# How do I fix a "permission denied for schema public" error in PostgreSQL?

An `ERROR: permission denied for schema public` error happens when the connected user does not have the appropriate privileges to access the public schema. Users need [`CREATE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-priv.html#DDL-PRIV-CREATE) privileges to create new objects in the schema and [`USAGE`](https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-priv.html#DDL-PRIV-USAGE) privileges to view objects in the schema.

To resolve the permission denied error, you need to update the user’s privileges on the public schema to `CREATE`, `USAGE`, or `ALL` (both `CREATE` and `USAGE`), depending on the level of access you want the user to have.

Follow the instructions in [How to Modify User Privileges in PostgreSQL Databases](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/databases/postgresql/how-to/modify-user-privileges/index.html.md). When you’ve connected to the database, you can grant privileges on the public schema with the following example command, substituting the permission level you want (`ALL` in the example) and the user (`example_user` in this example):

```sql
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON SCHEMA public TO example_user;
```

To verify the privilege change, you can query the `information_schema.role_schema_grants` system catalog, which stores details about user privileges on schemas. For example, the following query lists the permissions that `example_user` has on the public schema:

```sql
SELECT grantee, privilege_type
FROM information_schema.role_schema_grants
WHERE schema_name = 'public'
  AND grantee = 'example_user';
```

The query outputs a table with `grantee` and `privilege_type` columns:

```sql
...
   grantee    | privilege_type
--------------+----------------
 example_user | USAGE
 example_user | CREATE
...
```

This example output shows that `example_user` has both `USAGE` and `CREATE` privileges on the public schema.

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