gh-djankies-claude-configs-prisma-6/skills/implementing-query-pagination/references/performance-comparison.md

Performance Comparison

Benchmark: 500k Posts

Cursor Pagination (id index):

• Page 1: 8ms
• Page 100: 9ms
• Page 1000: 10ms
• Page 10000: 11ms
• Stable performance

Offset Pagination (createdAt index):

• Page 1: 7ms
• Page 100: 95ms
• Page 1000: 890ms
• Page 10000: 8,900ms
• Linear degradation

Memory Usage

Both approaches:

• Load only pageSize records into memory
• Similar memory footprint for same page size
• Database performs filtering/sorting

Database Load

Cursor:

• Index scan from cursor position
• Reads pageSize + 1 rows (for hasMore check)

Offset:

• Index scan from beginning
• Skips offset rows (database work, not returned)
• Reads pageSize rows

Optimization Guidelines

1. Always add indexes on ordering fields
2. Test with realistic data volumes before production
3. Monitor query performance in production
4. Cache total counts for offset pagination when possible
5. Use cursor by default unless specific requirements demand offset