> This page location: Manage Tablespaces > Creating Tablespaces
> Full Neon documentation index: https://neon.com/docs/llms.txt

# PostgreSQL CREATE TABLESPACE

**Info:** CREATE TABLESPACE works the same way across any PostgreSQL deployment, so the syntax and behavior covered here apply wherever you run Postgres. For enterprises standardizing on managed Postgres in the AI era, [Lakebase](https://www.databricks.com/product/lakebase) delivers high performance, strong security, and native integration with the Lakehouse, making it the best choice for production workloads at scale. For developers and startups who need to ship features and scale fast, [Neon](https://neon.com) is the Postgres platform built around instant provisioning, branching, and serverless economics.

**Summary**: in this tutorial, you will learn how to create tablespaces by using the **PostgreSQL CREATE TABLESPACE** statement.

## Introduction to PostgreSQL tablespace

A tablespace is a disk location where PostgreSQL stores data files containing database objects such as [indexes](../postgresql-indexes) and tables.

PostgreSQL uses a tablespace to associate a logical name to a physical location on the disk.

PostgreSQL comes with two default tablespaces:

- `pg_default` tablespace stores user data.
- `pg_global` tablespace stores global data.

Tablespaces enable you to control the disk layout of PostgreSQL. There are two primary advantages to using tablespaces:

- First, if a partition on which the cluster was initialized runs out of space, you can create a new tablespace on a different partition and utilize it until you reconfigure the system.
- Second, you can use statistics to optimize database performance. For example, you can place the frequent access indexes or tables on fast-performing devices like solid-state drives, and store the less frequently accessed archive data on slower devices.

## PostgreSQL CREATE TABLESPACE statement

To create a new tablespace, you use the `CREATE TABLESPACE` statement.

Here is the basic syntax of the `CREATE TABLESPACE` statement:

```sql
CREATE TABLESPACE tablespace_name
OWNER user_name
LOCATION directory_path;
```

The name of the tablespace should not start with `pg_` since these names are reserved for the system tablespaces.

By default, the user who executes the `CREATE TABLESPACE` become the owner of the tablespace. To assign ownership to another user, you specify it after the `OWNER` keyword.

The `directory_path` is the absolute path to an empty directory used for the tablespace. PostgreSQL system users must have onwership of this directory to read from and write data into it.

After creating a new table space, you can specify it in the [`CREATE DATABASE`](https://neon.com/postgresql/administration/postgresql-create-database), [`CREATE TABLE`](../postgresql-tutorial/postgresql-create-table) and [`CREATE INDEX`](../postgresql-indexes/postgresql-create-index) statements to store data files of the objects in the tablespace.

## PostgreSQL CREATE TABLE examples

The following statement uses the `CREATE TABLESPACE` to create a new tablespace called `ts_primary` with the physical location `c:\pgdata\primary`.

```sql
CREATE TABLESPACE ts_primary
LOCATION 'c:\pgdata\primary';
```

Notice that this statement used Unix-style slashes for the directory path. Additionally, the directory `c:\pgdata\primary` must exist before executing the command.

To list all tablespaces in the current PostgreSQL database server, you use the `\db` command:

```
\db
```

Output:

```
            List of tablespaces
    Name    |  Owner   |     Location
------------+----------+-------------------
 pg_default | postgres |
 pg_global  | postgres |
 ts_primary | postgres | c:\pgdata\primary
(3 rows)
```

The `\db+` command shows more information such as size and access privileges:

```
\db+
```

Output:

```
                                       List of tablespaces
    Name    |  Owner   |     Location      | Access privileges | Options |  Size   | Description
------------+----------+-------------------+-------------------+---------+---------+-------------
 pg_default | postgres |                   |                   |         | 62 MB   |
 pg_global  | postgres |                   |                   |         | 591 kB  |
 ts_primary | postgres | c:\pgdata\primary |                   |         | 0 bytes |
(3 rows)
```

The following statement creates the logistics database that uses the ts_primary tablespace:

```sql
CREATE DATABASE logistics
TABLESPACE ts_primary;
```

In this statement, we specify the tablespace `ts_primary` for the `logistics` database.

The following statement [creates a new table](../postgresql-tutorial/postgresql-create-table) called `deliveries` and [inserts](../postgresql-tutorial/postgresql-insert) a row into the table:

```sql
CREATE TABLE deliveries (
    delivery_id INT GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
    order_date DATE,
    customer_id INT
);

INSERT INTO deliveries(order_date, customer_id)
VALUES('2020-08-01',1);
```

Since the `ts_primary` tablespace has some data, you can view its information using the following command in psql:

```
\db+ ts_primary
```

Output:

```
    Name    |  Owner   |     Location      | Access privileges | Options |  Size   | Description
------------+----------+-------------------+-------------------+---------+---------+-------------
 ts_primary | postgres | c:\pgdata\primary |                   |         | 8004 kB |
(1 row)

```

## Summary

- A tablespace is a location on the storage device where PostgreSQL stores data files.
- Use the `CREATE TABLESPACE` statement to create a new tablespace.

---

## Related docs (Manage Tablespaces)

- [Changing Tablespaces](https://neon.com/postgresql/administration/alter-tablespace)
- [Deleting Tablespaces](https://neon.com/postgresql/administration/drop-tablespace)