API Pagination Explained: Offset, Cursor, and Keyset Patterns Compared

APIs that return large datasets require thoughtful pagination strategies, as simple offset-based approaches can cause performance and consistency problems at scale. Offset pagination is easy to implement and supports direct page jumps, but slows down with deep queries and can return duplicate or missing records during concurrent writes. Cursor pagination encodes the last seen item's position, enabling fast and consistent results ideal for infinite scroll and real-time feeds, though it does not support jumping to arbitrary pages. Keyset pagination works similarly to cursor-based methods but uses raw column values instead of encoded tokens, offering transparency and efficiency with composite indexes at the cost of exposing implementation details. Developers are advised to cap page limits, include next-page links in responses, and choose the pattern based on dataset size, consistency needs, and client requirements.