---
title: Faster Counts
description: Speed up count queries for common search terms
canonical: https://www.paradedb.com/docs/reference/indexing/bitmap-postings
---

<Note>
  This feature is available in versions `0.26.2` and above. Indexes built before
  `0.26.2` must be [rebuilt](/operate/index-maintenance/reindexing) to receive
  this optimization.
</Note>

ParadeDB can speed up eligible `COUNT(*)` queries that combine common search terms
with `AND` or `OR` by storing additional bitmap structures.

## Index Configuration

The `bitmap_postings` option on a [tokenizer](/reference/tokenizers/overview) cast
defaults to `true`.

It is enabled by default because the storage overhead is usually very small.
If your workload does not require counts, you can disable it for a field with
`bitmap_postings=false`:

```sql
CREATE INDEX search_idx ON mock_items
USING paradedb (id, (description::pdb.unicode_words('bitmap_postings=false')), category);
```