Why is tstats more efficient than stats for large datasets?

Thetstatscommand in Splunk is designed for highly efficient querying of large datasets because it operates primarily onindexed metadatarather than the full raw event data. Indexed metadata consists of pre-extracted, summarized information such as field values, timestamps, and host information, which is stored in a highly optimized format. This allowststatsto return results much faster than thestatscommand, which processes raw event data after retrieval.

tstatsqueries accelerated data models or index metadata directly, reducing disk I/O and CPU usage.

statsoperates on raw events, which can be expensive in terms of resources for large datasets.

The SQL-like syntax oftstats(Option C) is a convenience but not the reason for its performance benefits.

tstatsdoes not search raw logs for extracted fields; that is the domain of thestatscommand.

Splunk’s official documentation and theCybersecurity Defense Analyst Study Guideemphasize the importance oftstatsfor performance-optimized queries in security operations and large-scale data analysis.