April 2026
These features and Databricks platform improvements were released in April 2026.
Releases are staged. Your Databricks account might not be updated until a week or more after the initial release date.
Lakeflow Designer is now in Public Preview
April 22, 2026
You can now visually build data transformation workflows with a drag-and-drop canvas and natural language in Lakeflow Designer. See Lakeflow Designer. Available in Public Preview.
Language selector for AI-generated comments in Catalog Explorer
April 22, 2026
You can now change the default language for AI-generated comments in Catalog Explorer. Your selection is saved in your browser's local storage and applies to all subsequent AI-generated comment requests across all supported entity types. See Change the default language for AI-generated comments.
AI Runtime 1xH100 accelerator (Beta)
April 21, 2026
AI Runtime now supports the 1xH100 accelerator in Beta. See Hardware options.
CPU_MEDIUM and CPU_LARGE workload types for Model Serving (Beta)
April 21, 2026
The CPU_MEDIUM and CPU_LARGE workload types for Model Serving are now in Beta. These workload types let you trade concurrency for more memory per worker on the same CPU hardware. Use them when your model needs more memory than the standard CPU workload type provides. See Compute type.
Databricks Data Classification is now GA
April 20, 2026
Databricks Data Classification is now generally available. Use Data Classification to automatically classify and tag sensitive data in Unity Catalog using an agentic AI system. See Data Classification.
Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (04/20)
April 20, 2026
New maintenance updates are available for supported Databricks Runtime versions. These updates include bug fixes, security patches, and performance improvements. For details, see:
- Databricks Runtime 18.1
- Databricks Runtime 18.0
- Databricks Runtime 17.3 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 16.4 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 15.4 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 14.3 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 13.3 LTS
Supervisor API for building agents (Beta)
April 20, 2026
The Supervisor API (Beta) lets you build agents in a single API call. Define your model, tools, and instructions, and Databricks handles tool selection, execution, and response synthesis.
BI compatibility mode removed from Power BI connector
April 17, 2026
Microsoft has removed the BI compatibility mode option from the Power BI Databricks connector. Reports that use this connector option no longer function. To request restored support for Databricks metric views in Power BI, vote and provide feedback on the Fabric Ideas community post. BI compatibility mode is still available for other BI tools. See Query metric views from BI tools.
Altering a catalog or schema's managed storage location is now GA
April 17, 2026
The ability to modify a catalog or schema's managed storage location is now generally available. The managed storage location is the default location in cloud storage used when new managed tables and volumes are created in Unity Catalog catalogs or schemas. See Specify a managed storage location in Unity Catalog.
Databricks Connector for Google Sheets is now generally available
April 16, 2026
The Databricks Connector for Google Sheets is now generally available. Use the connector to import and query Unity Catalog data, like Unity Catalog metric views. See Databricks Connector for Google Sheets.
Anthropic Claude Opus 4.7 now available as a Databricks-hosted model
April 16, 2026
Mosaic AI Model Serving now supports Anthropic Claude Opus 4.7 as a Databricks-hosted model.
To access this model, use:
ai_parse_document is now generally available
April 16, 2026
The ai_parse_document function is now generally available. This function parses structured content from unstructured documents including PDFs, images, Word documents, and PowerPoint files. Documents are limited to a maximum of 500 pages and 100 MB. See ai_parse_document function.
ai_parse_document will soon be available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled.
Compute log delivery to volumes is now GA
April 16, 2026
Delivering Spark driver, worker, and event logs from classic all-purpose and jobs compute to Unity Catalog volumes is now generally available. This is the recommended approach for log storage. See Compute log delivery.
Customer-managed keys now support model serving
April 16, 2026
You can now use customer-managed keys to encrypt model serving container images and model artifacts stored in Databricks managed registry. Endpoint artifacts created after April 16, 2026 are protected with customer-managed keys. See Customer-managed keys for encryption.
Query-based connectors for Lakeflow Connect (Public Preview)
April 15, 2026
Query-based connectors in Lakeflow Connect are now available in Public Preview. Query-based connectors ingest data from databases by querying the source directly using a cursor column, without requiring change data capture (CDC) configuration or an ingestion gateway. Supported sources include Oracle, Teradata, SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, and PostgreSQL, as well as all Lakehouse Federation data sources using foreign catalog ingestion. See Query-based connectors.
Sample Data Explorer is generally available
April 15, 2026
Sample Data Explorer with Genie Code is now generally available. Sample Data Explorer lets you ask questions about tables in Unity Catalog using natural language. Genie Code returns a response that includes an SQL query answering your question. See Explore sample data with Genie Code.
Updated UI navigation for Databricks Apps
April 15, 2026
The Databricks Apps console has a redesigned interface that provides a more intuitive app management experience. The updated console streamlines workflows for editing, deploying, and monitoring apps. You can also access Databricks Apps directly from the app switcher in the top right corner of your workspace. See Databricks Apps.
AI Gateway now governs MCP servers (Beta)
April 15, 2026
You can now use AI Gateway to enforce access control, monitor usage, and audit activity across all MCP interactions in your workspace. AI Gateway is the Databricks central governance layer for LLM endpoints, coding agents, and MCP servers. See Unity AI Gateway.
Updated AWS tag character restrictions
April 15, 2026
Custom usage tag character restrictions have been updated. Tag keys and values now cannot contain spaces or /. Tag keys now cannot consist only of . (one period), .. (two periods), or _index. For the latest guidance, see Tag limitations.
Lakebase Autoscaling: Customer-managed keys
April 14, 2026
You can now manage encrypted Lakebase Autoscaling project data using a customer-managed key (CMK) from your own cloud KMS. This gives your organization full control over encryption and helps meet regulatory and compliance requirements. See Customer-managed keys for Lakebase.
Create and write to Unity Catalog tables from external Delta clients (Beta)
April 14, 2026
The Unity REST API now supports write and create access to Unity Catalog external and managed Delta tables from external Delta clients such as Apache Spark. External Delta tables support full read, write, and create operations. Creating and writing to Unity Catalog managed Delta tables is available in Beta and requires catalog-managed commits to be enabled. See Access Databricks tables from Delta clients.
Column-level SAP governance tags sync into Unity Catalog
April 13, 2026
Column-level personal data governance tags from SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) now sync into Unity Catalog, including fieldSemantics, isPotentiallyPersonal, and isPotentiallySensitive. Use these tags in attribute-based access control (ABAC) policies to govern access to sensitive columns. See SAP BDC semantic metadata.
Connect Lovable apps to Databricks
April 13, 2026
You can now connect Lovable-hosted apps to your Databricks workspace to query lakehouse data using the REST API and OAuth machine-to-machine authentication. See Connect Lovable to Databricks.
Vector Search retrieval quality (Beta)
April 13, 2026
Mosaic AI Vector Search provides built-in retrieval quality evaluation that measures and compares the relevance of different search strategies on your data. For more information, see Evaluate vector search retrieval quality.
SQL reference documentation for managing governed tags
April 13, 2026
The Databricks SQL reference now includes documentation for five new SQL statements for managing governed tags: CREATE GOVERNED TAG, ALTER GOVERNED TAG, DROP GOVERNED TAG, DESCRIBE GOVERNED TAG, and SHOW GOVERNED TAGS.
For more information, see Create and manage governed tags.
New cascade field for deleting Unity Catalog pipelines (Beta)
April 9, 2026
A new cascade field is available in the Pipelines DELETE API for Unity Catalog pipelines. By default, cascade=true, which preserves the existing behavior of deleting all associated materialized views, streaming tables, and views when a pipeline is deleted. Set cascade=false to retain associated tables as inactive after deletion.
See Delete a pipeline.
Share foreign Iceberg tables with Delta Sharing (Public Preview)
April 9, 2026
You can now share foreign Iceberg tables federated from foreign Iceberg catalogs using Delta Sharing. Providers can add foreign Iceberg tables to a share, and recipients access the shared data in read-only format. See Add foreign Iceberg tables to a share.
Databricks Runtime 18.2 and Databricks Runtime 18.2 ML are in Beta
April 8, 2026
Databricks Runtime 18.2 and Databricks Runtime 18.2 ML are now in Beta, powered by Apache Spark 4.1.0.
See Databricks Runtime 18.2 (Beta) and Databricks Runtime 18.2 for Machine Learning (Beta).
Scoped personal access tokens are now generally available
April 8, 2026
You can now scope personal access tokens (PATs) to specific API operations, restricting tokens to only the permissions you specify. For a complete list of available scopes, see API scopes. To learn more, see Authenticate with Databricks personal access tokens (legacy).
Scoped personal access tokens are coming soon to workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled.
ai_prep_search (Beta)
April 8, 2026
ai_prep_search is now available in Beta. This SQL function transforms the structured output of ai_parse_document into search-ready chunks optimized for vector search and RAG pipelines. See ai_prep_search function.
Git-backed app deployments are now generally available
April 7, 2026
You can now deploy Databricks apps directly from Git repositories. Configure a Git reference, specify a source code path within a repository, and optionally enforce Git-only deployments across a workspace. See Deploy from a Git repository.
Databricks Marketplace listing creation wizard
April 6, 2026
The Marketplace provider console now features a step-by-step listing creation wizard that guides you through setting up general information, data assets, attributes, and details on separate pages. See Create a Marketplace listing.
Workspace skills for Genie Code are now available
April 6, 2026
Workspace skills for Genie Code Agent mode are now available. Workspace admins can create shared skills that are available to everyone in the workspace. Use workspace skills for broadly useful workflows across your team, such as machine learning pipelines or domain-specific processes. See Extend Genie Code with agent skills.
SAP semantic metadata syncs automatically into Unity Catalog
April 6, 2026
When you mount an SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) share to a catalog, semantic metadata (such as table and column comments, primary keys, foreign keys, and governance tags) syncs automatically into Unity Catalog. You can use SAP governance tags in ABAC policies to control access to sensitive data. See SAP BDC semantic metadata.
Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (04/02)
April 2, 2026
New maintenance updates are available for supported Databricks Runtime versions. These updates include bug fixes, security patches, and performance improvements. For details, see:
- Databricks Runtime 18.1
- Databricks Runtime 18.0
- Databricks Runtime 17.3 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 16.4 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 15.4 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 14.3 LTS
- Databricks Runtime 13.3 LTS
Governed tags are generally available
April 2, 2026
Governed tags are generally available. Governed tags allow administrators to define a controlled set of tags that can be applied to Unity Catalog objects and workspace objects, helping organizations enforce consistent metadata tagging for access control, data classification, and cost tracking. See Governed tags.