Sign up for Databricks with express setup

This article tells you how to sign up for a Databricks free trial and create your first workspace using the express setup. Express setup is a simple way to start using Databricks that doesn’t require prior cloud provider access. You can sign up and start using Databricks with only an email. If you want to deploy your Databricks workspace in your existing AWS account, see Start a Databricks free trial.

Express setup gives you a serverless workspace and free trial credits you can use to start exploring the Lakehouse platform. Serverless workspaces include always-on serverless compute and default storage. For more information on serverless workspaces, see Overview of serverless workspaces.

Start your free trial

To create your account and start your free trial using express setup:

Navigate to the Try Databricks page.
Select For professional use.
Select Use express setup.
Sign up using your email and enter the verification code.
Give your account a name.
Select whether you want to allow automatic user provisioning. See Automatic user provisioning.
Select your location then click Continue.

You are taken directly to your first workspace where you can start exploring and completing tutorials. For information about navigating your new workspace, see Navigate the workspace.

How does the free trial work?

In this trial you are eligible to receive credit for free Databricks usage, valid for 14 days after you start your trial. If you choose to continue using Databricks after your trial ends, you will be billed by Databricks and pay using a credit card.

At any point in the trial you can upgrade your account by adding a payment method or signing a commitment with Databricks. You can still use your remaining trial credits even after you add a billing method.

What happens after the trial ends?

After your free trial credits are used or expired, you cannot use Databricks until you add a payment method.

If you do not upgrade your account, any assets created in the workspace (like notebooks, jobs, dashboards) will be deleted 60 days after your trial ends. Any data generated by the trial (for example, vector search indexes) may be deleted immediately when the trial expires.

What do you get when you upgrade?

If you choose to upgrade your Databricks account, you can create additional workspaces in your account, including workspaces that allow for custom compute and storage configurations.

Automatic user provisioning

When you create your workspace using express setup, you can select whether you want to allow automatic user provisoning in your serverless workspace.

Automatic user provisioning grants anyone who has an email with your same professional domain name access to the workspace. When you share a link to the Databricks workspace with a teammate, they can sign in using their professional email address.

Trial limits

If you require the use of a compliance standard or cloud service provider, you can sign up using Databricks express setup. After you create your account, you can upgrade your account and create a new workspace to meet your compliance needs.
During the trial, Databricks limits scaling of serverless compute resources so that you can make the most of your credit offer:
- Maximum one SQL warehouse per workspace that will scale to a maximum of 50 DBUs/hr.
- Serverless compute for notebooks, jobs, and Delta Live Tables will scale to a maximum of 50 DBUs/hr.
- No access to GPUs (CPU only).
- Vector search is limited to one endpoint with a scale capped to 1 vector search unit.
Your trial’s serverless workspace includes limitations related to serverless compute and default storage. For more information, see Serverless workspace limitations.