Profile queries

If a query is prepended with EXPLAIN, the server will return the execution plan it would use to run it, but not actually execute it. On the other hand, if a query is prepended with PROFILE, the server will return the execution plan and the corresponding query result.

The execution plan is valuable in analyzing a query and profile its performance. For more information, see Query tuning → Profile a query.

Example request

POST http://localhost:7474/db/neo4j/tx/commit
Accept: application/json;charset=UTF-8
Content-Type: application/json
Authorization: Basic bmVvNGo6dmVyeXNlY3JldA==

{
  "statements": [
    {
      "statement": "EXPLAIN MATCH (n:Person {name: $name}) RETURN n.name",
      "parameters": {
        "name": "Peter"
       }
    }
  ]
}

Example response

200: OK
Content-Type: application/json;charset=utf-8

{
  "results": [ {
    "columns": [ "n.name" ],
    "data": [],
    "plan": {
      "root": {
        "operatorType": "ProduceResults@neo4j",
        "string-representation": "Planner COST\n\nRuntime PIPELINED\n\nRuntime version 5.12\n\nBatch size 128\n\n+------------------+----+---------------------------+----------------+---------------------+\n| Operator         | Id | Details                   | Estimated Rows | Pipeline            |\n+------------------+----+---------------------------+----------------+---------------------+\n| +ProduceResults  |  0 | `n.name`                  |              1 |                     |\n| |                +----+---------------------------+----------------+                     |\n| +Projection      |  1 | cache[n.name] AS `n.name` |              1 |                     |\n| |                +----+---------------------------+----------------+                     |\n| +Filter          |  2 | cache[n.name] = $name     |              1 |                     |\n| |                +----+---------------------------+----------------+                     |\n| +NodeByLabelScan |  3 | n:Person                  |             10 | Fused in Pipeline 0 |\n+------------------+----+---------------------------+----------------+---------------------+\n\nTotal database accesses: ?\n",
        "Id": 0,
        "planner-impl": "IDP",
        "runtime-version": "5.12",
        "Details": "`n.name`",
        "planner-version": "5.12",
        "EstimatedRows": 0.5,
        "planner": "COST",
        "batch-size": 128,
        "runtime": "PIPELINED",
        "PipelineInfo": "Fused in Pipeline 0",
        "runtime-impl": "PIPELINED",
        "identifiers": [ "`n.name`" ],
        "children": [ {
          "operatorType": "Projection@neo4j",
          "Details": "cache[n.name] AS `n.name`",
          "EstimatedRows": 0.5,
          "PipelineInfo": "Fused in Pipeline 0",
          "Id": 1,
          "identifiers": [ "`n.name`" ],
          "children": [ {
            "operatorType": "Filter@neo4j",
            "Details": "cache[n.name] = $name",
            "EstimatedRows": 0.5,
            "PipelineInfo": "Fused in Pipeline 0",
            "Id": 2,
            "identifiers": [ "n" ],
              "children": [ {
                "operatorType": "NodeByLabelScan@neo4j",
                "Details": "n:Person",
                "EstimatedRows": 10.0,
                "PipelineInfo": "Fused in Pipeline 0",
                "Id": 3,
                "identifiers": [ "n" ],
                "children": []
              } ]
            } ]
          } ]
        }
      }
    } ],
  "errors": []
}