SQLSTATE 42501 ERROR

insufficient_privilege permission denied for language plpgsql — 42501

PostgreSQL error 42501 — permission denied for language plpgsql. A statement was rejected because of how it was written or what value it carried — not because of mis

PG 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 Reviewed Jun 2026

Incident Brief

What happened: A statement was rejected because of how it was written or what value it carried — not because of missing objects or permissions:

ERROR: permission denied for language plpgsql

Captured live on PostgreSQL 14.23, 15.18, 16.14, 17.10, 18.4 by running the statement below in an isolated transaction. Th

Immediate action: 1. Read the message — it states precisely what PostgreSQL objected to.
2. GRANT USAGE ON LANGUAGE … TO the role (trusted languages), or create the function as a privileged role; untrusted languages

The fix

Copy-paste · works on PG 14–18
  1. Read the message — it states precisely what PostgreSQL objected to.
  2. GRANT USAGE ON LANGUAGE ... TO the role (trusted languages), or create the function as a privileged role; untrusted languages
Keep going

Related & next steps

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