Apex Cursor

The Cursor class (GA Spring '26) enables efficient pagination through up to 50 million SOQL rows without the 2,000-row OFFSET limit. Use it for large dataset processing that previously required chunked OFFSET patterns or raw Batch Apex.

Reference: @../_reference/APEX_CURSOR.md

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When to Use

• When implementing paginated queries over large datasets using the Apex Cursor API
• When OFFSET-based pagination hits governor limits or performance issues on large result sets
• When building @AuraEnabled methods with server-side cursor pagination for LWC components
• When migrating legacy OFFSET queries to cursor-based iteration for scalability beyond 2,000 rows

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Cursor vs. OFFSET vs. Batch Apex

Approach	Max Records	Heap Impact	Best For
SOQL OFFSET	2,000	Full result set in heap	Small UI pagination
Batch Apex	Unlimited	Per-execute governor reset	Background mass processing
Cursor class	50,000,000	Per-page only	Large paginated reports, async chaining, LWC infinite scroll

Performance Comparison

Record Count	Best Approach	Why
< 200	Standard SOQL with LIMIT	Simple, no overhead
200 - 2,000	OFFSET pagination	Adequate performance, simpler code
2,000 - 50,000	Cursor	OFFSET degrades above 2K; Cursor maintains constant performance
50,000+	Cursor + Queueable chaining	Single cursor handles up to 50M records
Batch processing	Database.QueryLocator	Full governor reset per execute chunk

Key insight: OFFSET forces the database to skip N rows on every request. At 10,000 OFFSET, the DB scans and discards 10K rows. Cursor maintains a server-side pointer with no scanning overhead regardless of position.

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Cursor Class API

// Open a cursor — returns a server-side pointer, not the data
Database.Cursor cursor = Database.getCursor('SELECT Id, Name FROM Account ORDER BY Id');

// Fetch a page of records starting at offset
List<SObject> page = cursor.fetch(offset, pageSize);

// Total number of records the cursor can return
Integer total = cursor.getNumRecords();

// Serialize the cursor for use across transactions (Queueable chaining)
String cursorId = cursor.getId();

// Re-open a serialized cursor in a new transaction
Database.Cursor resumed = Database.getCursor(cursorId);

// Always close when done to release server-side resources
cursor.close();

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Basic Cursor Pagination

Process data page-by-page without loading everything into heap. Do not accumulate all rows in memory.

public class LargeAccountAuditor {

    public static AuditSummary auditAccounts() {
        Database.Cursor cursor = Database.getCursor(
            'SELECT Id, Name, AnnualRevenue, Industry FROM Account ORDER BY Name'
        );

        Integer pageSize = 2000;
        Integer offset = 0;
        Decimal totalRevenue = 0;
        Integer totalCount = 0;
        List<Audit_Log__c> logsToInsert = new List<Audit_Log__c>();

        try {
            while (offset < cursor.getNumRecords()) {
                List<Account> page = cursor.fetch(offset, pageSize);

                for (Account acc : page) {
                    totalRevenue += acc.AnnualRevenue != null ? acc.AnnualRevenue : 0;
                    totalCount++;

                    if (acc.AnnualRevenue == null || acc.AnnualRevenue == 0) {
                        logsToInsert.add(new Audit_Log__c(
                            Record_Id__c = acc.Id,
                            Finding__c   = 'Missing AnnualRevenue'
                        ));
                    }
                }
                // page goes out of scope — GC-eligible, heap stays flat

                if (logsToInsert.size() >= 5000) {
                    insert logsToInsert;
                    logsToInsert.clear();
                }

                offset += pageSize;
            }

            if (!logsToInsert.isEmpty()) insert logsToInsert;
        } finally {
            cursor.close();
        }

        return new AuditSummary(totalCount, totalRevenue);
    }
}

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Async Cursor Chaining with Queueable

Serialize a Cursor by ID and pass it across Queueable jobs to process 50M records across chained async transactions.

public class LargeLeadProcessorQueueable implements Queueable {

    private String  cursorId;
    private Integer offset;
    private static final Integer PAGE_SIZE = 2000;

    // First call — no cursor yet
    public LargeLeadProcessorQueueable() {
        Database.Cursor cursor = Database.getCursor(
            'SELECT Id, Status, LeadSource FROM Lead WHERE IsConverted = false ORDER BY Id'
        );
        this.cursorId = cursor.getId();
        this.offset   = 0;
        cursor.close(); // Close handle; cursor remains alive on server
    }

    // Subsequent calls — resume from cursor
    public LargeLeadProcessorQueueable(String cursorId, Integer offset) {
        this.cursorId = cursorId;
        this.offset   = offset;
    }

    public void execute(QueueableContext ctx) {
        Database.Cursor cursor = Database.getCursor(this.cursorId);

        if (this.offset >= cursor.getNumRecords()) {
            cursor.close();
            return;
        }

        List<Lead> page = cursor.fetch(this.offset, PAGE_SIZE);
        processLeads(page);

        Integer nextOffset = this.offset + page.size();

        if (nextOffset < cursor.getNumRecords()) {
            cursor.close();
            System.enqueueJob(new LargeLeadProcessorQueueable(this.cursorId, nextOffset));
        } else {
            cursor.close();
        }
    }
}

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PaginationCursor for LWC / @AuraEnabled

For user-facing pagination (LWC infinite scroll, Screen Flows), use Database.PaginationCursor. It is @AuraEnabled compatible.

public with sharing class AccountPaginationController {

    private static final Integer DEFAULT_PAGE_SIZE = 20;

    @AuraEnabled(cacheable=false)
    public static PageResult getAccounts(String cursorId, Integer pageSize) {
        if (pageSize == null || pageSize <= 0) pageSize = DEFAULT_PAGE_SIZE;

        Database.PaginationCursor cursor;
        if (String.isBlank(cursorId)) {
            cursor = Database.getPaginationCursor(
                'SELECT Id, Name, Industry, AnnualRevenue FROM Account ORDER BY Name'
            );
        } else {
            cursor = Database.getPaginationCursor(cursorId);
        }

        List<Account> page = cursor.fetch(pageSize);

        PageResult result = new PageResult();
        result.records    = page;
        result.cursorId   = cursor.getId();
        result.hasMore    = cursor.hasMore();
        result.totalCount = cursor.getNumRecords();
        return result;
    }

    public class PageResult {
        @AuraEnabled public List<Account> records;
        @AuraEnabled public String cursorId;
        @AuraEnabled public Boolean hasMore;
        @AuraEnabled public Integer totalCount;
    }
}

LWC Integration

import { LightningElement } from 'lwc';
import getAccounts from '@salesforce/apex/AccountPaginationController.getAccounts';

export default class AccountInfiniteList extends LightningElement {
    accounts = [];
    cursorId = null;
    hasMore = true;
    isLoading = false;

    connectedCallback() { this.loadPage(); }

    async loadPage() {
        if (this.isLoading || !this.hasMore) return;
        this.isLoading = true;
        try {
            const result = await getAccounts({ cursorId: this.cursorId, pageSize: 20 });
            this.accounts = [...this.accounts, ...result.records];
            this.cursorId = result.cursorId;
            this.hasMore  = result.hasMore;
        } catch (error) {
            console.error('Pagination error:', error);
        } finally {
            this.isLoading = false;
        }
    }

    handleLoadMore() { this.loadPage(); }
}

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Cursor Limits

Constraint	Detail
Max records per cursor	50,000,000
Cursor lifetime (sync)	10 minutes
Cursor lifetime (async)	60 minutes
fetch() max page size	2,000 rows per call
Max open cursors	10 per transaction
PaginationCursor @AuraEnabled	Fully supported

Error Handling

Always close cursors in a try/finally block.

Database.Cursor cursor = Database.getCursor('SELECT Id FROM Lead');
try {
    List<Lead> leads = cursor.fetch(0, 100);
    processLeads(leads);
} catch (System.CursorException e) {
    // Cursor expired or already closed
    System.debug(LoggingLevel.WARN, 'Cursor error: ' + e.getMessage());
    throw;
} finally {
    try { cursor.close(); } catch (Exception ignored) {}
}

Error	Cause	Fix
Cursor has been closed	fetch() after close()	Check cursor state before fetching
Cursor has expired	> 10 min sync / 60 min async	Process faster or use Queueable chaining
Maximum cursors exceeded	> 10 open cursors	Close cursors in finally blocks
Non-selective query	WHERE clause not indexed	Add custom index or narrow query

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Testing Cursor Code

@IsTest
private class CursorPaginationTest {

    @TestSetup
    static void makeData() {
        List<Account> accounts = new List<Account>();
        for (Integer i = 0; i < 500; i++) {
            accounts.add(new Account(Name = 'Cursor Test ' + String.valueOf(i).leftPad(3, '0')));
        }
        insert accounts;
    }

    @IsTest
    static void shouldPaginateThroughAllRecords() {
        Test.startTest();
        Database.Cursor cursor = Database.getCursor(
            'SELECT Id, Name FROM Account WHERE Name LIKE \'Cursor Test%\' ORDER BY Name'
        );
        Integer totalFetched = 0;
        try {
            while (totalFetched < cursor.getNumRecords()) {
                List<Account> page = (List<Account>) cursor.fetch(totalFetched, 200);
                totalFetched += page.size();
            }
        } finally {
            cursor.close();
        }
        Test.stopTest();
        System.assertEquals(500, totalFetched, 'Should fetch all 500 records');
    }
}

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Related

• Skills: sf-apex-async-patterns — For Queueable chaining patterns

Guardrails

• sf-apex-constraints — Governs SOQL and DML usage in cursor-processing code
• sf-soql-constraints — Governs query structure and selectivity requirements