The `NOT EXISTS` clause in SQL is a powerful tool for filtering data based on the absence of matching rows in another table. It's particularly useful when you need to find rows in one table that don't have corresponding entries in another. Unlike `NOT IN`, `NOT EXISTS` is generally more efficient when dealing with large datasets, as it avoids the need to generate a list of all possible values from the subquery. This is because `NOT EXISTS` stops evaluating the subquery as soon as a match is found. Instead of checking if a value exists in a list, it checks if a row exists that satisfies the subquery's conditions. This can lead to significant performance improvements in complex queries.