---
title: "What is time travel?"
description: "Time travel queries a prior version of a table, so you can see rows and computed outputs as they were after an earlier change."
url: "https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-time-travel"
updated: "2026-09-29"
vertical: "Versioning"
doc: "https://docs.pixeltable.com/overview/quick-start"
---

# What is time travel?

Time travel queries a prior version of a table, so you can see rows and computed outputs as they were after an earlier change.

Updated: 2026-09-29


## On this page

- [How it works](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-time-travel#how-it-works)
- [What it is not](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-time-travel#what-it-is-not)
- [Comparison](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-time-travel#comparison)
- [Where Pixeltable fits](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-time-travel#where-pixeltable-fits)
- [Questions](https://pixeltable.com/learn/what-is-time-travel#questions)

## How it works {#how-it-works}


- Each change creates a version.
- A query can name that version.
- You compare it with the current rows when a result looks wrong.

## What it is not {#what-it-is-not}

It is not git for notebooks, and it is not restoring a whole database from a backup.

## time travel: this, and the thing it is confused with {#comparison}

|  | This | Not this |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unit | A table version | A disk snapshot of the server |
| Sees | Rows and computed values then | Only source files |
| Use | Debug a change | Disaster recovery |

## Where Pixeltable fits {#where-pixeltable-fits}

Pixeltable versions tables. history() and revert read and restore those versions.

## Questions {#questions}

### How does time travel work? {#faq-1}

Each change creates a version. A query can name that version. You compare it with the current rows when a result looks wrong.

### What is time travel often confused with? {#faq-2}

It is not git for notebooks, and it is not restoring a whole database from a backup.

## In the blog

- [Always Fresh: Pixeltable's Automatic Incremental Embedding Indexes](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-incremental-embedding-indexes)
- [Make Building Multimodal AI Apps Dead Simple: What That Actually Requires](https://pixeltable.com/blog/dead-simple-multimodal-ai-what-it-takes)
- [The Hidden Data Management Crisis Killing AI Projects: Why 80% of ML Time Goes to Data Plumbing](https://pixeltable.com/blog/hidden-data-management-crisis-ai-projects)
- [Navigating the Evolving ML Dataset Ecosystem: Finding Your Path and How Pixeltable Can Guide You](https://pixeltable.com/blog/navigating-ml-dataset-ecosystem)
- [Pixeltable's Time Travel: Advanced Versioning for Fearless AI Development](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-versioning-time-travel)
- [Operate Your AI Catalog from the Terminal: Introducing the Pixeltable CLI](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-cli-operate-catalog-from-terminal)

## Related

- [Documentation](https://docs.pixeltable.com/overview/quick-start)
- [Pixeltable's Time Travel: Advanced Versioning for Fearless AI Development](https://pixeltable.com/blog/pixeltable-versioning-time-travel)
- [Iterate on Your Data, Not Your Infrastructure: The Multimodal Experimentation Loop](https://pixeltable.com/blog/iterate-on-data-not-infrastructure)
- [Incremental updates](https://pixeltable.com/use-cases/incremental-updates-ai-data-processing)