# Lightning Table Queries in Confluent Cloud Lightning Table queries read your topic data with sub-second response times. You can run them in the Confluent Cloud Console, through an HTTP API, or with a Model Context Protocol (MCP) client. #### IMPORTANT Lightning Tables are rolling out to Confluent Cloud accounts in phases. If you don’t see this feature, it’s not available for your account at this time. ## What is a Lightning Table query A *Lightning Table query* reads data from the Lightning Table for an Apache Kafka® topic. Confluent Cloud updates the Lightning Table within 100 milliseconds of new data arriving in the topic. The Lightning Table persists independently of the topic’s retention policy. As a result, a Lightning Table query can return data that has already aged out of the topic. A Lightning Table query runs once and returns a result. In that respect, it works like a [snapshot query](../../flink/concepts/snapshot-queries.md#flink-sql-snapshot-queries) in Apache Flink®. But a Lightning Table query targets a different performance profile: sub-second response times and high concurrency for point lookups, range scans, and full scans. A snapshot query is better suited to complex, exploratory analysis over historical data. The following table compares a Lightning Table query with Flink snapshot and streaming queries. | Query type | How it runs | Use it for | |-----------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Lightning Table query | Runs once and returns a result in less than a second. | Point lookups, range scans, and full scans from many concurrent
clients, such as applications and AI agents. | | Snapshot query | Runs once, returns results, and exits. | Complex, exploratory analysis over historical data. | | Streaming query | Runs continuously and returns results incrementally as new data
arrives. | Processing data continuously as it arrives. | A Lightning Table query reads the Lightning Table instead of the topic. So its results might differ from the results of a Flink streaming or snapshot query on the same topic. For more information about Flink queries, see [Batch and Stream Processing in Confluent Cloud for Apache Flink](../../flink/concepts/batch-and-stream-processing.md#flink-sql-batch-and-stream-processing). ## Related content - [SQL Reference for Lightning Table Queries in Confluent Cloud](sql-reference.md#lightning-tables-sql-reference) - [Manage Lightning Tables in Confluent Cloud](../manage.md#lightning-tables-manage) - [Lightning Tables in Confluent Cloud](../overview.md#lightning-tables-overview) #### NOTE This website includes content developed at the [Apache Software Foundation](https://www.apache.org/) under the terms of the [Apache License v2](https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html).