Laravel Eloquent return count of each group with groupBy()
Stefan Bogdanescu
Founder & Senior Architect · 2026-06-29
# Mastering Grouped Counts in Laravel Eloquent: The Right Way to Use `groupBy()`
As a senior developer working with Laravel, you often find yourself needing to perform complex data aggregations, such as grouping records and counting the results within those groups. While Laravel Eloquent is incredibly powerful for fetching related data, the specific combination of `groupBy()` and `count()` can sometimes be confusing when transitioning from raw SQL concepts.
You are right to notice that simply applying `groupBy()` followed by `count()` doesn't immediately yield the desired result—it often only counts the first group encountered. This is because Eloquent methods operate on the resulting collection, and grouping requires explicit aggregation functions when dealing with database queries at this level.
This post will dive deep into how to correctly perform grouped counting in Laravel, providing you with robust, developer-friendly solutions using both Eloquent relationships and raw query building techniques.
## Understanding the Misconception
The syntax you referenced:
```php
Task::select('id')->groupBy('category_id')->count();
```
This structure attempts to apply SQL grouping directly via Eloquent methods. While the underlying database supports `GROUP BY`, applying standard Eloquent chain methods like this often results in unexpected behavior or requires wrapping the query within a subquery if you are trying to select multiple groups simultaneously. The key is understanding that grouping and counting are two separate operations, often requiring aggregation functions (`COUNT()`) to be explicitly selected alongside your grouped columns.
## Solution 1: The Eloquent Best Practice – Using Relationships (`withCount`)
For most common scenarios where you want the count of related items for each parent record, using Eloquent relationships is the cleanest and most "Eloquent" way. This method leverages the relationship structure rather than complex raw grouping logic.
Imagine you have `Task` models and they belong to a `Category`. To find tasks grouped by category and get the count of tasks per category:
```php
use App\Models\Task;
$tasksWithCategoryCounts = Task::withCount('category')
->with('category') // Eager load the relationship data
->groupBy('category_id') // Note: This grouping is often handled implicitly by the relationship join, but we use it here for demonstration context.
->get();
// The result structure will contain the count directly on the related model:
// [
// { "task_id": 1, "category_id": 1, "category_count": 5 },
// { "task_id": 2, "category_id": 1, "category_count": 5 },
// { "task_id": 3, "category_id": 2, "category_count": 3 },
// ]
```
While `withCount()` is excellent for counting relationships on a one-to-many basis, if you need true complex grouping across multiple tables (e.g., grouping by category and counting tasks *within* that group), we must turn to the Query Builder's power.
## Solution 2: The Power Move – Direct Aggregation with `groupBy()`
When you need explicit control over grouping and aggregation—like getting a distinct list of groups and their totals—the raw Query Builder methods combined with `DB::raw` are the most effective tools. This approach directly translates your desired SQL structure into Laravel code, giving you full control over the result set.
To achieve the goal of counting tasks grouped by category ID, we use the `groupBy()` method followed by an aggregation function in a `select()` statement:
```php
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;
$groupedCounts = DB::table('tasks')
->select('category_id', DB::raw('count(*) as task_count'))
->groupBy('category_id')
->get();
// $groupedCounts will return a collection like:
// [
// ['category_id' => 1, 'task_