This page is a quick reference checkpoint for NTILE in Postgres: behavior, syntax rules, edge cases, and a minimal example; plus the official vendor documentation.
NTILE divides the rows into a specified number of buckets and assigns each row a bucket number.
Rows are distributed into buckets as evenly as possible in the ORDER BY order; bucket numbers start at 1.
If this behavior feels unintuitive, the tutorial below explains the underlying pattern step-by-step.
NTILE(n) assigns each row to one of n buckets as a window function and requires an OVER clause.
SELECT NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY salary) FROM empsalary;
If you came here to confirm syntax, you’re done. If you came here to get better at window functions, choose your next step.
NTILE is part of a bigger window-function pattern. If you want the “why”, start here: Percentile Distribution
Reading docs is useful. Writing the query correctly under pressure is the skill.
For the authoritative spec, use the vendor docs. This page is the fast “sanity check”.
View Postgres Documentation →Looking for more functions across all SQL dialects? Visit the full SQL Dialects & Window Functions Documentation.