---
title: "Why Does My SQL LEFT JOIN Remove Customers With No Paid Orders?"  
description: "Why Does My SQL LEFT JOIN Remove Customers With No Paid Orders?"  
author: "Björn Ólafsson"  
published: 2026-10-18  
canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/117811/why-does-my-sql-left-join-remove-customers-with-no-paid-orders  
category: "Mix Category"  
tags: ["SQL", "Database Queries", "LEFT JOIN"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Why Does My SQL LEFT JOIN Remove Customers With No Paid Orders?

I need a report that lists every customer and any paid orders they have. Customers without a paid order should still appear, with `NULL` in the order columns.

This is the query I’m using:

```sql
SELECT
    c.id AS customer_id,
    o.id AS order_id,
    o.status
FROM customers AS c
-- Keep customers even when there is no matching order.
LEFT JOIN orders AS o
    ON o.customer_id = c.id
-- Only paid orders should appear in the report.
WHERE o.status = 'paid';
```

Instead, the result contains only customers with paid orders. I thought `LEFT JOIN` would preserve every row from `customers`.

### The case I’m unsure about

A customer with only an unpaid order also needs to appear, but without that unpaid order’s details. Would adding `OR o.status IS NULL` handle that case, or would it only help customers who have no orders at all?

How does **filter placement in outer joins** affect this result? I’d like to understand the distinction between a condition in `ON` and one in `WHERE`, rather than just patching this query.


---

Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/117811/why-does-my-sql-left-join-remove-customers-with-no-paid-orders

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