If you include an ORDER BY, the DB _may_ continue searching. MySQL (and, I assume, MS SQL Server, since it also can cluster the PK) can stop early in some circu

If you include an ORDER BY, the DB _may_ continue searching. MySQL (and, I assume, MS SQL Server, since it also can cluster the PK) can stop early in some circumstances. But if you just have a LIMIT, then no - any RDBMS should stop as soon as it’s reached your requested limit.