Laravel Eloquent: How to Limit (Take and Skip) for Eloquent ORM?

TL;DR

Can you limit an Eloquent ORM query like using take() and skip() so that the resulting MySQL query is also limited, and it doesn't have to return the entire dataset?

If so, how would you modify:

$test = User::find(1)->games->toArray();

To include limit 3 offset 2?

Tables

Models

class User extends Eloquent {
    public function games() {
        return $this->belongsToMany('Game', 'userGames', 'user_id', 'game_id');
    }
}

class Game extends Eloquent {
    public function users() {
        return $this->belongsToMany('User', 'userGames', 'user_id', 'game_id');
    }
}

Limit in Query Builder (The Foundation)

When working directly with the Laravel Query Builder, applying limits and offsets is straightforward because you are operating directly on the underlying SQL construction. This approach ensures maximum control over the generated query.

Using the regular Laravel Query Builder I can get all games that belong to user of id 1, and limit the result with take() and skip():

$test = DB::table('games')
    ->join('userGames', 'userGames.game_id', '=', 'games.id')
    ->where('userGames.user_id', '=', '1')
    ->take(3)
    ->skip(2)
    ->get();

By listening to the illuminate.query event, we can see that the query generated by this is precisely what we intended:

select * from `games`
inner join `userGames`
on `userGames`.`game_id` = `games`.`id`
where `userGames`.`user_id` = ?
limit 3 offset 2

This demonstrates that the Query Builder provides direct access to methods like limit() and offset(), which translate perfectly into native SQL commands.

Limit in Eloquent ORM (The Challenge)

When I try to recreate the same logic using Eloquent relationships:

$test = User::find(1)->games->take(2)->toArray();

I encounter significant issues. While I can successfully use take() on the relationship, adding skip() causes an error or unpredictable behavior. More importantly, the resulting query does not actually contain the LIMIT or OFFSET clauses necessary to restrict the data retrieved from the database layer.

The generated SQL remains:

select `games`.*, `userGames`.`user_id` as `pivot_user_id`,
`userGames`.`game_id` as `pivot_game_id` from `games`
inner join `userGames`
on `games`.`id` = `userGames`.`game_id`
where `userGames`.`user_id` = ?

This indicates that Eloquent, when traversing relationships like belongsToMany, often fetches the entire related set first before applying filtering or limiting at the final presentation layer. This is inefficient and defeats the purpose of pagination on large datasets.

The Solution: Limiting via Constraints and Eager Loading

The core challenge lies in how Eloquent handles relationship loading versus database restriction. Since standard Eloquent methods do not expose direct limit/offset methods on relationships, we must leverage the Query Builder capabilities within our Eloquent context to enforce these constraints at the source.

To achieve true MySQL-level limiting with Eloquent, we must bypass the simple relationship accessor and build the query directly using scoping or constrained eager loading.

Here is the recommended approach for implementing pagination on many-to-many relationships:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\DB;

// Define the desired offset and limit
$offset = 2;
$limit = 3;
$userId = 1;

// Build the query using the Query Builder directly, which respects LIMIT/OFFSET
$games = DB::table('games')
    ->join('userGames', 'userGames.game_id', '=', 'games.id')
    ->where('userGames.user_id', '=', $userId)
    ->orderBy('games.id') // Essential for consistent ordering with limit/offset
    ->limit($limit)
    ->offset($offset)
    ->get();

// If you need to attach this result back to the User model context, 
// you would typically perform a separate load or use advanced query scopes.

This method ensures that the database engine handles the restriction (LIMIT and OFFSET), which is far more efficient than fetching all records into PHP memory and then trimming them. While Eloquent provides beautiful syntactic sugar for ORM operations, complex pagination logic involving direct row limiting often requires dropping down to the underlying Query Builder when dealing with many-to-many relationships. For deeper dives into optimizing data retrieval within the Laravel ecosystem, exploring how Eloquent integrates with raw SQL is always a valuable step, as seen in advanced patterns discussed on platforms like https://laravelcompany.com.

Conclusion

While Eloquent is an incredibly powerful tool for object-relational mapping, understanding the boundary between ORM abstractions and direct database operations is crucial for performance tuning. For simple CRUD operations, Eloquent excels. However, when implementing complex features like pagination or row limiting on many-to-many relationships, relying solely on Eloquent's relationship methods often fails to provide the necessary SQL-level control. By strategically utilizing the Laravel Query Builder—as demonstrated above—we gain explicit control over LIMIT and OFFSET, resulting in highly optimized queries that respect the principles of efficient data retrieval.