diff --git a/.github/actions/run-python-test-set/action.yml b/.github/actions/run-python-test-set/action.yml
index 4ccf190c6a..814067fb8e 100644
--- a/.github/actions/run-python-test-set/action.yml
+++ b/.github/actions/run-python-test-set/action.yml
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ inputs:
   pg_version:
     description: 'Postgres version to use for tests'
     required: false
-    default: 'v14'
+    default: 'v16'
   benchmark_durations:
     description: 'benchmark durations JSON'
     required: false
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
index 92fff4ffbc..715f1af656 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_and_test.yml
@@ -280,6 +280,7 @@ jobs:
           save_perf_report: ${{ github.ref_name == 'main' }}
           extra_params: --splits 5 --group ${{ matrix.pytest_split_group }}
           benchmark_durations: ${{ needs.get-benchmarks-durations.outputs.json }}
+          pg_version: v16
         env:
           VIP_VAP_ACCESS_TOKEN: "${{ secrets.VIP_VAP_ACCESS_TOKEN }}"
           PERF_TEST_RESULT_CONNSTR: "${{ secrets.PERF_TEST_RESULT_CONNSTR }}"
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ea0a289502..f01442da5d 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ By default, this runs both debug and release modes, and all supported postgres v
 testing locally, it is convenient to run just one set of permutations, like this:
 
 ```sh
-DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15 BUILD_TYPE=release ./scripts/pytest
+DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16 BUILD_TYPE=release ./scripts/pytest
 ```
 
 ## Flamegraphs
diff --git a/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs b/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs
index edd88dc71c..1d66532d49 100644
--- a/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs
+++ b/control_plane/src/bin/neon_local.rs
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ const DEFAULT_PAGESERVER_ID: NodeId = NodeId(1);
 const DEFAULT_BRANCH_NAME: &str = "main";
 project_git_version!(GIT_VERSION);
 
-const DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: &str = "15";
+const DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: &str = "16";
 
 const DEFAULT_PAGESERVER_CONTROL_PLANE_API: &str = "http://127.0.0.1:1234/upcall/v1/";
 
diff --git a/control_plane/src/local_env.rs b/control_plane/src/local_env.rs
index 807519c88d..74caba2b56 100644
--- a/control_plane/src/local_env.rs
+++ b/control_plane/src/local_env.rs
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ use crate::pageserver::PageServerNode;
 use crate::pageserver::PAGESERVER_REMOTE_STORAGE_DIR;
 use crate::safekeeper::SafekeeperNode;
 
-pub const DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: u32 = 15;
+pub const DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: u32 = 16;
 
 //
 // This data structures represents neon_local CLI config
diff --git a/pageserver/src/lib.rs b/pageserver/src/lib.rs
index 5aee13cfc6..5829a1c188 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/lib.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/lib.rs
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ use tracing::{info, info_span};
 /// backwards-compatible changes to the metadata format.
 pub const STORAGE_FORMAT_VERSION: u16 = 3;
 
-pub const DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: u32 = 15;
+pub const DEFAULT_PG_VERSION: u32 = 16;
 
 // Magic constants used to identify different kinds of files
 pub const IMAGE_FILE_MAGIC: u16 = 0x5A60;
diff --git a/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs b/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs
index 6073abc8c3..190316df42 100644
--- a/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs
+++ b/pageserver/src/tenant/metadata.rs
@@ -565,7 +565,7 @@ mod tests {
         );
         let expected_bytes = vec![
             /* TimelineMetadataHeader */
-            4, 37, 101, 34, 0, 70, 0, 4, // checksum, size, format_version (4 + 2 + 2)
+            74, 104, 158, 105, 0, 70, 0, 4, // checksum, size, format_version (4 + 2 + 2)
             /* TimelineMetadataBodyV2 */
             0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0, // disk_consistent_lsn (8 bytes)
             1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, // prev_record_lsn (9 bytes)
@@ -574,7 +574,7 @@ mod tests {
             0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, // ancestor_lsn (8 bytes)
             0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, // latest_gc_cutoff_lsn (8 bytes)
             0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, // initdb_lsn (8 bytes)
-            0, 0, 0, 15, // pg_version (4 bytes)
+            0, 0, 0, 16, // pg_version (4 bytes)
             /* padding bytes */
             0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
             0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
diff --git a/scripts/ps_ec2_setup_instance_store b/scripts/ps_ec2_setup_instance_store
index 1f88f252eb..7c383e322f 100755
--- a/scripts/ps_ec2_setup_instance_store
+++ b/scripts/ps_ec2_setup_instance_store
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ run the following commands from the top of the neon.git checkout
 
     # test suite run
     export TEST_OUTPUT="$TEST_OUTPUT"
-    DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15 BUILD_TYPE=release ./scripts/pytest test_runner/performance/test_latency.py
+    DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16 BUILD_TYPE=release ./scripts/pytest test_runner/performance/test_latency.py
 
     # for interactive use
     export NEON_REPO_DIR="$NEON_REPO_DIR"
diff --git a/test_runner/README.md b/test_runner/README.md
index e2f26a19ce..73aa29d4bb 100644
--- a/test_runner/README.md
+++ b/test_runner/README.md
@@ -71,8 +71,7 @@ a subdirectory for each version with naming convention `v{PG_VERSION}/`.
 Inside that dir, a `bin/postgres` binary should be present.
 `DEFAULT_PG_VERSION`: The version of Postgres to use,
 This is used to construct full path to the postgres binaries.
-Format is 2-digit major version nubmer, i.e. `DEFAULT_PG_VERSION="14"`. Alternatively,
-you can use `--pg-version` argument.
+Format is 2-digit major version nubmer, i.e. `DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16`
 `TEST_OUTPUT`: Set the directory where test state and test output files
 should go.
 `TEST_SHARED_FIXTURES`: Try to re-use a single pageserver for all the tests.
diff --git a/test_runner/fixtures/pg_version.py b/test_runner/fixtures/pg_version.py
index 941889a2f5..e12c8e5f4a 100644
--- a/test_runner/fixtures/pg_version.py
+++ b/test_runner/fixtures/pg_version.py
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@ import os
 from typing import Optional
 
 import pytest
-from _pytest.config import Config
-from _pytest.config.argparsing import Parser
 
 """
 This fixture is used to determine which version of Postgres to use for tests.
@@ -52,7 +50,7 @@ class PgVersion(str, enum.Enum):
         return None
 
 
-DEFAULT_VERSION: PgVersion = PgVersion.V15
+DEFAULT_VERSION: PgVersion = PgVersion.V16
 
 
 def skip_on_postgres(version: PgVersion, reason: str):
@@ -69,22 +67,8 @@ def xfail_on_postgres(version: PgVersion, reason: str):
     )
 
 
-def pytest_addoption(parser: Parser):
-    parser.addoption(
-        "--pg-version",
-        action="store",
-        type=PgVersion,
-        help="DEPRECATED: Postgres version to use for tests",
-    )
-
-
 def run_only_on_default_postgres(reason: str):
     return pytest.mark.skipif(
         PgVersion(os.environ.get("DEFAULT_PG_VERSION", DEFAULT_VERSION)) is not DEFAULT_VERSION,
         reason=reason,
     )
-
-
-def pytest_configure(config: Config):
-    if config.getoption("--pg-version"):
-        raise Exception("--pg-version is deprecated, use DEFAULT_PG_VERSION env var instead")
diff --git a/test_runner/performance/README.md b/test_runner/performance/README.md
index 7ad65821d4..70d75a6dcf 100644
--- a/test_runner/performance/README.md
+++ b/test_runner/performance/README.md
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ easier to see if you have compile errors without scrolling up.
 You may also need to run `./scripts/pysync`.
 
 Then run the tests
-`DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15 NEON_BIN=./target/release poetry run pytest test_runner/performance`
+`DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16 NEON_BIN=./target/release poetry run pytest test_runner/performance`
 
 Some handy pytest flags for local development:
 - `-x` tells pytest to stop on first error
diff --git a/test_runner/performance/pageserver/README.md b/test_runner/performance/pageserver/README.md
index fdd09cd946..56ffad9963 100644
--- a/test_runner/performance/pageserver/README.md
+++ b/test_runner/performance/pageserver/README.md
@@ -11,6 +11,6 @@ It supports mounting snapshots using overlayfs, which improves iteration time.
 Here's a full command line.
 
 ```
-RUST_BACKTRACE=1 NEON_ENV_BUILDER_USE_OVERLAYFS_FOR_SNAPSHOTS=1 DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15 BUILD_TYPE=release \
+RUST_BACKTRACE=1 NEON_ENV_BUILDER_USE_OVERLAYFS_FOR_SNAPSHOTS=1 DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16 BUILD_TYPE=release \
     ./scripts/pytest test_runner/performance/pageserver/pagebench/test_pageserver_max_throughput_getpage_at_latest_lsn.py
 ````
diff --git a/test_runner/performance/pageserver/interactive/test_many_small_tenants.py b/test_runner/performance/pageserver/interactive/test_many_small_tenants.py
index 33848b06d3..8d781c1609 100644
--- a/test_runner/performance/pageserver/interactive/test_many_small_tenants.py
+++ b/test_runner/performance/pageserver/interactive/test_many_small_tenants.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ from performance.pageserver.util import ensure_pageserver_ready_for_benchmarking
 
 """
 Usage:
-DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15 BUILD_TYPE=debug NEON_ENV_BUILDER_USE_OVERLAYFS_FOR_SNAPSHOTS=1 INTERACTIVE=true \
+DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16 BUILD_TYPE=debug NEON_ENV_BUILDER_USE_OVERLAYFS_FOR_SNAPSHOTS=1 INTERACTIVE=true \
     ./scripts/pytest --timeout 0 test_runner/performance/pageserver/interactive/test_many_small_tenants.py
 """
 
diff --git a/test_runner/regress/test_compatibility.py b/test_runner/regress/test_compatibility.py
index afa5f6873c..30ff40b7df 100644
--- a/test_runner/regress/test_compatibility.py
+++ b/test_runner/regress/test_compatibility.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ from fixtures.workload import Workload
 #
 # How to run `test_backward_compatibility` locally:
 #
-#    export DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15
+#    export DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16
 #    export BUILD_TYPE=release
 #    export CHECK_ONDISK_DATA_COMPATIBILITY=true
 #    export COMPATIBILITY_SNAPSHOT_DIR=test_output/compatibility_snapshot_pgv${DEFAULT_PG_VERSION}
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ from fixtures.workload import Workload
 #
 # How to run `test_forward_compatibility` locally:
 #
-#    export DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=15
+#    export DEFAULT_PG_VERSION=16
 #    export BUILD_TYPE=release
 #    export CHECK_ONDISK_DATA_COMPATIBILITY=true
 #    export COMPATIBILITY_NEON_BIN=neon_previous/target/${BUILD_TYPE}