I have following query select count(*) rp.tag from submission inner join post rp on submission.id = rp.submission_id where user_name = ?1 and lower(tag) like ('%verified%') and not lower(tag) like ('%unverified%') If the result is greater than 0 I do something in my application for this user. I run this query against a big list of users and it takes close to an hour to finish the whole process. I am looking in to ways to speed this up. The problem I see is that I am doing a count when I don't really need it. As I said all I need to know if is the result is greater than 0 or not. Is there a way to finish the query early if any of the `rp.tag` match my condition?