You can find detailed information how CBO works and calculates costs in http://www.centrexcc.com under Papers section. Just reading a bit of them now... Gints > -----Original Message----- > From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] > On Behalf Of Prem Khanna J > Subject: Which plan is better - what COST really means ? > Friends, > when i have got two plans , how do i decide > which one is the best ? > just read in asktom , that COST of a plan , > does not have any correspondence with response > time of a query. -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l