# Time series databases: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "time series database" and as "database for metrics and sensor data", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/time-series-databases

**Standing:** TimescaleDB leads with 64% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 47 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [TimescaleDB](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/timescaledb/index.md) | 64% | 6% | 69 |
| 2 | [InfluxDB](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/influxdb/index.md) | 13% | 25% | 76 |
| 3 | [VictoriaMetrics](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/victoriametrics/index.md) | 11% | 4% | 57 |
| 4 | [QuestDB](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/questdb/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 38 |
| 6 | [Prometheus](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/prometheus/index.md) | 2% | 17% | 58 |
| 8 | [ClickHouse Cloud](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/clickhouse-cloud/index.md) | 0% | 2% | 50 |
| 9 | [TDengine](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/tdengine/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 15 |
| 10 | [Amazon Timestream](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-timestream/index.md) | 0% | 6% | 17 |
| 11 | [Thanos](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/thanos/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 11 |
| 79 | [OpenTSDB](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/opentsdb/index.md) | 0% | 53% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 79 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice; alternatives InfluxDB, QuestDB, TimescaleDB, VictoriaMetrics
- GPT-5.4 mini: TimescaleDB; alternatives Amazon Timestream, ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: TimescaleDB; alternatives ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, QuestDB, VictoriaMetrics
- Perplexity Sonar: TimescaleDB; alternatives Amazon Timestream, ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, Prometheus
- Grok 4.20: TimescaleDB; alternatives ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics
- Mistral Small: TimescaleDB; alternatives Amazon Timestream, InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: TimescaleDB; alternatives ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics
- Llama 4 Maverick: TimescaleDB; alternatives InfluxDB, QuestDB, VictoriaMetrics
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: TimescaleDB; alternatives InfluxDB, Prometheus, QuestDB
- Kimi K2: InfluxDB; alternatives TimescaleDB, VictoriaMetrics
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: TimescaleDB; alternatives Amazon Timestream, Azure Data Explorer, InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics
- MiniMax M2.5: TimescaleDB; alternatives Amazon Timestream, InfluxDB, VictoriaMetrics
- GPT-6 Luna: TimescaleDB; alternatives ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB
- Muse Glimmer 30B: TimescaleDB, now marketed as Tiger Cloud / TigerData; alternatives ClickHouse Cloud, InfluxDB

## Sources the answers cite

67 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- tigerdata.com: 44 answers, 78 citations
- influxdata.com: 37 answers, 71 citations
- github.com: 36 answers, 92 citations
- db-engines.com: 20 answers, 23 citations
- questdb.com: 19 answers, 20 citations
- sourceforge.net: 17 answers, 20 citations
- docs.victoriametrics.com: 13 answers, 24 citations
- guideflow.com: 13 answers, 13 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://github.com/ismanf/just-system-design/blob/main/04-databases/time-series-databases.md (21 answers)
- https://db-engines.com/en/ranking/time+series+dbms (18 answers)
- https://influxdata.com/comparison (17 answers)
- https://influxdata.com/learn/what-is-time-series-database (17 answers)
- https://tigerdata.com/learn/the-best-time-series-databases-compared (17 answers)
- https://questdb.com/blog/best-time-series-databases (15 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/time-series-databases (14 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/time-series-database-software (13 answers)
- https://spyro-soft.com/blog/industry-4-0/choosing-the-best-time-series-database-for-your-iot-needs-a-comparison (11 answers)
- https://tigerdata.com/learn/how-to-choose-an-iot-database (11 answers)

## Warned against

- InfluxDB: 19 of 76 labels negative. "avoid InfluxDB 3 Core (OSS) for production unless your use case genuinely fits within 72-hour retention and 5 databases" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)
- Prometheus: 10 of 58 labels negative. "Prometheus as a primary long-term, large-scale TSDB... be cautious if you need multi-year retention, high availability, or broad analytical queries." (Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt)
- OpenTSDB: 8 of 15 labels negative. "Why avoid: Built on top of Hadoop and HBase, OpenTSDB requires a massive infrastructure footprint" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)
- KairosDB: 5 of 5 labels negative. "Why avoid: An older Cassandra-backed time-series database that has largely been surpassed" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: TimescaleDB at 64%.

- InfluxDB: 16% to 13%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 2 of 79, unchanged.
- VictoriaMetrics: 8% to 11%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 of 79, unchanged.
- PostgreSQL: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 76 of 79.
- TimescaleDB: 63% to 64%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 79, unchanged.
- QuestDB: 4% to 4%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 4 of 79, unchanged.
- Prometheus: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 5 → 6 of 79.
- ClickHouse Cloud: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 8 of 79.
- TDengine: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 9 of 79.
- Amazon Timestream: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 11 → 10 of 79.
- Thanos: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 11 of 79.
- OpenTSDB: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 65 → 79 of 79.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.