Explain Results

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Explain Output Structure

Explain Output for MongoDB 5.1 and Later
queryPlanner
executionStats
serverInfo
Execution Plan Statistics for Query with $lookup Pipeline Stage
Collection Scan
Covered Queries
$or Expression
$sort and $group Stages
Sort Stage

To return information on query plans and execution statistics of the query plans, MongoDB provides the following methods:

To learn about important explain result fields and how to interpret them, see Interpret Explain Plan Results.

Important

explain ignores the plan cache. Instead, a set of candidate plans are generated, and a winner is chosen without consulting the plan cache. Furthermore, explain prevents the MongoDB query planner from caching the winning plan.

Note

Only the most important output fields are shown on this page, and fields for internal use are not documented. The fields listed in the output are subject to change.

Explain Output Structure

The explain results present the query plans as a tree of stages. The output structure can differ based on which query engine the operation uses. Operations can use the classic query engine or the slot-based execution query engine.

To see how the output structure can differ between the two execution engines, see the following examples:

winningPlan: {
   stage: <STAGE1>,
   ...
   inputStage: {
      stage: <STAGE2>,
      ...
      inputStage: {
         stage: <STAGE3>,
         ...
      }
   }
},

winningPlan: {
   queryPlan: {
      stage: <STAGE1>,
      ...
      inputStage: {
         stage: <STAGE2>,
         ...
         inputStage: {
            stage: <STAGE3>,
            ...
         }
      }
   }
   slotBasedPlan: {
      ...
   }
},

Each stage passes its resulting documents or index keys to the parent node. The leaf nodes access the collection or the indices. The internal nodes use the documents or the index keys that result from the child nodes. The root node indicates the stage that MongoDB ultimately derives the result set from.

Stages are descriptive of the operation. For example:

COLLSCAN for a collection scan
IXSCAN for scanning index keys
FETCH for retrieving documents
GROUP for grouping documents
SHARD_MERGE for merging results from shards
SHARDING_FILTER for filtering out orphan documents from shards
BATCHED_DELETE for multiple document deletions that are batched together internally (starting in MongoDB 6.1)

Explain Output for MongoDB 5.1 and Later

This section shows the explain output for MongoDB 5.1 and later. To see the explain output for older versions of MongoDB, refer to the documentation for that version.

explain.explainVersion

Integer field.

explainVersion is the output format version for the plan, such as "1" or "2".

New in version 5.1.

`queryPlanner`

explain.queryPlanner information details the plan selected by the query optimizer.

These examples may combine the output structures of MongoDB's classic and slot-based execution engines. They are not meant to be representative. Your output may differ significantly.

For unsharded collections, explain returns the following queryPlanner information:

queryPlanner: {
   namespace: <string>,
   indexFilterSet: <boolean>,
   parsedQuery: {
      ...
   },
   queryHash: <hexadecimal string>,
   planCacheKey: <hexadecimal string>,
   maxIndexedOrSolutionsReached: <boolean>,
   maxIndexedAndSolutionsReached: <boolean>,
   maxScansToExplodeReached: <boolean>,
   winningPlan: {
     stage: <STAGE1>,
     inputStage: {
       stage: <string>,
       ...
     }
   },
   rejectedPlans: [
     <candidate plan1>,
   ]
}

For sharded collections, explain includes the core query planner and server information for each accessed shard in the shards field:

{
   queryPlanner: {
      mongosPlannerVersion: <int>
      winningPlan: {
         stage: <STAGE1>,
         shards: [
         {
            shardName: <string>,
            connectionString: <string>,
            serverInfo: {
               ...
            },
            namespace: <string>,
            indexFilterSet: <boolean>,
            parsedQuery: {
               ...
            },
            queryHash: <hexadecimal string>,
            planCacheKey: <hexadecimal string>,
            maxIndexedOrSolutionsReached: <boolean>,
            maxIndexedAndSolutionsReached: <boolean>,
            maxScansToExplodeReached: <boolean>,
            winningPlan: {
               stage: <STAGE1>,
               inputStage: {
                  stage: <string>,
                  ...
               }
            },
            rejectedPlans: [
              <candidate plan1>,
            ]
         }
         ]
      }
   }
}

explain.queryPlanner

Contains information on the selection of the query plan by the query optimizer.

explain.queryPlanner.namespace: A string that specifies the namespace with the names of the database and the collection accessed by the query. The namespace has the format <database>.<collection>.

explain.queryPlanner.indexFilterSet: A boolean that specifies whether MongoDB applied an index filter for the query shape.

explain.queryPlanner.queryHash

A hexadecimal string that represents the hash of the query shape and is dependent only on the query shapes. queryHash can help identify slow queries (including the query filter of write operations) with the same query shape.

Note

As with any hash function, two different query shapes may result in the same hash value. However, the occurrence of hash collisions between different query shapes is unlikely.

For more information on queryHash and planCacheKey, see queryHash and planCacheKey.

explain.queryPlanner.planCacheKey

A hash of the key for the plan cache entry associated with the query.

Unlike the explain.queryPlanner.queryHash, the explain.queryPlanner.planCacheKey is a function of both the query shape and the currently available indexes for that shape. That is, if indexes that can support the query shape are added/dropped, the planCacheKey value may change whereas the queryHash value would not change.

For more information on queryHash and planCacheKey, see queryHash and planCacheKey.

explain.queryPlanner.optimizedPipeline

A boolean that indicates that the entire aggregation pipeline operation was optimized away, and instead, fulfilled by a tree of query plan execution stages.

For example, the following aggregation operation can be fulfilled by the tree of query plan execution rather than using the aggregation pipeline.

db.example.aggregate([ { $match: { someFlag: true } } ] )

The field is only present if the value is true and only applies to explain on aggregation pipeline operations. When true, because the pipeline was optimized away, no aggregation stage information appears in the output.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan: A document that details the plan selected by the query optimizer.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.stage

A string that denotes the name of the stage.

Each stage consists of information specific to the stage. For example, an IXSCAN stage includes the index bounds along with other data specific to the index scan. If a stage has a child stage or multiple child stages, the stage will have an inputStage or inputStages.

This field appears if the operation used the classic query execution engine.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.inputStage: A document that describes the child stage, which provides the documents or index keys to its parent. The field is present if the parent stage has only one child.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.inputStages

An array of documents describing the child stages. Child stages provide the documents or index keys to the parent stage. The field is present if the parent stage has multiple child nodes. For example, stages for $or expressions might consume input from multiple sources.

This field appears if the operation used the classic query execution engine.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.queryPlan

A document that details the plan selected by the query optimizer. MongoDB presents the plan as a tree of stages.

This document appears if the query used the slot-based execution query engine.

New in version 5.1.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.queryPlan.stage

A string that denotes the name of the stage.

Each stage consists of information specific to the stage. For example, an IXSCAN stage includes the index bounds along with other data specific to the index scan.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.queryPlan.planNodeId: Unique integer field that identifies each stage in the execution plan. Field is included in all stages throughout the explain results.
New in version 5.1.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.queryPlan.inputStage: See explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.inputStage.

explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.slotBasedPlan: Document with information about the slot based query execution plan tree and stages. For internal use by MongoDB.
New in version 5.1.

explain.queryPlanner.rejectedPlans: Array of candidate plans considered and rejected by the query optimizer. The array can be empty if there were no other candidate plans.

`executionStats`

The returned explain.executionStats information details the execution of the winning plan. In order to include executionStats in the results, you must run the explain in either:

executionStats or
allPlansExecution verbosity mode. Use allPlansExecution mode to include partial execution data captured during plan selection.

These examples may combine the output structures of MongoDB's classic and slot-based execution engines. They are not meant to be representative. Your output may differ significantly.

For unsharded collections, explain returns the following executionStats information:

executionStats: {
   executionSuccess: <boolean>,
   nReturned: <int>,
   executionTimeMillis: <int>,
   totalKeysExamined: <int>,
   totalDocsExamined: <int>,
   executionStages: {
      stage: <STAGE1>
      nReturned: <int>,
      executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
      opens: <int>, // Starting in MongoDB 5.1
      closes: <int>, // Starting in MongoDB 5.1
      works: <int>,
      advanced: <int>,
      needTime: <int>,
      needYield: <int>,
      saveState: <int>,
      restoreState: <int>,
      isEOF: <boolean>,
      ...
      inputStage: {
         stage: <STAGE2>,
         nReturned: <int>,
         ...
         numReads: <int>, // Starting in MongoDB 5.1
         ...
         executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
         ...
         inputStage: {
            ...
         }
      }
   },
   allPlansExecution: [
      {
         nReturned: <int>,
         executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
         totalKeysExamined: <int>,
         totalDocsExamined:<int>,
         executionStages: {
            stage: <STAGEA>,
            nReturned: <int>,
            executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
            ...
            inputStage: {
               stage: <STAGEB>,
               ...
               inputStage: {
                 ...
               }
            }
         }
      },
      ...
   ]
   operationMetrics: {
      cpuNanos: <int>,
      cursorSeeks: <int>,
      docBytesRead: <int>,
      docBytesWritten: <int>,
      docUnitsRead: <int>,
      docUnitsReturned: <int>,
      docUnitsWritten: <int>,
      idxEntryBytesRead: <int>,
      idxEntryBytesWritten: <int>,
      idxEntryUnitsRead: <int>,
      idxEntryUnitsWritten: <int>,
      totalUnitsWritten: <int>,
      keysSorted: <int>,
      sorterSpills: <int>
   }
}

For sharded collections, explain includes the execution statistics for each accessed shard.

executionStats: {
   nReturned: <int>,
   executionTimeMillis: <int>,
   totalKeysExamined: <int>,
   totalDocsExamined: <int>,
   executionStages: {
      stage: <STAGE1>
      nReturned: <int>,
      executionTimeMillis: <int>,
      opens: <int>, // Starting in MongoDB 5.1
      closes: <int>, // Starting in MongoDB 5.1
      totalKeysExamined: <int>,
      totalDocsExamined: <int>,
      totalChildMillis: <NumberLong>,
      shards: [
         {
            shardName: <string>,
            executionSuccess: <boolean>,
            executionStages: {
               stage: <STAGE2>,
               nReturned: <int>,
               executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
               ...
               chunkSkips: <int>,
               inputStage: {
                  stage: <STAGE3>,
                  ...
                  numReads: <int>, // Starting in MongoDB 5.1
                  ...
                  inputStage: {
                     ...
                  }
               }
            }
         },
         ...
      ]
   }
   allPlansExecution: [
      {
         shardName: <string>,
         allPlans: [
            {
               nReturned: <int>,
               executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
               totalKeysExamined: <int>,
               totalDocsExamined:<int>,
               executionStages: {
                  stage: <STAGEA>,
                  nReturned: <int>,
                  executionTimeMillisEstimate: <int>,
                  ...
                  inputStage: {
                     stage: <STAGEB>,
                     ...
                     inputStage: {
                       ...
                     }
                  }
               }
            },
            ...
         ]
      },
      {
         shardName: <string>,
         allPlans: [
          ...
         ]
      },
      ...
   ]
}

explain.executionStats

Contains statistics that describe the completed query execution for the winning plan. For write operations, completed query execution refers to the modifications that would be performed, but does not apply the modifications to the database.

explain.executionStats.nReturned: Number of documents returned by the winning query plan. nReturned corresponds to the n field returned by cursor.explain() in earlier versions of MongoDB.

explain.executionStats.executionTimeMillis

Total time in milliseconds required for query plan selection and query execution. It includes the time it takes to run the trial phase part of the plan selection process, but does not include the network time to transmit the data back to the client.

The time reported by explain.executionStats.executionTimeMillis is not necessarily representative of actual query time. During steady state operations (when the query plan is cached), or when using cursor.hint() with cursor.explain(), MongoDB bypasses the plan selection process, resulting in a faster actual time, leading to a lower explain.executionStats.executionTimeMillis value.

explain.executionStats.totalKeysExamined: Number of index entries scanned. explain.executionStats.totalKeysExamined corresponds to the nscanned field returned by cursor.explain() in earlier versions of MongoDB.

explain.executionStats.totalDocsExamined: Number of documents examined during query execution. Common query execution stages that examine documents are COLLSCAN and FETCH.
Note
explain.executionStats.totalDocsExamined refers to the total number of documents examined and not to the number of documents returned. For example, a stage can examine a document in order to apply a filter. If the document is filtered out, then it has been examined but will not be returned as part of the query result set.
If a document is examined multiple times during query execution, explain.executionStats.totalDocsExamined counts each examination. That is, explain.executionStats.totalDocsExamined is not a count of the total number of unique documents examined.

explain.executionStats.executionStages

Details the completed execution of the winning plan as a tree of stages; i.e. a stage can have an inputStage or multiple inputStages.

Starting in MongoDB 5.1, a stage can have these input stages:

thenStage
elseStage
innerStage
outerStage

Each stage consists of execution information specific to the stage.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.executionTimeMillisEstimate: The estimated amount of time in milliseconds for query execution.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.opens: Starting in MongoDB 5.1, the number of times a stage was opened during query execution.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.closes: Starting in MongoDB 5.1, the number of times a stage was closed during query execution.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.works

Specifies the number of "work units" performed by the query execution stage. Query execution divides its work into small units. A "work unit" might consist of examining a single index key, fetching a single document from the collection, applying a projection to a single document, or doing a piece of internal bookkeeping.

This field appears if the operation used the classic query execution engine.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.saveState: The number of times that the query stage suspended processing and saved its current execution state, for example in preparation for yielding its locks.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.restoreState: The number of times that the query stage restored a saved execution state, for example after recovering locks that it had previously yielded.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.isEOF

Specifies whether the execution stage has reached end of stream:

If true or 1, the execution stage has reached end-of-stream.
If false or 0, the stage may still have results to return. For example, consider a query with a limit whose execution stages consists of a LIMIT stage with an input stage of IXSCAN for the query. If the query returns more than the specified limit, the LIMIT stage will report isEOF: 1, but its underlying IXSCAN stage will report isEOF: 0.

explain.executionStats.executionStages.inputStage

Each inputStage can have different fields depending on the value of inputStage.stage. The following table describes possible fields and what stages they can appear in.

Each inputStage can have another inputStage as a field. See Explain Output Structure.

Field	Description	Applicable Stages
`docsExamined`	Specifies the number of documents scanned during the query execution stage.	`COLLSCAN`, `FETCH`
`keysExamined`	For query execution stages that scan an index `keysExamined` is the total number of in-bounds and out-of-bounds keys that are examined in the process of the index scan. If the index scan consists of a single contiguous range of keys, only in-bounds keys need to be examined. If the index bounds consists of several key ranges, the index scan execution process may examine out-of-bounds keys in order to skip from the end of one range to the beginning of the next.	`IXSCAN`
`numReads`	The number of documents scanned or index keys examined during the query execution stage. New in version 5.1.	`COLLSCAN`, `IXSCAN`
`seeks`	The number of times that we had to seek the index cursor to a new position in order to complete the index scan.	`IXSCAN`
`spilledBytesApprox`	The approximate number of in-memory bytes spilled to disk in the stage. New in version 5.3.	`GROUP`
`spilledRecords`	The number of produced records spilled to disk in the stage. New in version 5.3.	`GROUP`
`usedDisk`	Whether the stage wrote to disk. New in version 5.3.	`GROUP`

explain.executionStats.allPlansExecution: Contains partial execution information captured during the plan selection phase for both the winning and rejected plans. The field is present only if explain runs in allPlansExecution verbosity mode.

explain.executionStats.operationMetrics: Contains resource consumption statistics, as long as they are not zero. The field is present only if explain runs in executionStats verbosity mode or higher and if profileOperationResourceConsumptionMetrics is enabled.

`serverInfo`

For unsharded collections, explain returns the following serverInfo information for the MongoDB instance:

serverInfo: {
   host: <string>,
   port: <int>,
   version: <string>,
   gitVersion: <string>
}

For sharded collections, explain returns the serverInfo for each accessed shard, and a top-level serverInfo object for the mongos.

queryPlanner: {
   ...
   winningPlan: {
      stage: <STAGE1>,
      shards: [
         {
            shardName: <string>,
            connectionString: <string>,
            serverInfo: {
               host: <string>,
               port: <int>,
               version: <string>,
               gitVersion: <string>
            },
            ...
         }
         ...
      ]
   }
 },
 serverInfo: {      // serverInfo for mongos
   host: <string>,
   port: <int>,
   version: <string>,
   gitVersion: <string>
 }
 ...

Execution Plan Statistics for Query with `$lookup` Pipeline Stage

New in version 5.0.

The explain results can include execution statistics for queries that use a $lookup pipeline stage. To include those execution statistics, you must run the explain operation in one of these execution verbosity modes:

The following fields are included in the explain results for a $lookup query:

'$lookup': {
   from: <string>,
   as: <string>,
   localField: <string>,
   foreignField: <string>
},
totalDocsExamined: <long>,
totalKeysExamined: <long>,
collectionScans: <long>,
indexesUsed: [ <string_1>, <string_2>, ..., <string_n> ],
executionTimeMillisEstimate: <long>

To see the descriptions for the fields in the $lookup section, see the $lookup page.

The other fields are:

explain.totalDocsExamined: Number of documents examined during the query execution.

explain.totalKeysExamined: Number of index keys examined.

explain.collectionScans: Number of times a collection scan occurred during query execution. During a collection scan, each document in a collection is compared to the query predicate. Collection scans occur if no appropriate index exists that covers the query.

explain.indexesUsed: Array of strings with the names of the indexes used by the query.

explain.executionTimeMillisEstimate: Estimated time in milliseconds for the query execution.

Collection Scan

If the query planner selects a collection scan, the explain result includes a COLLSCAN stage.

If the query planner selects an index, the explain result includes a IXSCAN stage. The stage includes information such as the index key pattern, direction of traversal, and index bounds.

Starting in MongoDB 5.3, if the query planner selects a clustered index for a clustered collection and the query contains bounds that define the portion of the index to search, the explain result includes a CLUSTERED_IXSCAN stage. The stage includes information about the clustered index key and index bounds.

If the query planner selects a clustered index for a clustered collection and the query does not contain bounds, the query performs an unbounded collection scan and the explain result includes a COLLSCAN stage.

Note

The notablescan parameter does not allow unbounded queries that use a clustered index because the queries require a full collection scan.

For more information on execution statistics of collection scans, see Interpret Explain Plan Results.

Covered Queries

When an index covers a query, MongoDB can both match the query conditions and return the results using only the index keys. MongoDB does not need to examine documents from the collection to perform any part of the query.

When an index covers a query, the explain result has an IXSCAN stage that is not a descendant of a FETCH stage, and in the executionStats, the explain.executionStats.totalDocsExamined is 0.

`$or` Expression

If MongoDB uses indexes for an $or expression, the result will include the OR stage with an explain.queryPlanner.winningPlan.inputStages array that details the indexes; e.g.:

{
   stage: 'OR',
   inputStages: [
      {
         stage: 'IXSCAN',
         ...
      },
      {
         stage : 'IXSCAN',
         ...
      },
      ...
   ]
}

In previous versions of MongoDB, cursor.explain() returned the clauses array that detailed the indexes.

`$sort` and `$group` Stages

When explain is run in either executionStats or allPlansExecution verbosity mode, the $sort and $group stages have additional output.

Stage	Field	Type	Description
`$sort`	`totalDataSizeSortedBytesEstimate`	long	An estimated number of bytes processed in the `$sort` stage.
`$sort`	`usedDisk`	boolean	Whether the `$sort` stage wrote to disk.
`$group`	`totalOutputDataSizeBytes`	long	An estimate of the total size of all documents output by the `$group` stage in bytes.
`$group`	`usedDisk`	boolean	Whether the `$group` stage wrote to disk.
`$group`	`spillFileSizeBytes`	long	The size of the spill file written to disk in the `$group` stage. Due to compression, the value of `spillFileSizeBytes` should be less than or equal to `numBytesSpilledEstimate`.
`$group`	`numBytesSpilledEstimate`	long	An estimate of the number of bytes written to disk in the `$group` stage before compression.

Sort Stage

If MongoDB cannot use an index or indexes to obtain the sort order, the results include a SORT stage indicating a blocking sort operation. Blocking sorts do not block concurrent operations on the collection or database. The name refers to the requirement that the SORT stage reads all input documents before returning any output documents, blocking the flow of data for that specific query.

If MongoDB requires using more than 100 megabytes of system memory for the blocking sort operation, MongoDB returns an error unless the query specifies cursor.allowDiskUse(). cursor.allowDiskUse() allows MongoDB to use temporary files on disk to store data exceeding the 100 megabyte system memory limit while processing a blocking sort operation. If the explain plan does not contain an explicit SORT stage, then MongoDB can use an index to obtain the sort order.

Back

Analyze Performance

Interpret Results

Important

Note

Explain Output Structure

Explain Output for MongoDB 5.1 and Later

queryPlanner

Note

executionStats

Note

serverInfo

Execution Plan Statistics for Query with $lookup Pipeline Stage

Collection Scan

Note

Covered Queries

$or Expression

$sort and $group Stages

Sort Stage

`queryPlanner`

`executionStats`

`serverInfo`

Execution Plan Statistics for Query with `$lookup` Pipeline Stage

`$or` Expression

`$sort` and `$group` Stages