'index'
LIMIT 25;
                                                               QUERY PLAN                                                               
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Limit  (cost=0.42..1320.48 rows=25 width=90) (actual time=0.017..0.050 rows=25 loops=1)
   Buffers: shared hit=4
   ->  Index Scan using docs_data_index_idx on docs  (cost=0.42..10560.94 rows=200 width=90) (actual time=0.015..0.045 rows=25 loops=1)
         Filter: (data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::jsonb)
         Rows Removed by Filter: 27
         Buffers: shared hit=4
 Planning time: 0.083 ms
 Execution time: 0.071 ms
(8 rows)

Time: 0.402 ms
postgres@[local]:5432:postgres:=#

If you're looking to go this route, be sure to disable that scan only for queries that show behavior like this, otherwise, you'll get bad behavior on other query plans too. Doing something like this should work just fine:

BEGIN;
SET enable_bitmapscan=off;
SELECT * FROM docs
WHERE data @> '{"type": "type1"}'::JSONB
ORDER BY data->'index'
LIMIT 25;
SET enable_bitmapscan=on;
COMMIT;

Hope that helps =)

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#112610, answer score: 5