May 2026

These features and Azure Databricks platform improvements were released in May 2026.

Note

Releases are staged. Your Azure Databricks account might not be updated until a week or more after the initial release date.

Databricks Runtime 18 and Databricks Runtime 18 for Machine Learning are in Beta

May 22, 2026

Databricks Runtime 18 and Databricks Runtime 18 for Machine Learning are now in Beta, powered by Apache Spark 4.1.0.

Databricks Runtime 18 is the first release to use a unified release notes format. Previously, each feature version (18.0, 18.1, 18.2) had its own release notes page. Features that would previously have shipped as 18.3 or later now ship as dated updates to Databricks Runtime 18. For more information, see About unified release notes.

Databricks CLI is now GA

May 21, 2026

The Databricks CLI is now generally available (GA). As part of this release, the CLI has been updated to store user-to-machine (U2M) tokens in OS-native secure storage. See Token storage.

For information about the Databricks CLI, see Databricks CLI.

Instance events and instance pools system tables are now available (Public Preview)

May 21, 2026

The system.compute.instance_events and system.compute.instance_pools system tables are now in Public Preview. Use these tables to track state transitions of classic compute instances and the full history of instance pool configurations across your account. See Instance events table schema and Instance pools table schema.

Vector Search storage-optimized endpoints are GA

May 20, 2026

Vector Search storage-optimized endpoints are now generally available. Storage-optimized endpoints have a larger capacity (over one billion vectors at dimension 768) and provide 10-20x faster indexing than standard endpoints. Pricing is optimized for the larger number of vectors. For details, see Vector Search endpoint options.

Fixed LOD expression syntax update for metric views

May 20, 2026

Fixed level of detail (LOD) expressions in metric views are now defined directly in the expr field of a dimension using SQL window functions, replacing the previous two-step approach of pre-computing values in the source query. See Use level of detail (LOD) expressions in metric views.

Serve custom LLMs with Custom Model Serving (Beta)

May 20, 2026

You can now serve custom and fine-tuned LLMs on Azure Databricks with a vLLM engine, including multimodal models and PEFT recipes that Foundation Model APIs does not support. Custom LLM Serving is in Beta. See Serve custom LLMs with Custom Model Serving.

Lakebase Autoscaling now supports compute sizes up to 64 CU (128 GB)

May 20, 2026

Lakebase Autoscaling now supports compute sizes up to 64 CU (128 GB RAM), up from the previous maximum of 32 CU (64 GB RAM). Larger workloads can now use dynamic scaling. See Autoscaling.

Authenticate as a service principal using OAuth U2M (Beta)

May 20, 2026

You can now use the OAuth U2M flow to obtain tokens as a service principal's identity instead of your own user account. You must have the Service Principal Manager role on the service principal.

See Authenticate as a service principal using OAuth U2M.

Databricks Container Services for standard compute is now available (Beta)

May 19, 2026

Databricks Container Services for standard compute is now in Beta. You can now specify a Docker image when creating standard compute on Databricks Runtime 18.3 or later, allowing you to use custom containers in shared compute environments. See Databricks Container Services for standard compute.

Lakeflow Designer updates

May 19, 2026

The following updates were made to Lakeflow Designer:

  • Enabled by default: Lakeflow Designer is now enabled by default for all free edition, premium, and enterprise tier workspaces. To get started, click +New in the sidebar and select Visual data prep. If you don't see this option, contact your workspace admin.
  • AI operator search: The operator panel now suggests operators based on intent. For example, typing "average by month" surfaces the Aggregate operator.
  • Configurable sample size: You can now set the number of sample rows to run with each operator. Each operator remembers its own custom limit.
  • Git, import, clone, and export: You can now export, clone, and import visual data prep files using File > Export or File > Clone. Files can also be stored and managed in Git folders.
  • User-defined operators (Public Preview): You can now create user-defined operators that appear alongside built-in operators. Use them to extend Lakeflow Designer with your own business logic, calculations, or integrations. Three operator types are supported: uc-udf, uc-udtf, and python-run-function. See User-defined operators in Lakeflow Designer.
  • Bug fixes and improvements: Fixed multiple issues including right-click canvas behavior, undo/redo button state, Markdown node underline formatting, and unconfigured filter condition handling.

Edits to resources in the UI now automatically update YAML

May 19, 2026

Edits to jobs and pipeline settings in the UI now automatically update YAML. See Edit bundle resources.

Azure Databricks Add-in for Excel support for all compliance security profile standards

May 19, 2026

The Azure Databricks Add-in for Excel (Public Preview) now supports all compliance security profile standards supported by Azure Databricks. For more, see Compliance security profile and Connect to Azure Databricks from Microsoft Excel.

Unified runs list is generally available

May 18, 2026

You can now view all of your job and pipeline runs in the updated Runs list. Track all of your pipeline runs in one place and filter by status, time, run-as user, run ID, and error codes in real time. Spot trends using the visualization and summary of the current top five error codes. See View recent runs across all jobs and pipelines.

Recover a deleted Lakebase project within 7 days

May 15, 2026

When you delete a Lakebase project, it now enters a soft-deleted state for 7 days before permanent deletion. You can recover the project during that window, restoring all branches, databases, endpoints, and project settings. See Recover a deleted project.

Share Genie Code chat threads

May 15, 2026

You can now share Genie Code chat threads with other users, groups, or service principals. Recipients receive read-only access to view the shared chat thread. See Share a chat thread.

Agent Bricks Supervisor Agent now supports vector search indexes as subagent tools

May 15, 2026

You can now add vector search indexes as subagent tools in your Supervisor Agent. See Use Supervisor Agent to create a coordinated multi-agent system.

Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines sinks are now generally available

May 15, 2026

The Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines sink API is now generally available. Use sinks with append flows to write transformed pipeline data to external targets, including Delta tables, Apache Kafka topics, Azure Event Hubs, and custom Python data sources. See Using sinks in pipelines.

View run history for scheduled refreshes in Google Sheets

May 14, 2026

You can now view the run history of scheduled refreshes in the Azure Databricks Connector for Google Sheets. Each run shows its Run ID, start time, and success status. See Schedule data refreshes in Google Sheets.

Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines environment versions (Beta)

May 14, 2026

Environment versions for Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines are now in Beta. Configure an environment version on a pipeline to pin the Python language version and set of preinstalled libraries, decoupling your pipeline's Python runtime from Databricks Runtime upgrades. See Configure environment versions for pipelines.

Databricks SQL alerts are now generally available

May 14, 2026

The latest version of Databricks SQL alerts is now generally available. This release adds a Markdown editor for custom notification templates. See Databricks SQL alerts.

SQL alert task in Lakeflow Jobs is now in Public Preview

May 14, 2026

The SQL alert task in Lakeflow Jobs, previously in Beta, is now in Public Preview. Use the task to evaluate a Databricks SQL alert as part of a Lakeflow Job. The task returns its evaluation state as a task output value, so downstream tasks can branch on the result. See SQL alert task for jobs.

New Lakebase Autoscaling instances now scale to zero by default

May 13, 2026

New Lakebase Autoscaling instances now scale to zero by default after 24 hours of inactivity, reducing compute costs for idle projects. To learn more about scale to zero, see Scale to zero. To configure scale to zero, see Configure scale to zero. To change the scale to zero default for new Lakebase Autoscaling projects, see Compute defaults. This change does not affect existing projects.

ai_parse_document is now available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled

May 13, 2026

ai_parse_document is now available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled and HIPAA, HITRUST, C5, and TISAX controls selected.

Use ai_parse_document to parse structured content from unstructured documents including PDFs, images, Word documents, and PowerPoint files.

See ai_parse_document function.

Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (05/13)

May 13, 2026

New maintenance updates are available for supported Databricks Runtime versions. These updates include bug fixes, security patches, and performance improvements. For details, see:

Lakebase Autoscaling: Lakehouse Sync is now in Public Preview

May 12, 2026

Lakehouse Sync is now in Public Preview for Lakebase Autoscaling. Lakehouse Sync enables continuous, low-latency replication of your Lakebase Postgres tables into Unity Catalog managed Delta tables using Change Data Capture (CDC). See Lakebase Change Data Feed.

App telemetry for Databricks Apps is now in Public Preview

May 11, 2026

You can now collect traces, logs, and metrics from your Databricks Apps and persist them to Unity Catalog tables using the OpenTelemetry (OTel) protocol. See Configure telemetry for Databricks Apps.

HIPAA support for the Azure Databricks Add-in for Excel

May 11, 2026

The Azure Databricks Add-in for Excel (Public Preview) is now available for workspaces with HIPAA compliance across all supported regions. See Connect to Azure Databricks from Microsoft Excel.

HubSpot connector (GA)

May 11, 2026

The managed HubSpot connector in Lakeflow Connect is now generally available. The connector allows you to ingest data from HubSpot Marketing Hub into Azure Databricks. See HubSpot connector.

Catalog commits are now generally available

May 8, 2026

Catalog commits are now generally available. Catalog commits expand Unity Catalog managed table interoperability, strengthen Unity Catalog governance capabilities, and unlock new features such as multi-statement, multi-table transactions. When catalog commits are enabled on a Unity Catalog managed Delta table, Unity Catalog becomes the table's system of coordination, brokering access and state across engines. Products that read or write to Unity Catalog managed tables now support catalog commits, including streaming tables, Delta Sharing, Zerobus, Lakeflow Connect, Unity AI Gateway, MLflow, and Lakeflow Jobs triggers. See Catalog commits.

Faster package installs with %uv pip in serverless notebooks

May 7, 2026

You can now use the %uv pip magic command in serverless notebooks on environment version 5 or above as a faster alternative to %pip for Python package management. %uv pip is powered by the uv package manager and shares the same notebook virtual environment as %pip.

See Faster installs with %uv pip.

Standalone pipelines on serverless general compute (Beta)

May 7, 2026

Standalone pipelines, including materialized views and streaming tables, can now be created from a notebook running on serverless general compute. Standalone pipelines (renamed from pipelines on Databricks SQL) can be created using SQL or Python. Standalone pipelines are in Beta. See Requirements for standalone pipelines.

Lakehouse Sync is now available on Azure (Beta)

May 6, 2026

You can now continuously replicate Lakebase Postgres tables into Unity Catalog managed Delta tables using CDC. Lakehouse Sync captures row-level changes and writes them as SCD Type 2 history. No external compute, pipelines, or jobs are required. See Lakebase Change Data Feed.

Block identities from your Azure Databricks account with the account access denylist

May 6, 2026

Use the account access denylist to prevent specific users, groups, or service principals from accessing your Azure Databricks account when automatic identity management is enabled. See Deny identities access to your account.

Outlook managed ingestion connector (Beta)

May 5, 2026

The Outlook connector in Lakeflow Connect is now available in Beta. The connector allows you to ingest email data from Microsoft Outlook into Azure Databricks. See Outlook connector.

Alibaba Cloud Qwen3.5 122B A10B now available as a Databricks-hosted model in Public Preview

May 5, 2026

Model Serving now supports Alibaba Cloud Qwen3.5 122B A10B as a Databricks-hosted model. You can access this model using Foundation Model APIs.

Qwen3.5 122B A10B is available in Public Preview.

Customers are responsible for ensuring their compliance with applicable terms.

AI Runtime 1xH100 accelerator (Beta)

May 5, 2026

AI Runtime now supports the 1xH100 accelerator in Beta. See Hardware options.

GitHub managed ingestion connector (Beta)

May 5, 2026

The GitHub connector in Lakeflow Connect is now available in Beta. The connector allows you to ingest data from GitHub into Azure Databricks. See GitHub connector.

Smartsheet managed ingestion connector (Beta)

May 5, 2026

The Smartsheet connector in Lakeflow Connect is now available in Beta. The connector allows you to ingest data from Smartsheet into Azure Databricks. See Smartsheet connector.

Databricks Runtime 18.2 is now GA

May 4, 2026

Databricks Runtime 18.2 is now generally available. See Databricks Runtime 18.2 and Databricks Runtime 18.2 for Machine Learning.

Lakeflow Pipelines Editor is now generally available

May 4, 2026

The Lakeflow Pipelines Editor is now generally available. The editor offers an agent-first experience with Genie Code for creating, updating, and debugging production pipelines, with your code and Genie Code chat side by side with the pipeline graph and metrics. See Develop and debug ETL pipelines with the Lakeflow Pipelines Editor.

Native data profiling for notebook results tables

May 1, 2026

You can now view profiling statistics for columns in notebook results tables. From a results table, select column headers and click Sidebar icon. Open selection details to view profiling statistics. This feature is also available in the new Databricks SQL editor. See Select data.

Community connectors (Beta)

May 1, 2026

Open-source connectors extend Lakeflow Connect to sources without managed connector support. They're built and maintained by the community. Use a registered connector or create your own. See Community connectors in Lakeflow Connect.

Azure UK South now has a dedicated regional control plane

May 1, 2026

Azure UK South now has a dedicated regional control plane in addition to the existing UK West-based control plane. New workspaces created in UK South use the regional control plane and require firewall allowlist entries for the new SCC relay tunnel, Control Plane NAT IPs, Metastore, Log Blob storage, and Event Hubs endpoint. Existing UK South workspaces continue to use the UK West-based control plane and the corresponding UK West values, unless they migrate. See IP addresses and domains for Azure Databricks services and assets.

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