How to Write SQL Queries in the Supabase SQL Editor

Log in to your Supabase Dashboard at app.supabase.com and select your project. In the left sidebar, click the SQL Editor icon (it looks like a terminal/code icon). This opens the SQL Editor view with a blank query tab. You can have multiple query tabs open at once — each tab is an independent query workspace. The left panel shows your saved snippets and quickstart templates provided by Supabase.

Type a SQL query in the editor area. Start with a simple SELECT to verify your setup. Click the green Run button in the top-right corner or press Cmd+Enter (Mac) / Ctrl+Enter (Windows) to execute. The results appear in a table below the editor. You can sort columns by clicking their headers and resize columns by dragging the borders. If your query has an error, the error message appears in red below the editor with the line number and description.

1-- List all tables in the public schema
2SELECT table_name, table_type
3FROM information_schema.tables
4WHERE table_schema = 'public'
5ORDER BY table_name;
6
7-- Query data from a specific table
8SELECT *
9FROM your_table_name
10LIMIT 20;

On the left side of the SQL Editor, switch to the schema browser panel. This shows all schemas (public, auth, storage, etc.) and the tables within each schema. Expand a table to see its columns, data types, and constraints. This is invaluable when you need to check column names or data types before writing a query. You can also see indexes, triggers, and foreign key relationships directly in the browser.

1-- You can also explore your schema with SQL
2SELECT column_name, data_type, is_nullable, column_default
3FROM information_schema.columns
4WHERE table_schema = 'public'
5  AND table_name = 'your_table_name'
6ORDER BY ordinal_position;

The SQL Editor is the recommended way to create tables when you need precise control over data types, constraints, and defaults. Write a CREATE TABLE statement, enable Row Level Security immediately after creation, and add at least one RLS policy so the table is accessible via the API. Always enable RLS on any table exposed through the public schema — without it, anyone with your anon key can read all data.

1-- Create a tasks table
2CREATE TABLE public.tasks (
3  id bigint GENERATED ALWAYS AS IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
4  user_id uuid REFERENCES auth.users(id) ON DELETE CASCADE NOT NULL,
5  title text NOT NULL,
6  completed boolean DEFAULT false,
7  created_at timestamptz DEFAULT now()
8);
9
10-- Enable Row Level Security
11ALTER TABLE public.tasks ENABLE ROW LEVEL SECURITY;
12
13-- Allow users to read their own tasks
14CREATE POLICY "Users can view own tasks"
15  ON public.tasks FOR SELECT
16  TO authenticated
17  USING ((SELECT auth.uid()) = user_id);
18
19-- Allow users to insert their own tasks
20CREATE POLICY "Users can create tasks"
21  ON public.tasks FOR INSERT
22  TO authenticated
23  WITH CHECK ((SELECT auth.uid()) = user_id);

After writing a query you want to reuse, click the Save button (or use Cmd+S) to save it as a snippet. Give it a descriptive name like 'List active users' or 'Monthly revenue report'. Saved snippets appear in the left panel under your personal snippets. You can also create folders to organize them. Snippets are saved per-user, not per-project, so only you can see your saved queries. To share a query with your team, copy the SQL and share it as a migration file instead.

After running a query, you can export the results by clicking the Download button (downward arrow icon) above the results table. This exports the current result set as a CSV file. This is useful for sharing data with non-technical team members, creating reports, or backing up small datasets. For large exports (millions of rows), use pg_dump from the command line instead — the SQL Editor export works best for result sets under 100,000 rows.

1-- Example: Export all users who signed up this month
2SELECT
3  id,
4  email,
5  created_at,
6  raw_user_meta_data->>'first_name' AS first_name
7FROM auth.users
8WHERE created_at >= date_trunc('month', CURRENT_DATE)
9ORDER BY created_at DESC;