What is the difference between tracked and untracked queries?

• Tracked queries: EF Core tracks entities returned from the query. Changes to them

are monitored and persisted.

• Untracked queries: EF does not monitor the returned entities. Faster, read-only

access.

Tracked (default):

var user = context.Users.FirstOrDefault();

Untracked:

var user = context.Users.AsNoTracking().FirstOrDefault();