Adding and managing databases

Connect Metabase to your data sources and manage database connections

Adding and managing databases

Connect Metabase to your data sources and start querying your data. Metabase supports a wide range of databases, from traditional relational databases to modern cloud data warehouses.

Adding a database connection

To add a database connection:

1. Click the grid icon in the top right corner of Metabase
2. Navigate to Admin > Databases
3. Click Add a database
4. Fill out the connection fields for your database
5. Click Save changes at the bottom

The connection settings differ from database to database. For specific connection settings, see the supported databases section below.

Connecting to supported databases

Metabase officially supports the following databases. These databases have drivers maintained by the Metabase team, and customers on Pro and Enterprise plans receive official support.

As of version 46.6.4, Metabase no longer supports H2 connections for security reasons. Metabase still ships with an embedded H2 database for application data and sample data.

Amazon Athena

Query data in Amazon S3 using SQL

BigQuery

Google Cloud Platform’s serverless data warehouse

ClickHouse

High-performance columnar database

Databricks

Unified analytics platform on Apache Spark

Druid

Real-time analytics database

MongoDB

Document-oriented NoSQL database

MariaDB

MySQL-compatible relational database

MySQL

Popular open-source relational database

Oracle

Enterprise relational database

PostgreSQL

Advanced open-source relational database

Presto

Distributed SQL query engine

Amazon Redshift

AWS cloud data warehouse

Snowflake

Cloud-native data warehouse

SparkSQL

SQL interface for Apache Spark

SQL Server

Microsoft’s enterprise database

SQLite

Lightweight embedded database

Starburst

Enterprise Trino-based analytics

Vertica

High-performance analytics database

Version support policy

For each database, Metabase supports the oldest supported version through the latest stable version. Check your specific database documentation for details on supported versions.

Community drivers

If you don’t see your database listed here, check out the Community drivers section for databases supported by the Metabase community.

Connecting to cloud-hosted databases

For provider-specific connection details, such as connecting to a PostgreSQL data warehouse on AWS RDS:

AWS RDS

Connect to databases hosted on Amazon’s Relational Database Service

Setting up database privileges

Before connecting Metabase to your database, you need to grant the appropriate privileges to a Metabase database user.

For Metabase to connect, query, or write to your database, you must provide a database user account with the correct privileges:

• Read-only access: Required for all connections to query your data
• Write access: Optional, needed for features like uploads, actions, and model persistence

See Database roles, users, and privileges for detailed setup instructions.

Managing database connections

Connection and sync status

After connecting a database, you can view its connection status and manage sync settings from Admin > Databases > select your database.

This section shows:

• Current connection status
• Last sync time
• Options to sync schema or rescan field values

Syncing and scanning databases

Metabase periodically runs queries against your database to stay up to date with your schema and data. This includes:

• Schema sync: Updates table and column information
• Field value scanning: Populates filter dropdowns and identifies data types
• Fingerprinting: Computes statistics to improve visualizations

When do syncs and scans happen?

By default, Metabase performs:

• Hourly sync: Lightweight schema updates
• Daily scan: More intensive field value scanning

You can customize these schedules in your database settings under Choose when syncs and scans happen.

For complete details, see Syncing and scanning databases.

Deleting databases

Deleting a database is irreversible. All saved questions and dashboard cards based on this database will be permanently deleted.

To delete a database:

1. Go to Admin > Databases
2. Select your database
3. Scroll to the bottom and click Remove this database

Restoring the Sample Database

If you’ve deleted the Metabase Sample Database, you can restore it:

1. Go to Admin > Databases
2. Click Bring the Sample Database back

Troubleshooting

Having connection issues? Check out these resources:

Database connection issues

Common connection problems and solutions

Sync and scan issues

Troubleshoot syncing and fingerprinting

Known issues

Check for known bugs or limitations

Community forum

Search or ask the Metabase community

Next steps

Metadata editing

Customize how your data appears in Metabase

Data permissions

Control who can access which data

Database privileges

Set up proper database user permissions

Metabase at scale

Best practices for large deployments