Why Is CockroachDB Slow? Slow Query Fixes

How to fix it

// try these in order, the most common fix is first

1. FIX 1Find the slow statements

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   1. 01Open DB Console > SQL Activity > Statements and sort by latency
   2. 02Run EXPLAIN ANALYZE on the worst queries and look for full scans
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. FIX 2Add or fix indexes

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   1. 01Create indexes suggested on the Insights page
   2. 02Use covering indexes (STORING) to avoid index joins
   3. 03Drop unused indexes that slow writes
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. FIX 3Cut round trips

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   1. 01Batch inserts/updates and use multi-row INSERT
   2. 02Fix N+1 queries in your ORM
   3. 03Place the app in the same region as the leaseholder; use REGIONAL BY ROW or follower reads for reads
   Did this fix it? Yes No

4. FIX 4Scale or rethink

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   1. 01Add vCPUs or nodes and check for hot ranges
   2. 02For single-region apps, compare with PostgreSQL or Aurora
   3. 03Move analytics to a warehouse
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

Queries take hundreds of ms; latency rises under load; high CPU; slow single-region performance versus Postgres.

Why it happens

• C-01Cross-region consensus adds network latency to every write
• C-02Full table scans due to missing indexes
• C-03Contention and transaction retries
• C-04Chatty ORMs sending many small statements and N+1 queries
• C-05Under-provisioned vCPUs or hot ranges
• C-06Analytical (OLAP) queries on an OLTP-oriented database

// this guide also covers

• why is cockroachdb so slow
• cockroachdb slow queries
• cockroachdb performance issues
• cockroachdb slower than postgres
• cockroachdb high latency

Other CockroachDB errors

• CockroachDB 'restart transaction' Error (40001) Fix
• CockroachDB Cluster Throttled: License Expired or No Telemetry
• CockroachDB Connection Refused / Cannot Connect Fix
• CockroachDB Node Down or Cluster Unavailable: Fix
• CockroachDB High Memory, CPU or OOM Crash Fix
• CockroachDB 'Not Supported' / Postgres Compatibility Errors Fix
• CockroachDB Cloud Bill Too High: How to Cut Costs
• How to Cancel or Downgrade CockroachDB Cloud