Azure Databricks preview releases

Databricks regularly releases previews to allow you to evaluate and provide feedback on features before they’re generally available (GA). Previews come in various degrees of maturity, each of which is defined in this article. The following tables list Databricks support options associated with each release type.

For information on accessing preview releases, see Manage Azure Databricks Previews.

Platform releases

Azure Databricks platform features can be released as any of the following types:

Release type	Who can use?	For production?	Interface stable	SLA	Support	Notes
Private Preview	Invite only	No	No	No	Engineering team	Available by invite-only and usually for a small set of customers. Previews are OFF by default, and admins can enable (or disable) the preview in workspaces. There is often no accompanying Azure Databricks documentation.
Public Preview	Everyone	Yes	Yes	Yes	Support team	Available to all customers. The default preview state can be enabled or disabled. Admins can opt out of the preview by disabling it in workspaces. The preview state set during the Private Preview phase does not change for Public Preview. These features are documented in the Azure Databricks documentation and are also stable and intended to advance to GA. A notification appears in the Databricks UI if GA is approaching soon for a feature.
General Availability (GA)	Everyone	Yes	Yes	Yes	Support team	Generally available to all customers. The feature is fully supported and production-ready.

For information about the platform feature support lifecycle, see Platform feature lifecycle.

Databricks Runtime releases

Databricks Runtime releases can be any of the following types. Previews of Databricks Runtime are always labeled Beta.

Release type	Who can use?	Maturity	For production?	Interface stable	SLA	Support
Beta	Everyone	Low-Med	No	No	No	Engineering team
GA	Everyone	High	Yes	Yes	Yes	Support team

Features included in a Databricks Runtime can be released at any of the following preview types:

Preview type	Who can use?	Maturity	For production?	Interface stable	SLA	Support	Notes
Private Preview	Invite only	Low-Med	No	No	No	Engineering team	Features are usually not documented in the public Azure Databricks documentation. The API might change.
Experimental	Everyone	Low-Med	No	No	No	Engineering team	Features are documented in the public Azure Databricks documentation. The API might change.
Public Preview	Everyone	Med-High	Yes	Yes	Yes	Support team	Features are documented in the public Azure Databricks documentation. The API will not change, either during the Public Preview or when the feature becomes GA. Most public previews are open to all customers. Some, however, require that you request access.

For more information about Databricks Runtime releases, including support lifecycle and long-term-support (LTS), see Databricks Runtime support lifecycles.