Methods, articles of manufacture, and systems for improving the efficiency of executing queries are provided. Rather than automatically running an optimizer to determine an access plan for each issued query, an access plan may be selected from a series of access plans used for prior executions of the same or a similar query. The series of access plans used for prior queries may define a pattern that may be used to accurately predict the behavior (e.g., execution time) of a future query. For some embodiments, a query group may be established to identify a set of similar queries, for which the optimizer is likely to determine the same access plans. In response to determining an issued query fits within an established query group, an access plan associated with the query group may be selected for executing the query, thus avoiding the processing overhead of wastefully running the optimizer only to determine a previously used access plan.