How to Kill a Running Query in PostgreSQL
Last updated July 24, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team
Find the backend pid in pg_stat_activity, then pg_cancel_backend(pid) to cancel the query gracefully or pg_terminate_backend(pid) to kill the whole connection.
Find long-running queries
SELECT pid, now() - query_start AS runtime, state, left(query, 80) AS query
FROM pg_stat_activity
WHERE state <> 'idle'
ORDER BY runtime DESC;Cancel or terminate
SELECT pg_cancel_backend(12345); -- cancel the query
SELECT pg_terminate_backend(12345); -- drop the connectionRun this in SaturnSQL
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