diff --git a/src/backend/access/transam/transam.c b/src/backend/access/transam/transam.c
index dbc5f884e88..5865810135e 100644
--- a/src/backend/access/transam/transam.c
+++ b/src/backend/access/transam/transam.c
@@ -219,33 +219,6 @@ TransactionIdDidAbort(TransactionId transactionId)
 	return false;
 }
 
-/*
- * TransactionIdIsKnownCompleted
- *		True iff transaction associated with the identifier is currently
- *		known to have either committed or aborted.
- *
- * This does NOT look into pg_xact but merely probes our local cache
- * (and so it's not named TransactionIdDidComplete, which would be the
- * appropriate name for a function that worked that way).  The intended
- * use is just to short-circuit TransactionIdIsInProgress calls when doing
- * repeated heapam_visibility.c checks for the same XID.  If this isn't
- * extremely fast then it will be counterproductive.
- *
- * Note:
- *		Assumes transaction identifier is valid.
- */
-bool
-TransactionIdIsKnownCompleted(TransactionId transactionId)
-{
-	if (TransactionIdEquals(transactionId, cachedFetchXid))
-	{
-		/* If it's in the cache at all, it must be completed. */
-		return true;
-	}
-
-	return false;
-}
-
 /*
  * TransactionIdCommitTree
  *		Marks the given transaction and children as committed
diff --git a/src/backend/storage/ipc/procarray.c b/src/backend/storage/ipc/procarray.c
index 4da53a5b3fd..dadaa958a84 100644
--- a/src/backend/storage/ipc/procarray.c
+++ b/src/backend/storage/ipc/procarray.c
@@ -261,6 +261,11 @@ static ProcArrayStruct *procArray;
 
 static PGPROC *allProcs;
 
+/*
+ * Cache to reduce overhead of repeated calls to TransactionIdIsInProgress()
+ */
+static TransactionId cachedXidIsNotInProgress = InvalidTransactionId;
+
 /*
  * Bookkeeping for tracking emulated transactions in recovery
  */
@@ -1396,7 +1401,7 @@ TransactionIdIsInProgress(TransactionId xid)
 	 * already known to be completed, we can fall out without any access to
 	 * shared memory.
 	 */
-	if (TransactionIdIsKnownCompleted(xid))
+	if (TransactionIdEquals(cachedXidIsNotInProgress, xid))
 	{
 		xc_by_known_xact_inc();
 		return false;
@@ -1554,6 +1559,7 @@ TransactionIdIsInProgress(TransactionId xid)
 	if (nxids == 0)
 	{
 		xc_no_overflow_inc();
+		cachedXidIsNotInProgress = xid;
 		return false;
 	}
 
@@ -1568,7 +1574,10 @@ TransactionIdIsInProgress(TransactionId xid)
 	xc_slow_answer_inc();
 
 	if (TransactionIdDidAbort(xid))
+	{
+		cachedXidIsNotInProgress = xid;
 		return false;
+	}
 
 	/*
 	 * It isn't aborted, so check whether the transaction tree it belongs to
@@ -1586,6 +1595,7 @@ TransactionIdIsInProgress(TransactionId xid)
 		}
 	}
 
+	cachedXidIsNotInProgress = xid;
 	return false;
 }
 
diff --git a/src/backend/utils/adt/xid8funcs.c b/src/backend/utils/adt/xid8funcs.c
index 6c57ec3d358..d8e40b3b969 100644
--- a/src/backend/utils/adt/xid8funcs.c
+++ b/src/backend/utils/adt/xid8funcs.c
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 #include "miscadmin.h"
 #include "postmaster/postmaster.h"
 #include "storage/lwlock.h"
+#include "storage/procarray.h"
 #include "utils/builtins.h"
 #include "utils/memutils.h"
 #include "utils/snapmgr.h"
@@ -676,29 +677,22 @@ pg_xact_status(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
 	{
 		Assert(TransactionIdIsValid(xid));
 
-		if (TransactionIdIsCurrentTransactionId(xid))
+		/*
+		 * Like when doing visiblity checks on a row, check whether the
+		 * transaction is still in progress before looking into the CLOG.
+		 * Otherwise we would incorrectly return "committed" for a transaction
+		 * that is committing and has already updated the CLOG, but hasn't
+		 * removed its XID from the proc array yet. (See comment on that race
+		 * condition at the top of heapam_visibility.c)
+		 */
+		if (TransactionIdIsInProgress(xid))
 			status = "in progress";
 		else if (TransactionIdDidCommit(xid))
 			status = "committed";
-		else if (TransactionIdDidAbort(xid))
-			status = "aborted";
 		else
 		{
-			/*
-			 * The xact is not marked as either committed or aborted in clog.
-			 *
-			 * It could be a transaction that ended without updating clog or
-			 * writing an abort record due to a crash. We can safely assume
-			 * it's aborted if it isn't committed and is older than our
-			 * snapshot xmin.
-			 *
-			 * Otherwise it must be in-progress (or have been at the time we
-			 * checked commit/abort status).
-			 */
-			if (TransactionIdPrecedes(xid, GetActiveSnapshot()->xmin))
-				status = "aborted";
-			else
-				status = "in progress";
+			/* it must have aborted or crashed */
+			status = "aborted";
 		}
 	}
 	else
diff --git a/src/include/access/transam.h b/src/include/access/transam.h
index 338dfca5a0b..775471d2a7d 100644
--- a/src/include/access/transam.h
+++ b/src/include/access/transam.h
@@ -273,7 +273,6 @@ extern PGDLLIMPORT VariableCache ShmemVariableCache;
  */
 extern bool TransactionIdDidCommit(TransactionId transactionId);
 extern bool TransactionIdDidAbort(TransactionId transactionId);
-extern bool TransactionIdIsKnownCompleted(TransactionId transactionId);
 extern void TransactionIdCommitTree(TransactionId xid, int nxids, TransactionId *xids);
 extern void TransactionIdAsyncCommitTree(TransactionId xid, int nxids, TransactionId *xids, XLogRecPtr lsn);
 extern void TransactionIdAbortTree(TransactionId xid, int nxids, TransactionId *xids);