diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5bf2443ccb..0c3c190c57 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 .scannerwork/
 .unasyncd_cache/
 .venv/
+.venv*
 .vscode/
 __pycache__/
 build/
diff --git a/docs/reference/channels/backends/asyncpg.rst b/docs/reference/channels/backends/asyncpg.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..91d44ecdf1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/reference/channels/backends/asyncpg.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+asyncpg
+=======
+
+.. automodule:: litestar.channels.backends.asyncpg
+    :members:
diff --git a/docs/reference/channels/backends/index.rst b/docs/reference/channels/backends/index.rst
index 010ae7e509..02deff518a 100644
--- a/docs/reference/channels/backends/index.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/channels/backends/index.rst
@@ -6,3 +6,5 @@ backends
     base
     memory
     redis
+    psycopg
+    asyncpg
diff --git a/docs/reference/channels/backends/psycopg.rst b/docs/reference/channels/backends/psycopg.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4a8163db60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/reference/channels/backends/psycopg.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+psycopg
+=======
+
+.. automodule:: litestar.channels.backends.psycopg
+    :members:
diff --git a/docs/usage/channels.rst b/docs/usage/channels.rst
index cbf0ef2721..6e2cd13c02 100644
--- a/docs/usage/channels.rst
+++ b/docs/usage/channels.rst
@@ -399,7 +399,7 @@ implemented are:
     A basic in-memory backend, mostly useful for testing and local development, but
     still fully capable. Since it stores all data in-process, it can achieve the highest
     performance of all the backends, but at the same time is not suitable for
-    applications running on multiple processes.
+    applications running on multiple processes
 
 :class:`RedisChannelsPubSubBackend <.redis.RedisChannelsPubSubBackend>`
     A Redis based backend, using `Pub/Sub <https://redis.io/docs/manual/pubsub/>`_ to
@@ -413,6 +413,17 @@ implemented are:
     when history is needed
 
 
+:class:`AsyncPgChannelsBackend <.asyncpg.AsyncPgChannelsBackend>`
+    A postgres backend using the
+    `asyncpg <https://magicstack.github.io/asyncpg/current/>`_ driver
+
+
+:class:`PsycoPgChannelsBackend <.psycopg.AsyncPgChannelsBackend>`
+    A postgres backend using the `psycopg3 <https://www.psycopg.org/psycopg3/docs/>`_
+    async driver
+
+
+
 
 Integrating with websocket handlers
 -----------------------------------
diff --git a/litestar/channels/backends/asyncpg.py b/litestar/channels/backends/asyncpg.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4b3948d179
--- /dev/null
+++ b/litestar/channels/backends/asyncpg.py
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import asyncio
+from contextlib import AsyncExitStack
+from functools import partial
+from typing import AsyncGenerator, Awaitable, Callable, Iterable, overload
+
+import asyncpg
+
+from litestar.channels import ChannelsBackend
+from litestar.exceptions import ImproperlyConfiguredException
+
+
+class AsyncPgChannelsBackend(ChannelsBackend):
+    _listener_conn: asyncpg.Connection
+    _queue: asyncio.Queue[tuple[str, bytes]]
+
+    @overload
+    def __init__(self, dsn: str) -> None:
+        ...
+
+    @overload
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        *,
+        make_connection: Callable[[], Awaitable[asyncpg.Connection]],
+    ) -> None:
+        ...
+
+    def __init__(
+        self,
+        dsn: str | None = None,
+        *,
+        make_connection: Callable[[], Awaitable[asyncpg.Connection]] | None = None,
+    ) -> None:
+        if not (dsn or make_connection):
+            raise ImproperlyConfiguredException("Need to specify dsn or make_connection")
+
+        self._subscribed_channels: set[str] = set()
+        self._exit_stack = AsyncExitStack()
+        self._connect = make_connection or partial(asyncpg.connect, dsn=dsn)
+
+    async def on_startup(self) -> None:
+        self._queue = asyncio.Queue()
+        self._listener_conn = await self._connect()
+
+    async def on_shutdown(self) -> None:
+        await self._listener_conn.close()
+        del self._queue
+
+    async def publish(self, data: bytes, channels: Iterable[str]) -> None:
+        dec_data = data.decode("utf-8")
+
+        conn = await self._connect()
+        try:
+            for channel in channels:
+                await conn.execute("SELECT pg_notify($1, $2);", channel, dec_data)
+        finally:
+            await conn.close()
+
+    async def subscribe(self, channels: Iterable[str]) -> None:
+        for channel in set(channels) - self._subscribed_channels:
+            await self._listener_conn.add_listener(channel, self._listener)  # type: ignore[arg-type]
+            self._subscribed_channels.add(channel)
+
+    async def unsubscribe(self, channels: Iterable[str]) -> None:
+        for channel in channels:
+            await self._listener_conn.remove_listener(channel, self._listener)  # type: ignore[arg-type]
+        self._subscribed_channels = self._subscribed_channels - set(channels)
+
+    async def stream_events(self) -> AsyncGenerator[tuple[str, bytes], None]:
+        while self._queue:
+            yield await self._queue.get()
+            self._queue.task_done()
+
+    async def get_history(self, channel: str, limit: int | None = None) -> list[bytes]:
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    def _listener(self, /, connection: asyncpg.Connection, pid: int, channel: str, payload: object) -> None:
+        if not isinstance(payload, str):
+            raise RuntimeError("Invalid data received")
+        self._queue.put_nowait((channel, payload.encode("utf-8")))
diff --git a/litestar/channels/backends/psycopg.py b/litestar/channels/backends/psycopg.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8cd5fff543
--- /dev/null
+++ b/litestar/channels/backends/psycopg.py
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from contextlib import AsyncExitStack
+from typing import AsyncGenerator, Iterable
+
+import psycopg
+
+from .base import ChannelsBackend
+
+
+def _safe_quote(ident: str) -> str:
+    return '"{}"'.format(ident.replace('"', '""'))
+
+
+class PsycoPgChannelsBackend(ChannelsBackend):
+    _listener_conn: psycopg.AsyncConnection
+
+    def __init__(self, pg_dsn: str) -> None:
+        self._pg_dsn = pg_dsn
+        self._subscribed_channels: set[str] = set()
+        self._exit_stack = AsyncExitStack()
+
+    async def on_startup(self) -> None:
+        self._listener_conn = await psycopg.AsyncConnection.connect(self._pg_dsn, autocommit=True)
+        await self._exit_stack.enter_async_context(self._listener_conn)
+
+    async def on_shutdown(self) -> None:
+        await self._exit_stack.aclose()
+
+    async def publish(self, data: bytes, channels: Iterable[str]) -> None:
+        dec_data = data.decode("utf-8")
+        async with await psycopg.AsyncConnection.connect(self._pg_dsn) as conn:
+            for channel in channels:
+                await conn.execute("SELECT pg_notify(%s, %s);", (channel, dec_data))
+
+    async def subscribe(self, channels: Iterable[str]) -> None:
+        for channel in set(channels) - self._subscribed_channels:
+            # can't use placeholders in LISTEN
+            await self._listener_conn.execute(f"LISTEN {_safe_quote(channel)};")  # pyright: ignore
+
+            self._subscribed_channels.add(channel)
+
+    async def unsubscribe(self, channels: Iterable[str]) -> None:
+        for channel in channels:
+            # can't use placeholders in UNLISTEN
+            await self._listener_conn.execute(f"UNLISTEN {_safe_quote(channel)};")  # pyright: ignore
+        self._subscribed_channels = self._subscribed_channels - set(channels)
+
+    async def stream_events(self) -> AsyncGenerator[tuple[str, bytes], None]:
+        async for notify in self._listener_conn.notifies():
+            yield notify.channel, notify.payload.encode("utf-8")
+
+    async def get_history(self, channel: str, limit: int | None = None) -> list[bytes]:
+        raise NotImplementedError()
diff --git a/litestar/channels/plugin.py b/litestar/channels/plugin.py
index ae7dcc78b3..985c337847 100644
--- a/litestar/channels/plugin.py
+++ b/litestar/channels/plugin.py
@@ -311,10 +311,10 @@ async def _sub_worker(self) -> None:
                 subscriber.put_nowait(payload)
 
     async def _on_startup(self) -> None:
+        await self._backend.on_startup()
         self._pub_queue = Queue()
         self._pub_task = create_task(self._pub_worker())
         self._sub_task = create_task(self._sub_worker())
-        await self._backend.on_startup()
         if self._channels:
             await self._backend.subscribe(list(self._channels))
 
diff --git a/pdm.lock b/pdm.lock
index 036a51bae2..eb8e513db3 100644
--- a/pdm.lock
+++ b/pdm.lock
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 groups = ["default", "standard", "jwt", "pydantic", "cli", "picologging", "dev-contrib", "piccolo", "prometheus", "dev", "mako", "test", "brotli", "cryptography", "linting", "attrs", "opentelemetry", "docs", "redis", "sqlalchemy", "full", "annotated-types", "jinja", "structlog", "minijinja"]
 strategy = ["cross_platform"]
 lock_version = "4.4"
-content_hash = "sha256:621796e9ccd87bf1be1aa40fd5e3ec170a89be761aae62fed47879256848d88f"
+content_hash = "sha256:d9d9469bfaa3932d8be1987dfba4650c9e88b5509e9fcce3ee7f039833980121"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "accessible-pygments"
@@ -237,6 +237,10 @@ summary = "Automatically generate code examples for different Python versions in
 dependencies = [
     "ruff>=0.0.260",
 ]
+files = [
+    {file = "auto_pytabs-0.4.0-py3-none-any.whl", hash = "sha256:941ca4f21b218249ee4d026ebaf4a8a7788a066fdb223571f1f7b93d44ac6a74"},
+    {file = "auto_pytabs-0.4.0.tar.gz", hash = "sha256:4c596aa02ea20c6c85809e5f60a22aa60499dcaa637e52d6313d07c58c5bb61e"},
+]
 
 [[package]]
 name = "auto-pytabs"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 02d9cd1aa6..78c06456af 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -107,6 +107,9 @@ dev = [
   "trio",
   "aiosqlite",
   "exceptiongroup; python_version < \"3.11\"",
+  "asyncpg>=0.29.0",
+  "psycopg[pool,binary]>=3.1.10",
+  "psycopg2-binary",
 ]
 dev-contrib = ["opentelemetry-sdk", "httpx-sse"]
 docs = [
diff --git a/tests/docker_service_fixtures.py b/tests/docker_service_fixtures.py
index de71aace45..6efca36979 100644
--- a/tests/docker_service_fixtures.py
+++ b/tests/docker_service_fixtures.py
@@ -139,3 +139,8 @@ async def postgres_responsive(host: str) -> bool:
         return (await conn.fetchrow("SELECT 1"))[0] == 1  # type: ignore
     finally:
         await conn.close()
+
+
+@pytest.fixture()
+async def postgres_service(docker_services: DockerServiceRegistry) -> None:
+    await docker_services.start("postgres", check=postgres_responsive)
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_channels/conftest.py b/tests/unit/test_channels/conftest.py
index c95799143d..1f041ae901 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_channels/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_channels/conftest.py
@@ -3,7 +3,9 @@
 import pytest
 from redis.asyncio import Redis as AsyncRedis
 
+from litestar.channels.backends.asyncpg import AsyncPgChannelsBackend
 from litestar.channels.backends.memory import MemoryChannelsBackend
+from litestar.channels.backends.psycopg import PsycoPgChannelsBackend
 from litestar.channels.backends.redis import RedisChannelsPubSubBackend, RedisChannelsStreamBackend
 
 
@@ -37,3 +39,13 @@ def redis_pub_sub_backend(redis_client: AsyncRedis) -> RedisChannelsPubSubBacken
 @pytest.fixture()
 def memory_backend() -> MemoryChannelsBackend:
     return MemoryChannelsBackend(history=10)
+
+
+@pytest.fixture()
+def postgres_asyncpg_backend(postgres_service: None, docker_ip: str) -> AsyncPgChannelsBackend:
+    return AsyncPgChannelsBackend(f"postgres://postgres:super-secret@{docker_ip}:5423")
+
+
+@pytest.fixture()
+def postgres_psycopg_backend(postgres_service: None, docker_ip: str) -> PsycoPgChannelsBackend:
+    return PsycoPgChannelsBackend(f"postgres://postgres:super-secret@{docker_ip}:5423")
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_channels/test_backends.py b/tests/unit/test_channels/test_backends.py
index 17eb0baf8f..871d355131 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_channels/test_backends.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_channels/test_backends.py
@@ -3,14 +3,18 @@
 import asyncio
 from datetime import timedelta
 from typing import AsyncGenerator, cast
+from unittest.mock import AsyncMock, MagicMock
 
 import pytest
 from _pytest.fixtures import FixtureRequest
 from redis.asyncio.client import Redis
 
 from litestar.channels import ChannelsBackend
+from litestar.channels.backends.asyncpg import AsyncPgChannelsBackend
 from litestar.channels.backends.memory import MemoryChannelsBackend
+from litestar.channels.backends.psycopg import PsycoPgChannelsBackend
 from litestar.channels.backends.redis import RedisChannelsPubSubBackend, RedisChannelsStreamBackend
+from litestar.exceptions import ImproperlyConfiguredException
 from litestar.utils.compat import async_next
 
 
@@ -18,6 +22,8 @@
     params=[
         pytest.param("redis_pub_sub_backend", id="redis:pubsub", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("redis")),
         pytest.param("redis_stream_backend", id="redis:stream", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("redis")),
+        pytest.param("postgres_asyncpg_backend", id="postgres:asyncpg", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("postgres")),
+        pytest.param("postgres_psycopg_backend", id="postgres:psycopg", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("postgres")),
         pytest.param("memory_backend", id="memory"),
     ]
 )
@@ -82,7 +88,7 @@ async def test_unsubscribe_without_subscription(channels_backend: ChannelsBacken
 async def test_get_history(
     channels_backend: ChannelsBackend, history_limit: int | None, expected_history_length: int
 ) -> None:
-    if isinstance(channels_backend, RedisChannelsPubSubBackend):
+    if isinstance(channels_backend, (RedisChannelsPubSubBackend, AsyncPgChannelsBackend, PsycoPgChannelsBackend)):
         pytest.skip("Redis pub/sub backend does not support history")
 
     messages = [str(i).encode() for i in range(100)]
@@ -97,7 +103,7 @@ async def test_get_history(
 
 
 async def test_discards_history_entries(channels_backend: ChannelsBackend) -> None:
-    if isinstance(channels_backend, RedisChannelsPubSubBackend):
+    if isinstance(channels_backend, (RedisChannelsPubSubBackend, AsyncPgChannelsBackend, PsycoPgChannelsBackend)):
         pytest.skip("Redis pub/sub backend does not support history")
 
     for _ in range(20):
@@ -133,3 +139,35 @@ async def test_memory_publish_not_initialized_raises() -> None:
 
     with pytest.raises(RuntimeError):
         await backend.publish(b"foo", ["something"])
+
+
+@pytest.mark.xdist_group("postgres")
+async def test_asyncpg_get_history(postgres_asyncpg_backend: AsyncPgChannelsBackend) -> None:
+    with pytest.raises(NotImplementedError):
+        await postgres_asyncpg_backend.get_history("something")
+
+
+@pytest.mark.xdist_group("postgres")
+async def test_psycopg_get_history(postgres_psycopg_backend: PsycoPgChannelsBackend) -> None:
+    with pytest.raises(NotImplementedError):
+        await postgres_psycopg_backend.get_history("something")
+
+
+async def test_asyncpg_make_connection() -> None:
+    make_connection = AsyncMock()
+
+    backend = AsyncPgChannelsBackend(make_connection=make_connection)
+    await backend.on_startup()
+
+    make_connection.assert_awaited_once()
+
+
+async def test_asyncpg_no_make_conn_or_dsn_passed_raises() -> None:
+    with pytest.raises(ImproperlyConfiguredException):
+        AsyncPgChannelsBackend()  # type: ignore[call-overload]
+
+
+def test_asyncpg_listener_raises_on_non_string_payload() -> None:
+    backend = AsyncPgChannelsBackend(make_connection=AsyncMock())
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError):
+        backend._listener(connection=MagicMock(), pid=1, payload=b"abc", channel="foo")
diff --git a/tests/unit/test_channels/test_plugin.py b/tests/unit/test_channels/test_plugin.py
index c6743e6102..856c8bc9a8 100644
--- a/tests/unit/test_channels/test_plugin.py
+++ b/tests/unit/test_channels/test_plugin.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import asyncio
+import time
 from secrets import token_hex
 from typing import cast
 from unittest.mock import AsyncMock, MagicMock
@@ -24,6 +25,8 @@
     params=[
         pytest.param("redis_pub_sub_backend", id="redis:pubsub", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("redis")),
         pytest.param("redis_stream_backend", id="redis:stream", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("redis")),
+        pytest.param("postgres_asyncpg_backend", id="postgres:asyncpg", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("postgres")),
+        pytest.param("postgres_psycopg_backend", id="postgres:psycopg", marks=pytest.mark.xdist_group("postgres")),
         pytest.param("memory_backend", id="memory"),
     ]
 )
@@ -119,7 +122,7 @@ def test_create_ws_route_handlers(
 
 
 @pytest.mark.flaky(reruns=5)
-def test_ws_route_handlers_receive_arbitrary_message(channels_backend: ChannelsBackend) -> None:
+async def test_ws_route_handlers_receive_arbitrary_message(channels_backend: ChannelsBackend) -> None:
     """The websocket handlers await `WebSocket.receive()` to detect disconnection and stop the subscription.
 
     This test ensures that the subscription is only stopped in the case of receiving a `websocket.disconnect` message.
@@ -140,7 +143,7 @@ def test_ws_route_handlers_receive_arbitrary_message(channels_backend: ChannelsB
 
 
 @pytest.mark.flaky(reruns=5)
-async def test_create_ws_route_handlers_arbitrary_channels_allowed(channels_backend: ChannelsBackend) -> None:
+def test_create_ws_route_handlers_arbitrary_channels_allowed(channels_backend: ChannelsBackend) -> None:
     channels_plugin = ChannelsPlugin(
         backend=channels_backend,
         arbitrary_channels_allowed=True,
@@ -155,6 +158,8 @@ async def test_create_ws_route_handlers_arbitrary_channels_allowed(channels_back
             channels_plugin.publish("something", "foo")
             assert ws.receive_text(timeout=2) == "something"
 
+        time.sleep(0.1)
+
         with client.websocket_connect("/ws/bar") as ws:
             channels_plugin.publish("something else", "bar")
             assert ws.receive_text(timeout=2) == "something else"