Managing database recovery time. A method includes receiving user input specifying a target recovery time for a database. The method further includes determining an amount of time to read a data page of the database from persistent storage. The method further includes determining an amount of time to process a log record of the database to apply changes specified in the log record to a data page. The method further includes determining a number of dirty pages that presently would be read in recovery if a database failure occurred. The method further includes determining a number of log records that would be processed in recovery if a database failure occurred. The method further includes adjusting at least one of the number of dirty pages that presently would be read in recovery or the number of log records that would be processed in recovery to meet the specified target recovery time.