criteria.setProjection(Projections.distinct(Projections.property("id"))); criteria.setProjection(Projections.distinct(Projections.id())); DetachedCriteria idsOnlyCriteria = DetachedCriteria.forClass(MyClass.class); //add other joins and query params here idsOnlyCriteria.setProjection(Projections.distinct(Projections.id())); Criteria criteria = getSession().createCriteria(myClass); criteria.add(Subqueries.propertyIn("id", idsOnlyCriteria)); criteria.setFirstResult(0).setMaxResults(50); return criteria.list();