diff --git a/airflow-core/docs/howto/docker-compose/docker-compose.yaml b/airflow-core/docs/howto/docker-compose/docker-compose.yaml
index 83a3122eca840..655ceda937557 100644
--- a/airflow-core/docs/howto/docker-compose/docker-compose.yaml
+++ b/airflow-core/docs/howto/docker-compose/docker-compose.yaml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ x-airflow-common:
     AIRFLOW__CORE__EXECUTOR: CeleryExecutor
     AIRFLOW__CORE__AUTH_MANAGER: airflow.providers.fab.auth_manager.fab_auth_manager.FabAuthManager
     AIRFLOW__DATABASE__SQL_ALCHEMY_CONN: postgresql+psycopg2://airflow:airflow@postgres/airflow
-    AIRFLOW__CELERY__RESULT_BACKEND: db+postgresql://airflow:airflow@postgres/airflow
+    AIRFLOW__CELERY__RESULT_BACKEND: db+postgresql+psycopg2://airflow:airflow@postgres/airflow
     AIRFLOW__CELERY__BROKER_URL: redis://:@redis:6379/0
     AIRFLOW__CORE__FERNET_KEY: ${FERNET_KEY}
     AIRFLOW__CORE__DAGS_ARE_PAUSED_AT_CREATION: 'true'
diff --git a/providers/celery/src/airflow/providers/celery/executors/default_celery.py b/providers/celery/src/airflow/providers/celery/executors/default_celery.py
index 9869eee310c41..50b6c7851277d 100644
--- a/providers/celery/src/airflow/providers/celery/executors/default_celery.py
+++ b/providers/celery/src/airflow/providers/celery/executors/default_celery.py
@@ -72,7 +72,11 @@ def get_default_celery_config(team_conf) -> dict[str, Any]:
         result_backend = team_conf.get_mandatory_value("celery", "RESULT_BACKEND")
     else:
         log.debug("Value for celery result_backend not found. Using sql_alchemy_conn with db+ prefix.")
-        result_backend = f"db+{team_conf.get('database', 'SQL_ALCHEMY_CONN')}"
+        sql_alchemy_conn = team_conf.get("database", "SQL_ALCHEMY_CONN")
+        # In SQLAlchemy 2.1 the default PostgreSQL driver changed from psycopg2 to psycopg (v3).
+        # To maintain existing behavior, we explicitly specify psycopg2 for driverless PostgreSQL URLs.
+        sql_alchemy_conn = sql_alchemy_conn.replace("postgresql://", "postgresql+psycopg2://", 1)
+        result_backend = f"db+{sql_alchemy_conn}"
 
     # Handle result backend transport options (for Redis Sentinel support)
     result_backend_transport_options: dict = (
diff --git a/scripts/ci/docker-compose/backend-postgres.yml b/scripts/ci/docker-compose/backend-postgres.yml
index 0a046fc79ad12..d2971bc1e628e 100644
--- a/scripts/ci/docker-compose/backend-postgres.yml
+++ b/scripts/ci/docker-compose/backend-postgres.yml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ services:
     environment:
       - BACKEND=postgres
       - AIRFLOW__DATABASE__SQL_ALCHEMY_CONN=postgresql+psycopg2://postgres:airflow@postgres/airflow
-      - AIRFLOW__CELERY__RESULT_BACKEND=db+postgresql://postgres:airflow@postgres/airflow
+      - AIRFLOW__CELERY__RESULT_BACKEND=db+postgresql+psycopg2://postgres:airflow@postgres/airflow
     depends_on:
       postgres:
         condition: service_healthy