As a general rule of thumb, the performance of expensive search queries can be greatly improved if they are able to access more parallel Postgres workers and more shared buffer memory.

​
Parallel Workers

There are three settings that control how many parallel workers ultimately get assigned to a query. First, max_worker_processes is a global limit for the number of workers. Next, max_parallel_workers is a subset of max_worker_processes, and sets the limit for workers used in parallel queries. Finally, max_parallel_workers_per_gather limits how many workers a single query can receive.
postgresql.conf
max_worker_processes = 72
max_parallel_workers = 64;
max_parallel_workers_per_gather = 4;
In the above example, the maximum number of workers that a single query can receive is set to 4. The max_parallel_workers pool is set to 64, which means that 16 queries can execute simultaneously with 4 workers each. Finally, max_worker_processes is set to 72 to give headroom for other workers like autovacuum and replication. In practice, we recommend experimenting with different settings, as the best configuration depends on the underlying hardware, query patterns, and volume of data.
If all max_parallel_workers are in use, Postgres will still execute additional queries, but those queries will run without parallelism. This means that queries do not fail — they just may run slower due to lack of parallelism.

​
Shared Buffers

shared_buffers controls how much memory is available to the Postgres buffer cache. We recommend allocating no more than 40% of total memory to shared_buffers.
postgresql.conf
shared_buffers = 8GB
The pg_prewarm extension can be used to load the BM25 index into the buffer cache after Postgres restarts. A higher shared_buffers value allows more of the index to be stored in the buffer cache. 
CREATE EXTENSION pg_prewarm;
SELECT pg_prewarm('search_idx');

​
Autovacuum

If an index experiences frequent writes, the search performance of some queries like sorting or aggregates can degrade if VACUUM has not been recently run. This is because writes can cause parts of Postgres’ visibility map to go out of date, and VACUUM updates the visibility map. To determine if search performance is degraded by lack of VACUUM, run EXPLAIN ANALYZE over a query. A Parallel Custom Scan in the query plan with a large number of Heap Fetches typically means that VACUUM should be run. Postgres can be configured to automatically vacuum a table when a certain number of rows have been updated. Autovacuum settings can be set globally in postgresql.conf or for a specific table. 
ALTER TABLE mock_items SET (autovacuum_vacuum_threshold = 500);
There are several autovacuum settings, but the important ones to note are:
  1. autovacuum_vacuum_scale_factor triggers an autovacuum if a certain percentage of rows in a table have been updated.
  2. autovacuum_vacuum_threshold triggers an autovacuum if an absolute number of rows have been updated.
  3. autovacuum_naptime ensures that vacuum does not run too frequently.
This means that setting autovacuum_vacuum_scale_factor to 0 and autovacuum_vacuum_threshold to 100000 will trigger an autovacuum for every 100000 row updates. To determine the right autovacuum settings for your table, we recommend examining the table’s write volumes and adjusting the autovacuum threshold accordingly.