Over-fetching
Over-fetching happens when more data is returned than is actually needed. This can occur between the client and the GraphQL schema, and/or between the schema and the backend data stores.
Symptoms
- Large responses with many unused fields
- Large serialization/deserialization/compression/decompression costs
- Higher latency
- High memory and CPU usage
- Increased backend load
- Cache bloat
Why it matters
Over-fetching makes the backend do more work than necessary, increasing hosting costs and response latency. It also consumes more memory and processing time on the client.