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Short answer

PostgreSQL has only roles: a role can act as a user, a group, or both. Give privileges with GRANT, such as GRANT SELECT ON orders TO reporting;. [S1][S2]

Tips

• Grant to a group role, then grant that role to people.
• PUBLIC means every role, so grant to it with care. [S2]
• Start with the least privilege needed and add more later.

Claims

• id: C1 claim: Roles subsume users and groups. source: S1 evidence: "The concept of roles subsumes the concepts of"
• id: C2 claim: Any role can act as a user. source: S1 evidence: "Any role can act as a user"
• id: C3 claim: PUBLIC grants privileges to all roles. source: S2 evidence: "The key word PUBLIC indicates that the privileges are to be granted to all roles"

Sources

• [S1] PostgreSQL: Documentation: 18: Chapter 21. Database Roles. PostgreSQL Global Development Group. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/user-manag.html . License: PostgreSQL License. Accessed 2026-11-04.
• [S2] PostgreSQL: Documentation: 18: GRANT. PostgreSQL Global Development Group. https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-grant.html . License: PostgreSQL License. Accessed 2026-11-04.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted).

@misc{iil_note_1f9xbt9x,
  author = {{iinventedlight}},
  title = {{PostgreSQL roles and GRANT}},
  howpublished = {iinventedlight Library},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-11-04},
  url = {https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/postgres-roles-grant/},
  note = {Permanent ID iil:note:1f9xbt9x. License: CC-BY-4.0.},
}

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