SQL MAX(): Find the Largest Value (Numbers, Dates and Text)

MAX returns the largest value in a column: the highest salary, the most recent order, the most expensive product. It works exactly like MIN, in the opposite direction.

The example tables#

employees

orders

Highest number and latest date#

SELECT MAX(salary) AS highest
FROM employees;

highest
-------
81000

SELECT MAX(order_date) AS last_order
FROM orders;

last_order
----------
2026-03-02

For text, MAX returns the value that sorts last alphabetically.

MAX per group#

Each customer's biggest order:

SELECT customer_id, MAX(amount) AS biggest_order
FROM orders
GROUP BY customer_id
ORDER BY customer_id;

customer_id | biggest_order
------------+--------------
1           | 250
2           | 560
5           | 90

MIN and MAX together#

Aggregates can be combined in one query and in calculations. The spread between the highest and lowest salary:

SELECT MIN(salary) AS lowest,
       MAX(salary) AS highest,
       MAX(salary) - MIN(salary) AS salary_range
FROM employees;

lowest | highest | salary_range
-------+---------+-------------
46000  | 81000   | 35000

Who has the maximum?#

As with MIN, find the value first and then the rows that match:

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
WHERE salary = (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);

name  | salary
------+-------
Meera | 81000

"The highest-paid person in each department" is a harder version of this question. It needs a correlated subquery or a window function, which you will learn in ROW_NUMBER and RANK.

NULL values#

MAX ignores NULLs and returns NULL when there is nothing to compare.

Common mistakes#

Practice#

SELECT category, MAX(price) AS most_expensive
FROM products
GROUP BY category
ORDER BY most_expensive DESC;

category    | most_expensive
------------+---------------
Electronics | 55000
Furniture   | 7000
Stationery  | 60

Key takeaway#