Airbyte vs Databricks Pricing (2026)

How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.

Airbyte Databricks
Starts at $29/mo Custom
Number of plans 4 7
Free plan
Free trial
Pricing model usage-based usage-based

Free

$0/mo
  • Single user
  • API and MCP access
  • Context Store refreshes daily (hourly for the first 14 days)

Individual

$29/mo
  • Single user
  • API and MCP access
  • Context Store with hourly refresh

Team

Popular
$299/mo
  • Everything in Individual
  • Parallel workflow execution
  • Multiple users and workspaces
  • Standard and AI support

Custom

Custom
  • Everything in Team
  • Custom workspace limits
  • Custom Context Store refresh frequency

Data Engineering

Custom
  • Orchestrate data processing, machine learning and analytics pipelines
  • Build streaming and batch pipelines
  • Ingest data from a wide variety of sources with in-built connectors
  • Lakeflow Jobs
  • Lakeflow Pipelines
  • Lakeflow Connect

Data Warehousing

Custom
  • Run SQL queries for BI reporting, analytics and visualization to get timely insights from data lakes
  • Available in both Classic and Serverless (managed) Compute

Interactive workloads

Custom
  • Run interactive data science and machine learning workloads
  • Build and deploy custom applications with the full security and governance of the Data Intelligence Platform
  • Compute for Data Science
  • Databricks Apps

Operational Database

Custom
  • Fully-managed Postgres transactional database for serving data and features to support applications built on Databricks

Artificial Intelligence

Custom
  • Build production-quality GenAI or ML apps across any use case
  • AI Gateway
  • Agent Bricks
  • AI Functions
  • Model Serving
  • Foundation Model Serving
  • Proprietary Foundation Model Serving
  • AI Search
  • Agent Evaluation
  • Model Training
  • AI Runtime

Genie

Custom
  • AI assistance for every team, across code, analytics, and enterprise knowledge
  • Ask in natural language and get trusted, governed answers from your data
  • Genie One - Enterprise Knowledge
  • Genie Spaces - Natural Language Q&A
  • Genie Code - AI Coding Assistant

Platform

Custom
  • Cross platform capabilities for governance, management and security
  • Managed services that automate the ongoing optimization and maintenance of your data lake
  • Tiers and Add-ons
  • Managed Services
  • Data Transfer and Connectivity
  • Storage
  • Delta Share from SAP BDC
  • Collaboration

Airbyte vs Databricks FAQ

Which one is cheaper?
One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
Can I use either one for free?
Airbyte has a free plan. Databricks doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
How do they charge?
Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
Which one is a better deal?
Depends on what you need. Airbyte: Airbyte built its reputation as the scrappy open-source alternative to Fivetran and Stitch, and that DNA shows — the free tier is genuinely generous. They're not trying to be the enterprise-first premium play; they're going after cost-conscious data teams who want flexibility without a five-figure contract. Databricks: Databricks plays in the premium enterprise data platform space, competing directly with Snowflake and Google BigQuery — they're not trying to win on price, they're winning on unified platform breadth (data engineering + ML + warehousing in one place). The all-custom pricing signals they're targeting mid-market and enterprise accounts with real budget, not self-serve startups.

Keep tabs on both.

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