A very useful feature that MySQL provides is the ability to calculate the number of rows returned when using limit.

By using the SELECT parameter SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS in your first query and then in the next query use SELECT FOUND_ROWS(); function which will return the number of rows.

SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS col_a, col_b
FROM tbl_name
WHERE col_c = 8 LIMIT 10;
SELECT FOUND_ROWS();

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