A note from our team
In September, Databricks announced that it acquired Row Zero. For those of us who have spent the last few years building the world's fastest spreadsheet, this is a big moment. It is also a fair moment for you to ask: what does this mean for me?
This post answers that directly. We will cover what is changing, what is not, and what you can do today.
Why Row Zero and Databricks belong together
We started Row Zero because spreadsheets broke the moment real data showed up. Excel tops out at about a million rows. Google Sheets slows to a crawl long before its cell limit. And the workaround everyone uses, exporting a CSV from the warehouse to a laptop, creates stale snapshots and real security risks.
Row Zero fixed that with a cloud spreadsheet that opens billions of rows, connects live to your data warehouse, and inherits the permissions your data team already set up.
Databricks shares that view. Its goal is to bring data and AI to every team, not just the people who write SQL. Most business teams still do their real work in spreadsheets. Row Zero gives those teams a familiar place to work on governed data, alongside Genie, Databricks' AI coworker for business users.
In Databricks' words, Row Zero will be integrated natively into Genie so finance, operations, sales, and marketing teams can go from asking a question in plain language to pivoting, modeling, visualizing, and collaborating in a spreadsheet, all on live, governed data.
What is not changing
The Row Zero app you use today. If you use Row Zero at rowzero.com, nothing changes for you right now. Your workbooks, formulas, pivot tables, Python, and scheduled refreshes keep working as they do today.
The free tier. Row Zero's free tier is still available. If you are new, you can start at rowzero.com/new. If you have used Row Zero for free to open a large CSV or analyze a big export, keep doing it.
Your data connections. Row Zero will continue to support data sources beyond Databricks. If you connect to Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Postgres, S3, or another source, that keeps working.
Speed and scale. Row Zero was built to handle billions of rows at interactive speed. That is still the foundation, and it is not going anywhere.
Security and governance. Row Zero connects live to your warehouse and respects the access controls you have already defined, including role based access and row level security. You can analyze data without downloading sensitive files to a laptop.
What is changing
Row Zero is coming natively into Databricks. We are building Row Zero directly into Databricks Genie, across its web, desktop, and mobile experiences. Databricks customers will be able to open a governed spreadsheet right where they already work.
Genie and spreadsheets will work together. Ask Genie a question in plain language, then take the answer straight into a spreadsheet to model, pivot, and share. Genie agents and people will work together in the same workbook, with every change visible and editable.
Deeper governance through Unity Catalog. In the native Databricks experience, spreadsheet access, exports, and write-back will be governed by Unity Catalog and the Databricks governance stack, so every action by a person or an agent is auditable and follows policy.
A bigger team behind the product. Row Zero now has the resources of Databricks behind it. You should expect faster progress on the features you ask for most.
We will share more details on the native Databricks experience as it gets closer to availability. Until then, the Row Zero you know is the Row Zero you get.
What you should do now
If you are a current Row Zero user: Keep working. Nothing in your workflow needs to change today.
If you are new to Row Zero: Try the free tier at rowzero.com/new. Open a file that Excel or Google Sheets cannot handle, or connect to your warehouse and build a live, connected sheet.
If your company uses Databricks: Talk to your Databricks account team about bringing Row Zero to your finance, operations, or analytics teams. You can also connect Row Zero to Databricks today, with live access that respects your existing permissions.
If your company uses another data platform: Row Zero still works with it. Connect your warehouse and keep going.
No. The free tier is still available at rowzero.com/new.
Yes. Your existing workbooks, connections, and refresh schedules keep working as they do today.
Row Zero will be built natively into Databricks Genie. Business users will be able to move from a Genie answer into a governed spreadsheet to pivot, model, visualize, and collaborate on live data, with access controlled through Unity Catalog.
We will share timing as it gets closer. Follow this blog for updates.
Read the Databricks announcement, "Databricks Acquires Row Zero, Bringing Live, Governed Spreadsheets to Genie," on databricks.com, join us for the upcoming DATA + AI LIVE event, or click here to schedule a demo.
The bottom line
Row Zero was built on a simple idea: the spreadsheet should be where people do their best work with data, without downloading a CSV. Joining Databricks lets us take that idea further, to every business team on governed data, alongside AI. Thank you for building with us. The best part is still ahead.
