You can always check how unsustainable your badges are getting by clicking on “Preview with query plan”. However, large numbers really aren’t all that bad because they only run once a day.
Some tips on interpreting the output:
-> Index Scan using posts_pkey on posts p (cost=0.29..4.69 rows=1 width=8)
The cost tells you the estimated time until the first result, and the estimated time until the last result. So the query planner is estimating that the index scan here will start up 0.29 meaningless time units after it’s first asked for a row, and finish 4.69 meaningless time units after it’s first asked for a row. Approximately.
The planner also estimates that only 1 row will be returned, and it will be 8 bytes.
-> Hash (cost=2510.78..2510.78 rows=5867 width=4)
-> Hash Join (cost=3.58..2510.78 rows=5867 width=4)
Another example. Here, there’s a Hash Join going on that will take 3.58 time units until its first of 5867 rows, and take 2510 time untils until it finishes. Around that, there’s a Hash operation that starts and ends at the same time that the Hash Join ends.