EF Core Interceptors and Diagnostic Listeners

The key difference between EF Core Interceptors¹ and Diagnostics Listeners ² lies in their scope and capability to modify/suppress operations.

Feature	EF Core Interceptors	Diagnostics Listeners
Primary Goal	Modify or suppress operations.	Observe and diagnose events.
Modification	Yes, can change command text, connection, or results.	No, events are read-only.
Scope	Per-DbContext instance.	Process-wide/Global (all contexts).
Async Support	Yes (supports async interception methods).	Generally No (synchronous event handling).
Best For	Behavior modification, fine-grained control (e.g., auditing, soft-deletes, query hints).	Global monitoring, feeding into APM/diagnostics tools.

Source: https://gemini.google.com/app/c827be2ba8a2a5a9

Footnotes:

1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/logging-events-diagnostics/interceptors ↩

2. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ef/core/logging-events-diagnostics/diagnostic-listeners ↩