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| DuckDB | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer | DuckDB Labs |
| Stable release | v1.4.3 LTS / December 9, 2025 (2025-12-09) |
| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Column-oriented DBMS RDBMS |
| License | MIT License |
| Website | www |
| Repository | github |
DuckDB is anopen-sourcecolumn-orientedRelational Database Management System (RDBMS).[1] It is designed to provide high performance on complex queries against large databases in embedded configuration,[2] such as combiningtables with hundreds of columns and billions of rows. Unlike other embedded databases (for example,SQLite) DuckDB is not focusing on transactional (OLTP) applications and instead is specialized foronline analytical processing (OLAP) workloads.[3] The project has over 6 million downloads per month.[4][5][6]
DuckDB was originally developed byMark Raasveldt andHannes Mühleisen [wd] at theCentrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) in theNetherlands.[2] The project co-founders designed DuckDB to address the need for an in-process OLAP database solution.[7] DuckDB was first released in 2019.[8] DuckDB version 1.0.0 was released on June 3, 2024, under the codename SnowDuck.[9]
DuckDB uses avectorized query processing engine.[3] DuckDB is special amongst database management systems because it does not have any external dependencies and can be built with just aC++11 compiler.[10] DuckDB also deviates from the traditionalclient–server model by running inside a host process (it has bindings, for example, for a Python interpreter with the ability to directly place data intoNumPy arrays[2]). DuckDB's SQL parser is derived from the pg_query library developed by Lukas Fittl, which is itself derived fromPostgreSQL's SQL parser that has been stripped down as much as possible.[3][11] DuckDB uses a single-file storage format to store data ondisk, designed to support efficient scansand bulk updates, appends and deletes.[12] DuckDB is also compiled toWebAssembly usingemscripten which enables DuckDB to run SQL in browser-based analytics tools.[13][14]
DuckDB in its OLAP niche does not compete with the traditional DBMS likeMSSQL,PostgreSQL andOracle database. While usingSQL for queries, DuckDB targets serverless applications and provides extremely fast responses using eitherApache Parquet files or its own format for storage. These attributes make it a popular choice for large dataset analysis in interactive mode.[15]
DuckDB is used atFacebook,Google, andAirbnb.[16]
DuckDB co-author Mühleisen also runs a support and consultancy firm for the software, DuckDB Labs.[8] The company has chosen not to take venture capital funding, stating "We feel investment would force the project direction towards monetization, and we would much prefer keeping DuckDB open and available for as many people as possible".[6] Another company,MotherDuck, has received $100 million funding for its data platform based on DuckDB, with investors includingAndreessen Horowitz.[17]
The independent non-profit DuckDB Foundation safeguards the long-term maintenance and development of DuckDB. The foundation holds much of the intellectual property of the project and is funded by charitable donations.[18] The DuckDB Foundation's statutes ensure DuckDB remains open-source under theMIT license in perpetuity.[19]
In addition to the nativeC andC++ APIs, DuckDB supports a range of programming languages.
| Language | Notes | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Java | TheJava API is implemented usingJNI.[20] Integration with theApache Arrow[21] format is provided. | [22] |
| Python | ThePython API implements support for thePandas,[23]Apache Arrow[24] and Polarsdata analysis packages. | [25] |
| Rust | TheRust API is distributed as arust crate that exposes an elegant wrapper over the native C API. | [26] |
| Node.JS | Node API | [27] |
| R | R API | [28] |
| Julia | Julia API | [29] |
| Swift | Swift API | [30] |
| WebAssembly | WASM API | [31] |
| Go | Go API | [32] |
DuckDB's architecture supports extensions, allowing additional functionality to be added dynamically.[33] Many popular extensions are maintained by the core DuckDB team, and there are over 30 community extensions maintained by third parties.[34][35][36]
