Large Table Paginator for Django Admin (Accompanying blog: https://medium.com/squad-engineering/estimated-counts-for-faster-django-admin-change-list-963cbf43683e)

admin.py

from django.contrib.admin import ModelAdmin

class MyTableAdmin(ModelAdmin):
    ...
    paginator = LargeTablePaginator
    ...
    

paginator.py

from django.core.paginator import Paginator


class LargeTablePaginator(Paginator):
    """
    Warning: Postgresql only hack

    Overrides the count method of QuerySet objects to get an estimate instead of actual count when not filtered.
    However, this estimate can be stale and hence not fit for situations where the count of objects actually matter.
    """
    def _get_count(self):
        if getattr(self, '_count', None) is not None:
            return self._count
        
        query = self.object_list.query
        if not query.where:
            try:
                cursor = connection.cursor()
                cursor.execute("SELECT reltuples FROM pg_class WHERE relname = %s",
                               [query.model._meta.db_table])
                self._count = int(cursor.fetchone()[0])
            except:
                self._count = super(LargeTablePaginator, self)._get_count()
        else:
            self._count = super(LargeTablePaginator, self)._get_count()
            
        return self._count

    count = property(_get_count)

Think this is needed.
from django.db import connection

UPDATE: The code has been updated to be compatible with Django ≤ 1.11

But in 1.11.x there is not Paginator._get_count method/property. (Removed in 1.10a1)

So for 1.10 >= it should be

class LargeTablePaginator(Paginator):
    @functional.cached_property
    def count(self):
        query = self.object_list.query
        if not query.where:
            try:
                cursor = connection.cursor()
                cursor.execute('SELECT reltuples FROM pg_class WHERE relname = %s', [query.model._meta.db_table])
                return int(cursor.fetchone()[0])
            except Exception as e:  # noqa
                logger.warning(e)

        return super().count

^ Missing imports:

from django.utils.functional import cached_property
from django.db import connection
import logging

setup logger from logging as needed