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+.. currentmodule:: psycopg
+
+.. index::
+    single: Prepared statements
+
+.. _prepared-statements:
+
+Prepared statements
+===================
+
+Psycopg uses an automatic system to manage *prepared statements*. When a
+query is prepared, its parsing and planning is stored in the server session,
+so that further executions of the same query on the same connection (even with
+different parameters) are optimised.
+
+A query is prepared automatically after it is executed more than
+`~Connection.prepare_threshold` times on a connection. `!psycopg` will make
+sure that no more than `~Connection.prepared_max` statements are planned: if
+further queries are executed, the least recently used ones are deallocated and
+the associated resources freed.
+
+Statement preparation can be controlled in several ways:
+
+- You can decide to prepare a query immediately by passing `!prepare=True` to
+  `Connection.execute()` or `Cursor.execute()`. The query is prepared, if it
+  wasn't already, and executed as prepared from its first use.
+
+- Conversely, passing `!prepare=False` to `!execute()` will avoid to prepare
+  the query, regardless of the number of times it is executed. The default for
+  the parameter is `!None`, meaning that the query is prepared if the
+  conditions described above are met.
+
+- You can disable the use of prepared statements on a connection by setting
+  its `~Connection.prepare_threshold` attribute to `!None`.
+
+.. versionchanged:: 3.1
+    You can set `!prepare_threshold` as a `~Connection.connect()` keyword
+    parameter too.
+
+.. seealso::
+
+    The `PREPARE`__ PostgreSQL documentation contains plenty of details about
+    prepared statements in PostgreSQL.
+
+    Note however that Psycopg doesn't use SQL statements such as
+    :sql:`PREPARE` and :sql:`EXECUTE`, but protocol level commands such as the
+    ones exposed by :pq:`PQsendPrepare`, :pq:`PQsendQueryPrepared`.
+
+    .. __: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/sql-prepare.html
+
+.. warning::
+
+    Using external connection poolers, such as PgBouncer, is not compatible
+    with prepared statements, because the same client connection may change
+    the server session it refers to. If such middleware is used you should
+    disable prepared statements, by setting the `Connection.prepare_threshold`
+    attribute to `!None`.