Mongoose Aggregate.prototype.limit() API

Last Updated : 26 Apr, 2025

The Aggregate API.prototype.limit() function of the Mongoose API is used to limit the number of documents that get passed to the next stage in the aggregator pipeline.

Syntax:

Aggregate.prototype.limit()

Parameters: It accepts a single parameter as described below:

num: It is a number that defines the maximum number of documents that get passed to the next stage.

Return type: It returns the aggregated documents as a response.

Setting up Node.js Mongoose Module:

Step 1: Create a Node.js application using the following command:

npm init

Step 2: After creating the NodeJS application, Install the required module using the following command:

npm install mongoose

The below examples will demonstrate the Mongoose Aggregate API.prototype.limit() method.

Example 1: In this example, we will use this method to return the first 2 documents from the response.

Filename: main.js

Javascript

const mongoose = require('mongoose') 
  
// Database connection 
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/query-helpers', 
    { 
        dbName: 'event_db', 
        useNewUrlParser: true, 
        useUnifiedTopology: true
    }, err => err ? console.log(err) 
        : console.log('Connected to database'));         
  
const personSchema = new mongoose.Schema({ 
    name: { 
        type: String, 
    }, 
    age: { 
        type: Number, 
    } 
}); 
  
const personsArray = [ 
    { 
        name: 'Luffy', 
        age: 19 
    }, 
    { 
        name: 'Nami', 
        age: 20 
    }, 
    { 
        name: 'Zoro', 
        age: 35 
    } 
] 
  
const Person = mongoose.model('Person', personSchema); 
  
(async () => { 
    await Person.insertMany(personsArray); 
    const res = await Person.aggregate().limit(2); 
    console.log({ res }); 
})()

Step to Run Application: Run the application using the following command from the root directory of the project:

node main.js

Output:

GUI Representation of the Database using MongoDB Compass:

Example 2: In this example, we will use this method to limit the first 10 documents from the response.

Filename: main.js

Javascript

const mongoose = require('mongoose') 
  
// Database connection 
mongoose.connect('mongodb://localhost:27017/query-helpers', 
    { 
        dbName: 'event_db', 
        useNewUrlParser: true, 
        useUnifiedTopology: true
    }, err => err ? console.log(err) 
        : console.log('Connected to database'));         
  
const personSchema = new mongoose.Schema({ 
    name: { 
        type: String, 
    }, 
    age: { 
        type: Number, 
    } 
}); 
  
const personsArray = [ 
    { 
        name: 'Luffy', 
        age: 19 
    }, 
    { 
        name: 'Nami', 
        age: 20 
    }, 
    { 
        name: 'Zoro', 
        age: 35 
    } 
] 
  
const Person = mongoose.model('Person', personSchema); 
  
(async () => { 
    await Person.insertMany(personsArray); 
    const res = await Person.aggregate().limit(10); 
    console.log({ res }); 
})()