dotnet/efcore · error · InvalidOperationException

Cosmos SQL does not allow Offset without Limit. Consider…

Error message

Cosmos SQL does not allow Offset without Limit. Consider specifying a 'Take' operation on the query.

What it means

Cosmos SQL syntax requires that any OFFSET clause be paired with a LIMIT clause. The CosmosQuerySqlGenerator emits OFFSET and then a LIMIT token, and when a SelectExpression carries an Offset but no Limit it throws InvalidOperationException at runtime during SQL generation. This is a hard restriction of the Cosmos DB SQL API surface, not an EF choice.

Solutions

Add a .Take(pageSize) immediately after every .Skip(skip) in the query chain.
Cap the skip with a sane Take (e.g. int.MaxValue) if you genuinely want all remaining rows after the offset.
If paging is optional, ensure Take is only omitted when Skip is also omitted.

Example fix

// before
var page = db.Users.Skip(20).ToList();
// after
var page = db.Users.Skip(20).Take(10).ToList();

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// before executing, assert every Skip is paired with Take
static IQueryable<T> Paged<T>(IQueryable<T> q, int skip, int? take)
{
    var withSkip = q.Skip(skip);
    return take is { } t ? withSkip.Take(t) : withSkip.Take(int.MaxValue);
}

Prevention

Wrap paging in a helper that always emits Take alongside Skip.
Add a unit test that asserts every paging overload produces a Take call.
Reject null/zero page size at the API boundary rather than dropping Take.

When it happens

Trigger: A LINQ query uses .Skip(n) (which becomes Offset) without a following .Take(m) (which becomes Limit), and that query is executed against the Cosmos provider. EF cannot infer a safe default upper bound, so it refuses to emit OFFSET-only SQL.

Common situations: Pagination code that only forwards a page offset, hand-rolled paging that splits Skip/Take across conditional branches, or third-party paging helpers that omit Take when page size is null.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dotnet/efcore@3a2006ef56 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5df701b4737967d0. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/EFCore.Cosmos/Query/Internal/CosmosQuerySqlGenerator.cs:440

            if (selectExpression.Offset != null)
            {
                Visit(selectExpression.Offset);
            }
            else
            {
                _sqlBuilder.Append('0');
            }

            _sqlBuilder.Append(" LIMIT ");

            if (selectExpression.Limit != null)
            {
                Visit(selectExpression.Limit);
            }
            else
            {
                // TODO: See Issue#18923
                throw new InvalidOperationException(CosmosStrings.OffsetRequiresLimit);
            }
        }

        return selectExpression;
    }

    /// <summary>
    ///     This is an internal API that supports the Entity Framework Core infrastructure and not subject to
    ///     the same compatibility standards as public APIs. It may be changed or removed without notice in
    ///     any release. You should only use it directly in your code with extreme caution and knowing that
    ///     doing so can result in application failures when updating to a new Entity Framework Core release.
    /// </summary>
    protected virtual Expression VisitFromSql(FromSqlExpression fromSqlExpression)
    {
        var sql = fromSqlExpression.Sql;

        string[] substitutions;

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