AI Tool · Explain

Explain a SQL query in plain English

Paste an unfamiliar, inherited or ORM-generated query and get a clear, step-by-step description of what it actually does — joins, filters, aggregates and edge cases — without reverse-engineering it yourself.

1Paste your SQL into the formatter.

2Click Explain.

3Read a plain-English breakdown of the query.

Explain a query

Free account, 3 free AI credits. Formatting stays free without signing in.

SQL

SELECT u.email, COUNT(o.id) AS orders, SUM(o.total) AS spent
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.user_id = u.id AND o.status = 'paid'
WHERE u.created_at > now() - INTERVAL '90 days'
GROUP BY u.email
HAVING SUM(o.total) > 500
ORDER BY spent DESC;

What this query does

Lists every user created in the last 90 days alongside how many paid orders they have and how much they spent.
The LEFT JOIN keeps users with zero paid orders (they still appear, with 0), because the paid-status filter sits in the ON clause, not WHERE.
HAVING SUM(o.total) > 500 keeps only users whose paid spend tops $500, and the result is sorted from highest spender down.

Why explain SQL with AI?

The hardest SQL to work with is the SQL you didn’t write: a report someone left behind, a query an ORM generated, a stored procedure with five nested subqueries. A formatter makes it readable; an explanation tells you what it means — which tables drive the result, where the filters bite, and where a LEFT JOIN or HAVING clause changes the row set in a way that’s easy to miss.

Explanations run against the exact SQL you paste, in the dialect you choose, so the description matches your query rather than a generic template.

More SQL tools

Optimize a SQL query Convert between dialects SQL minifier SQL validator