diff --git a/sdks/java/io/jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/jdbc/JdbcIO.java b/sdks/java/io/jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/jdbc/JdbcIO.java
index 93b0d393f3a0..1bf6904a8ef1 100644
--- a/sdks/java/io/jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/jdbc/JdbcIO.java
+++ b/sdks/java/io/jdbc/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/io/jdbc/JdbcIO.java
@@ -903,6 +903,9 @@ public void processElement(ProcessContext context) throws Exception {
       if (connection == null) {
         connection = dataSource.getConnection();
       }
+      // PostgreSQL requires autocommit to be disabled to enable cursor streaming
+      // see https://jdbc.postgresql.org/documentation/head/query.html#query-with-cursor
+      connection.setAutoCommit(false);
       try (PreparedStatement statement =
           connection.prepareStatement(
               query.get(), ResultSet.TYPE_FORWARD_ONLY, ResultSet.CONCUR_READ_ONLY)) {