# Cursor Pagination vs Offset Pagination: Which One Should You Use?

DevFeed: [Cursor Pagination vs Offset Pagination: Which One Should You Use?](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/cursor-pagination-vs-offset-pagination-which-one-should-you-use-39652.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.gauravsarma.com/posts/2026-03-11_cursor-pagination-vs-offset-pagination>)

Published: 2026-03-11T00:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Gaurav Sarma's Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/gaurav-sarma-s-blog.md>)

Topics: [API](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/api.md>), [Databases](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/databases.md>), [SQL](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/sql.md>), [Query (disambiguation)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/query.md>)

Tags: [api](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/api.md>), [apis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apis.md>), [b-tree](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/b-tree.md>), [database](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/database.md>), [index](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/index.md>), [indexes](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/indexes.md>), [query-planner](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/query-planner.md>), [rest-apis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rest-apis.md>)

## AI overview

This tutorial compares offset, cursor, and keyset pagination for REST APIs. It explains that offset pagination becomes slower at deep pages because the database scans and discards preceding rows, while concurrent inserts can cause duplicates or skipped results. Cursor pagination uses an indexed position for more consistent performance but does not support random page access; keyset pagination generalizes the approach to arbitrary sort orders.

## Source excerpt

. [Cursor vs Offset Pagination](cursor-pagination-vs-offset-pagination-cover...