Users on Starter or Free Plan — AND, OR, NOT in SQL

The problem

Streamhub's growth team is running an upsell campaign targeting users on entry-level plans.

Write a query to return the name and current plan of every user on either the starter or free plan.

Assumptions:

The users table contains every account on the Streamhub platform.
The plan column records each user's current subscription tier as one of free, starter, pro, or enterprise.

Output:

One row per qualifying user, with columns name and plan.

Schema · analytics 5 tables

users

id integer

name text

email text

country text

plan text

signed_up_at timestamptz

is_active boolean

conversions

id integer

user_id integer

converted_at timestamptz

plan text

amount numeric

sessions

id integer

user_id integer

started_at timestamptz

ended_at? timestamptz

event_count integer

events

id integer

user_id integer

session_id? integer

event_type text

occurred_at timestamptz

properties? jsonb

periods

id integer

name text

start_month integer

end_month integer

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Solution query

SELECT
  name,
  plan
FROM
  users
WHERE
  plan = 'starter'
  OR plan = 'free'

The shape

Two equality checks joined by OR — a row qualifies for the upsell campaign when its plan matches either of the entry-level tiers.

Clause by clause

SELECT name, plan names the two columns the growth team needs on the audience list: who the user is, and which plan they're sitting on. Returning plan alongside name makes the result self-describing — every row carries the reason it was included.
FROM users reads the users table. Every account on the platform lives here, and the filter narrows the population from there.
WHERE plan = 'starter' OR plan = 'free' is the membership test. OR is satisfied when at least one side is true, so a starter user passes (the first condition is true), a free user passes (the second condition is true), and a pro or enterprise user is dropped because neither side matches.

Why `OR` and not `AND`

The two conditions compare the same column to different values. A single row's plan can only ever equal one of them at a time, so writing plan = 'starter' AND plan = 'free' is asking for a value that is simultaneously two different strings. That's impossible, so the AND form would return zero rows. OR is the correct connective whenever a row qualifies by matching any one of several values on the same column.

You practiced using OR to accept rows that match any one of several discrete values. This is the recurring shape of a membership filter — the row qualifies if it falls into any of the listed buckets.

Return the name and current plan of every user on either the `starter` or `free` plan

The shape

Clause by clause

Why `OR` and not `AND`

Reading explains SQL. Writing it, over and over with instant feedback, is what makes you fluent.

The shape

Clause by clause

Why OR and not AND

Reading explains SQL. Writing it, over and over with instant feedback, is what makes you fluent.

Why `OR` and not `AND`