query_executions

The query_executions system table contains one row for each completed query execution across all workgroups in your account and Region. It includes data equivalent to the GetQueryExecution API response, plus additional columns.

Query metadata is written when a query reaches a final state (SUCCEEDED, FAILED, CANCELLED). No data is written while a query is in the QUEUED or RUNNING state.

Table location

System tables are queried like any other S3 Tables. Here is an example of a query using the fully qualified name of the query_executions table:

SELECT * FROM "s3tablescatalog/aws-athena"."metadata"."query_executions" LIMIT 10

Columns

The following table describes the columns in the query_executions system table.

Column	Type	Description
query_execution_id	string	Unique identifier for the query execution.
work_group_name	string	The Athena workgroup in which the query ran.
account_id	string	The 12-digit AWS account ID where the query ran. Leading zeros preserved.
region_name	string	The AWS Region where the query ran (for example, us-east-1).
query_string	string	The full SQL query text that was submitted (up to 256 KB). Can contain sensitive data such as PII in WHERE clauses or hardcoded credentials.
execution_parameters	list of string	Ordered list of parameter values supplied to a parameterized query. NULL if the query was not parameterized.
principal_arn	string	The IAM principal ARN that submitted the query. Examples: arn:aws:iam::123456789012:user/alice, arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/DataAnalyst/session.
submission_date_time	timestamp with time zone	When the query was submitted (UTC).
completion_date_time	timestamp with time zone	When the query reached its final state (UTC).
state_enum	string	Final execution state: SUCCEEDED, FAILED, or CANCELLED.
error_category_enum	int	Error category if query failed: 1 (system error), 2 (user error), 3 (other). NULL if succeeded.
error_message	string	Error description if query failed. NULL if succeeded.
error_type_enum	int	Numeric error type code (0-9999) for finer-grained classification. NULL if succeeded.
error_retryable	boolean	Whether the error is retryable. true indicates a transient issue. NULL if succeeded.
statement_type_enum	string	High-level statement type: DDL, DML, or UTILITY.
statement_subtype_enum	string	Specific statement kind: SELECT, CREATE_TABLE_AS_SELECT, INSERT, UNLOAD, CREATE_TABLE, DROP_TABLE, and others.
data_scanned_size	long	Bytes of source data scanned. Used to calculate cost in Athena engine version 3. Zero for DDL, cached results, and queries that failed before scanning.
dpu_count	double	DPUs allocated for queries that run in capacity reservations (Athena engine version 3). NULL otherwise.
total_execution_duration	long	Total wall-clock time from submission to completion, in milliseconds.
engine_execution_duration	long	Time the query engine spent executing, in milliseconds. Excludes queue, planning, and service processing time.
query_planning_duration	long	Time spent planning query execution, in milliseconds. High values indicate too many partitions or complex queries.
query_queue_time_duration	long	Time waiting in queue for resources, in milliseconds. High values indicate concurrency quota reached.
service_pre_processing_duration	long	Time for preprocessing before engine submission, in milliseconds.
service_processing_duration	long	Time finalizing and publishing results after engine finished, in milliseconds.
tables_accessed	list of struct (catalog_name, database_name, table_name)	Tables referenced in the SQL text. Captures syntactic references. This column is an array. To flatten it for analysis, use the UNNEST function.
catalog_name	string	The catalog name optionally provided as part of the QueryExecutionContext of the StartQueryExecution API call. If none is provided, the default catalog name is AwsDataCatalog. Catalog names provided in the query string override the one from the QueryExecutionContext.
database_name	string	The database name optionally provided as part of the QueryExecutionContext of the StartQueryExecution API call. If none is provided, the default database name is default. Database names provided in the query string override the one from the QueryExecutionContext.
reused_previous_result	boolean	Whether this execution reused a cached result. When true, data_scanned_size is 0.
result_reuse_enabled	boolean	Whether result reuse (caching) was enabled for this query.
result_reuse_max_age_in_minutes	int	Desired maximum age in minutes to reuse a previous result.
effective_engine_version	string	The engine version that executed the query (for example, Athena engine version 3).
selected_engine_version	string	The engine version configured on the workgroup.
managed_query_results_enabled	boolean	Whether Athena managed query results storage was enabled.
result_s3_acl_option_enum	string	S3 canned ACL for query results. Currently only BUCKET_OWNER_FULL_CONTROL.
result_encryption_option_enum	string	Encryption for query results: SSE_S3, SSE_KMS, or CSE_KMS. NULL if no encryption configured.
result_kms_key_arn	string	KMS key ARN for encrypting query results (when using SSE_KMS or CSE_KMS).
result_expected_bucket_owner_account_id	string	AWS account ID expected to own the results S3 bucket.
result_output_location	string	S3 URI where query results are stored.
schema_version	string	Version identifier for the system table schema.

Example queries

Top 10 queries scanning the most data in the past 7 days

SELECT
    query_execution_id,
    work_group_name,
    principal_arn,
    data_scanned_size / POWER(1024.0, 3) AS data_scanned_gb,
    total_execution_duration / 1000.0 AS duration_seconds,
    SUBSTR(query_string, 1, 200) AS query_preview
FROM "s3tablescatalog/aws-athena"."metadata"."query_executions"
WHERE submission_date_time >= CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL '7' DAY
    AND state_enum = 'SUCCEEDED'
ORDER BY data_scanned_size DESC
LIMIT 10

Identify who is running queries in a workgroup

SELECT
    principal_arn,
    COUNT(*) AS query_count,
    SUM(data_scanned_size) / POWER(1024.0, 4) AS total_tb_scanned
FROM "s3tablescatalog/aws-athena"."metadata"."query_executions"
WHERE submission_date_time >= CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL '30' DAY
    AND work_group_name = 'analytics-team'
GROUP BY principal_arn
ORDER BY total_tb_scanned DESC

Most queried tables

SELECT
    t.catalog_name,
    t.database_name,
    t.table_name,
    COUNT(*) AS access_count
FROM "s3tablescatalog/aws-athena"."metadata"."query_executions"
CROSS JOIN UNNEST(tables_accessed) AS t (catalog_name, database_name, table_name)
WHERE submission_date_time >= CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL '30' DAY
GROUP BY t.catalog_name, t.database_name, t.table_name
ORDER BY access_count DESC
LIMIT 20

Query failure patterns

SELECT
    error_category_enum,
    error_message,
    COUNT(*) AS failure_count,
    COUNT(DISTINCT principal_arn) AS affected_users
FROM "s3tablescatalog/aws-athena"."metadata"."query_executions"
WHERE submission_date_time >= CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL '7' DAY
    AND state_enum = 'FAILED'
GROUP BY error_category_enum, error_message
ORDER BY failure_count DESC
LIMIT 10

Daily data scanned trend by workgroup

SELECT
    DATE(submission_date_time) AS query_date,
    work_group_name,
    COUNT(*) AS query_count,
    SUM(data_scanned_size) / POWER(1024.0, 4) AS tb_scanned
FROM "s3tablescatalog/aws-athena"."metadata"."query_executions"
WHERE submission_date_time >= CURRENT_TIMESTAMP - INTERVAL '30' DAY
    AND statement_type_enum = 'DML'
GROUP BY DATE(submission_date_time), work_group_name
ORDER BY query_date DESC