Changes / Warehouses & lakehouses / Databricks
SKU retirementmedium impact
Databricks on AWS Standard tier reached end of life
Standard tier workspaces on Databricks on AWS were end-of-life'd, with customers required to upgrade to Premium or Enterprise by October 1, 2025.
Who’s affected
Teams that ran Databricks on AWS Standard tier workspaces. Any workspace not upgraded by 2025-10-01 was automatically moved to Premium, so the bill and feature set may already have changed.
Not affected: Databricks on Azure or GCP, and AWS workspaces already on Premium or Enterprise tier.
What it costs
The record gives no prices. The cost driver is the move from Standard to Premium or Enterprise rates on AWS, which applies to every workspace that was auto-upgraded. Compare your recent invoices against pre-October 2025 usage to see the actual change.
When to act
The change took effect on 2025-10-01, so the lead time has already passed; review invoices and workspace tiers now rather than waiting for the next renewal.
Blast radius: Billing and DBU rates for auto-upgraded AWS workspaces; any budget forecasts, chargeback reports and commit agreements built on Standard tier rates.
What should you do? decision tree
- you are unsure which tier your AWS workspaces are onCheck the account console and confirm each workspace shows Premium or Enterprise, and note which were auto-upgraded on 2025-10-01.
- workspaces were auto-upgraded to Premium and your DBU spend roseCompare invoices before and after 2025-10-01 and ask your Databricks rep to review the rates against your commit.
- you were not using Premium-only features such as extra governance and access controlsConsolidate or shut down idle workspaces and right-size clusters to offset the higher tier cost.
- you can't accept the new tier pricingPrice out Snowflake, BigQuery or Microsoft Fabric against your workloads before your next renewal.
Options
- OptimizeAudit auto-upgraded workspaces: delete idle ones, enforce auto-termination and cluster policies to limit DBU growth.
- NegotiateAsk your rep to re-price your commit at the Premium tier, using list prices only as a starting point and not the final rate.
- UpgradeUse the Premium features you now pay for, such as governance and access controls, to replace separate tooling and justify the cost.
- MigrateIf the new tier cost is not justified, benchmark a move of key workloads to another warehouse platform.
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The facts straight from the source
Facts above are extracted from the source and checked word-for-word before publishing. The guidance sections are AI-assisted analysis based only on those facts: a starting point, not legal or procurement advice. Spotted an error? Tell us.
Related changes
- DatabricksNew Azure Databricks workspaces must be Premium tier
Starting April 1, 2026, new Azure Databricks workspaces can only be created on the Premium tier.
SKU retired - DatabricksDatabricks acquires Row Zero (governed spreadsheets for Genie)
Databricks announced it has acquired Row Zero, which will be integrated with Genie and made available to all Databricks customers across all major clouds.
M&A - DatabricksAzure Databricks Standard tier ends; workspaces auto-upgrade to Premium
Standard tier workspaces on Azure Databricks reach end of life on Oct 1, 2026, and remaining ones are auto-upgraded to Premium.
SKU retired