---
title: Pagination
label: Pagination
order: 40
desc: Payload queries are equipped with automatic pagination so you create paginated lists of documents within your app.
keywords: query, documents, pagination, documentation, Content Management System, cms, headless, javascript, node, react, nextjs
---

With Pagination you can limit the number of documents returned per page, and get a specific page of results. This is useful for creating paginated lists of documents within your application.

All paginated responses include documents nested within a `docs` array, and return top-level meta data related to pagination such as `totalDocs`, `limit`, `totalPages`, `page`, and more.

<Banner type="success">
  **Note:** Collection `find` queries are paginated automatically.
</Banner>

## Options

All Payload APIs support the pagination controls below. With them, you can create paginated lists of documents within your application:

| Control      | Default | Description                                                               |
| ------------ | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `limit`      | `10`    | Limits the number of documents returned per page. [More details](#limit). |
| `pagination` | `true`  | Set to `false` to disable pagination and return all documents.            |
| `page`       | `1`     | Get a specific page number.                                               |

## Local API

To specify pagination controls in the [Local API](../local-api/overview), you can use the `limit`, `page`, and `pagination` options in your query:

```ts
import type { Payload } from 'payload'

const getPosts = async (payload: Payload) => {
  const posts = await payload.find({
    collection: 'posts',
    // highlight-start
    limit: 10,
    page: 2,
    // highlight-end
  })

  return posts
}
```

## REST API

With the [REST API](../rest-api/overview), you can use the pagination controls below as query strings:

```ts
// highlight-start
fetch('https://localhost:3000/api/posts?limit=10&page=2')
  // highlight-end
  .then((res) => res.json())
  .then((data) => console.log(data))
```

## Response

All paginated responses include documents nested within a `docs` array, and return top-level meta data related to pagination.

The `find` operation includes the following properties in its response:

| Property        | Description                                               |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| `docs`          | Array of documents in the collection                      |
| `totalDocs`     | Total available documents within the collection           |
| `limit`         | Limit query parameter - defaults to `10`                  |
| `totalPages`    | Total pages available, based upon the `limit` queried for |
| `page`          | Current page number                                       |
| `pagingCounter` | `number` of the first doc on the current page             |
| `hasPrevPage`   | `true/false` if previous page exists                      |
| `hasNextPage`   | `true/false` if next page exists                          |
| `prevPage`      | `number` of previous page, `null` if it doesn't exist     |
| `nextPage`      | `number` of next page, `null` if it doesn't exist         |

**Example response:**

```json
{
  // Document Array // highlight-line
  "docs": [
    {
      "title": "Page Title",
      "description": "Some description text",
      "priority": 1,
      "createdAt": "2020-10-17T01:19:29.858Z",
      "updatedAt": "2020-10-17T01:19:29.858Z",
      "id": "5f8a46a1dd05db75c3c64760"
    }
  ],
  // Metadata // highlight-line
  "totalDocs": 6,
  "limit": 1,
  "totalPages": 6,
  "page": 1,
  "pagingCounter": 1,
  "hasPrevPage": false,
  "hasNextPage": true,
  "prevPage": null,
  "nextPage": 2
}
```

## Limit

You can specify a `limit` to restrict the number of documents returned per page.

<Banner type="warning">
  **Reminder:** By default, any query with `limit: 0` will automatically
  [disable pagination](#disabling-pagination).
</Banner>

#### Performance benefits

If you are querying for a specific document and can reliably expect only one document to match, you can set a limit of `1` (or another low number) to reduce the number of database lookups and improve performance.

For example, when querying a document by a unique field such as `slug`, you can set the limit to `1` since you know there will only be one document with that slug.

To do this, set the `limit` option in your query:

```ts
await payload.find({
  collection: 'posts',
  where: {
    slug: {
      equals: 'post-1',
    },
  },
  // highlight-start
  limit: 1,
  // highlight-end
})
```

## Disabling pagination

Disabling pagination can improve performance by reducing the overhead of pagination calculations and improve query speed.

For `find` operations within the Local API, you can disable pagination to retrieve all documents from a collection by passing `pagination: false` to the `find` local operation.

To do this, set `pagination: false` in your query:

```ts
import type { Payload } from 'payload'

const getPost = async (payload: Payload) => {
  const posts = await payload.find({
    collection: 'posts',
    where: {
      title: { equals: 'My Post' },
    },
    // highlight-start
    pagination: false,
    // highlight-end
  })

  return posts
}
```