September 2026

Azure Databricks released these features and improvements in September 2026.

Note

In most cases, the release date and content listed below only correspond to actual deployment of the Azure Public Cloud.

It provide the evolution history of Azure Databricks service on Azure Public Cloud for your reference, which may not be consistent with the actual deployment on Azure operated by 21Vianet.

Note

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

The Genie One MCP server is now generally available

September 25, 2026

The Genie One MCP server is now generally available as a Databricks-provided MCP Service, system.ai.genie_one_mcp, in Unity Gateway . It exposes Genie as a conversational tool over the Model Context Protocol (MCP), so any MCP client or agent, such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, can ground its data questions in Genie's trusted insights, with Unity Catalog permissions enforced on every request. See Genie One MCP server .

The previous Beta endpoint, https://<workspace-hostname>/api/2.0/mcp/genie, is deprecated and will be sunset on October 31, 2026. Move all workloads to the system.ai.genie_one_mcp MCP Service before then.

The query history system table is now generally available

September 21, 2026

The system.query.history system table is now generally available. Use it to access account-wide records for queries run on SQL warehouses or serverless compute, including execution status, duration metrics, and query source. See Query history system table reference.

Databricks Apps telemetry is now generally available

September 18, 2026

Configuring telemetry for your Databricks apps is now generally available. Databricks Apps telemetry collects traces, logs, and metrics and persists them to Unity Catalog tables using the OpenTelemetry (OTel) protocol. After you enable app telemetry, Databricks automatically captures system logs and usage events, and you can add custom instrumentation using the OpenTelemetry SDK for your framework.

Databricks Apps is now on by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled

September 18, 2026

Databricks Apps is now on by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled.

Unity Gateway support for compliance security profile standards

September 17, 2026

Unity Gateway now supports all compliance security profile standards supported by Azure Databricks and is available by default for workspaces with the compliance security profile enabled.

Metastore-level ABAC policies are in Beta

September 17, 2026

Metastore-level ABAC policies are in Beta in Unity Catalog. You can now attach an ABAC policy (row filter, column mask, GRANT, or DENY) at the metastore level, so a single policy applies across every catalog in the metastore, including catalogs created later. This gives governance teams one place to enforce organization-wide data protection rules without replicating a policy for each catalog.

Moonshot AI Kimi K2.7 is scheduled for retirement

September 17, 2026

Moonshot AI Kimi K2.7 will be retired on October 30, 2026. Kimi K3 is the recommended replacement.

Base environments are now supported on classic compute (Beta)

September 17, 2026

You can now use base environments to manage Python dependencies on classic compute. You can use Databricks-provided environments or custom workspace-level environments.

Unused OAuth client secrets are automatically deleted after 90 days

September 16, 2026

Azure Databricks now automatically deletes a service principal's OAuth client secret after 90 days without use, consistent with unused access token cleanup. If a deleted secret is still needed, create a new OAuth secret.

Unity Gateway API and developer tools are generally available

September 16, 2026

The Unity Gateway API for managing model services, model provider services, and MCP services is now generally available, with create, read, update, list, and delete support across Azure Databricks developer tools:

Declarative Automation Bundles support, through the Databricks CLI 1.17.0 and later, is in Beta.

For API documentation, see the Unity Gateway API reference.

Account-only user access to Genie One (Beta)

September 16, 2026

Genie One now supports account-only users, so users in a registered identity provider can access account-level Genie One without being assigned to a workspace or granted consumer access. When enabled, eligible users are enrolled automatically. Unity Catalog continues to govern what each user can see.

VARIANT cast extends to ARRAY and MAP columns in ABAC column masks

September 16, 2026

You can now use a single VARIANT function to mask columns of type ARRAY and MAP, in addition to STRUCT and other types. This requires Databricks Runtime 19 or above. See Masking multiple column types with a single function.

Sharing foreign Delta tables with OpenSharing is now generally available

September 15, 2026

Sharing and reading foreign Delta tables with OpenSharing is now generally available. Providers can share Delta-format tables federated from OneLake, a Hive metastore, or AWS Glue, without copying data into Azure Databricks. See Add foreign Delta tables to a share.

Maintenance windows for continuous pipelines

September 15, 2026

You can now set a maintenance window on a continuous Lakeflow pipeline to control when Azure Databricks applies platform updates that require a restart, such as new runtime versions and serverless infrastructure maintenance. Select a day of the week, a start hour, and a time zone, and Azure Databricks starts maintenance only within that one-hour window. Configure the window in the Jobs UI, the Pipelines UI, or the Jobs REST API.

Data Classification now scans Unity Catalog views (Beta)

September 15, 2026

Data Classification can now scan Unity Catalog views in addition to tables, classifying columns for sensitive data using the same detection engine. This is a Beta feature. See Classify views.

Window measures on a numeric index column in metric views

September 14, 2026

Window measures support unitless offset and trailing/leading ranges on a consecutive integer order column. Use a numeric index for non-calendar periods such as fiscal weeks or 4-4-5 periods. See Window measures on a numeric index column.

The counter_diff SQL window function is now available

September 14, 2026

The counter_diff window function calculates differences between consecutive cumulative counter values and handles counter resets, for time-series analysis of counter data. It is available in Databricks SQL and Databricks Runtime 19 and above. See counter_diff analytic window function.

Standard performance mode is now available for one-time runs in the Jobs API

September 11, 2026

You can now set performance_target to STANDARD in the Jobs API. Apache Airflow's DatabricksSubmitRunOperator also supports this. See Create and trigger a one-time run and Select a performance mode.

Sharing foreign Iceberg tables with OpenSharing is now generally available

September 11, 2026

Sharing and reading foreign Iceberg tables with OpenSharing is now generally available. Providers can share Iceberg tables federated from foreign Iceberg catalogs using Lakehouse Federation, including to recipients using external Iceberg clients. See Add foreign Iceberg tables to a share for providers and Read data in a shared foreign Iceberg table for recipients.

Sharing foreign schemas and tables with OpenSharing is now generally available

September 11, 2026

Sharing and reading foreign schemas and foreign tables with OpenSharing is now generally available. Providers can share foreign schemas and tables federated from external data sources using Lakehouse Federation, without copying data into Azure Databricks. See Add foreign schemas or tables to a share for providers and Read data in a shared foreign table or foreign schema for recipients.

Sharing foreign schemas and tables materializes data on the provider's side, which incurs compute and storage costs. See How do I incur and check OpenSharing costs?.

Session restore for serverless jobs is in Public Preview

September 11, 2026

Restore the Python variables and Spark session from a serverless compute job run into a new interactive notebook, so you can debug a failure or explore results without rerunning the entire job. Azure Databricks captures the snapshot automatically for eligible runs. See Session restore for serverless jobs.

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is now available on Unity Gateway

September 11, 2026

DeepSeek V4.1 Flash is now available on Unity Gateway with text and image inputs.

Customers are responsible for ensuring their compliance with applicable terms.

Managed tables in Lakeflow pipelines (Beta)

September 10, 2026

You can now create managed tables in Lakeflow pipelines and write to them with one or more append flows. This feature is in Beta. You can also use import_checkpoint on an append flow to migrate an existing Structured Streaming workload into a pipeline without reprocessing the source.

See create_table , CREATE TABLE ... FLOW (pipelines) , and append_flow.

Configurable retention for system tables is in Beta

September 9, 2026

Account admins can now set an account-wide retention period from 30 to 3,650 days for supported system tables. See Configure system table data retention.

External secrets in Unity Catalog (Beta)

September 9, 2026

External secrets connect a Unity Catalog schema to Azure Key Vault. The secrets appear in Unity Catalog as read-only securable objects that you govern with Unity Catalog privileges. Azure Databricks reads their values from Azure Key Vault on demand. See External secrets in Unity Catalog.

time_bucket SQL function aligns timestamps to fixed-width time buckets

September 8, 2026

time_bucket returns the start of the fixed-width interval a timestamp falls into, aligned to an origin you choose (for example, 15-minute or 3-month buckets). Use it instead of date_trunc when the bucket width or start is not a calendar unit.

See time_bucket function.

Partner-powered AI features can no longer be disabled in the settings UI

September 8, 2026

You can no longer disable the partner-powered AI features setting in the account or workspace settings UI, but can still enable it. Until November 1, 2026, you can still use the Settings API to enable or disable the setting.

On November 1, 2026, the setting will be removed, and any change will then require contacting your Azure Databricks account team.

ABAC DENY policies are in Beta

September 8, 2026

ABAC DENY policies are in Beta in Unity Catalog. DENY policies can be used to explicitly deny the MANAGE ACCESS CONTROL privilege to prevent specified principals, including object owners, from performing access-management operations. They always take precedence over any grant.

Share metric views with OpenSharing (Beta)

September 3, 2026

You can now share metric views with Azure Databricks users in other metastores or accounts using OpenSharing. See Add metric views to a share and Read shared metric views.

Private network gateway is in Beta

September 3, 2026

Private network gateway is in Beta. A private network gateway connects Azure Databricks serverless compute to resources in your VNet, on-premises systems, and the internet through a single managed gateway, reusing your existing network connectivity configuration (NCC). Use it for broad private connectivity without onboarding each resource individually, to route serverless egress through your own security appliances for content inspection, or to send egress from a stable set of IP addresses. Account admins can enable it from the account console Previews page.

Environment version 6 is now available

September 3, 2026

You can now select environment version 6 as your base environment for serverless and standard classic compute. See Environment version 6.

Git Folder Serverless is in Beta

September 2, 2026

You can now use Git Folder Serverless to share serverless compute and a pyproject.toml-managed environment across notebooks and files in a Git folder.

AI Search supports struct and map columns and filter-only queries

September 2, 2026

You can now index and filter struct and map columns in AI Search, and run filter-only queries that return rows matching a filter without vector or keyword retrieval.

Genie Code scheduled tasks are now generally available

September 1, 2026

Genie Code scheduled tasks are now generally available. You can schedule Genie Code to run a prompt on a recurring schedule. Each run executes your prompt as a full Genie Code session and produces a continuable Genie chat with the results, so you can turn recurring analysis and other work into an unattended background task. Create a scheduled task by asking Genie Code in chat or from the Schedules menu.

Databricks Runtime maintenance updates (09/01)

September 1, 2026

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

Automatic change data feed is now generally available

September 1, 2026

Automatic change data feed (Auto CDF) computes row-level changes at query time using row tracking, without requiring you to manually enable change data feed on each Delta Lake or Apache Iceberg v3 table. Auto CDF removes write-time overhead and makes MERGE and UPDATE operations about 15% faster on tables that you query for changes. It works with batch queries, Structured Streaming, and Delta Sharing, and requires Databricks Runtime 19 or above with row tracking enabled. See Automatic change data feed.

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