The present disclosure involves systems, software, and computer implemented methods for efficiently accessing shared operators in database query plans. One example method includes identifying a query plan tree that represents a query plan for a database query. A node identifier of each node of the query plan tree is initialized to a default node identifier value and a global node identifier counter for the query plan tree is initialized. The query plan tree is traversed including determining whether a node identifier of a current node equals the default node identifier value. If the node identifier of the current node equals the default node identifier value, the current node is processed, the node identifier of the current node is set to a current value of the global node identifier counter, and the global node identifier counter is incremented. Otherwise processing of the current node is skipped.