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ADBC (Arrow Database Connectivity) is an open application programming interface (API) specification and a set of libraries for accessing databases using the Apache Arrow columnar data format. It is a subproject of Apache Arrow, developed under the Apache Software Foundation.^[1] ADBC is designed as a columnar, minimal-overhead alternative to the row-oriented JDBC and ODBC standards for analytical applications, allowing query results to be returned directly in Arrow format without intermediate data conversions.^[2]

ADBC provides a single, vendor-neutral API for moving Arrow data into and out of different databases.^[2] Because the API exchanges data in Apache Arrow's columnar format, it enables zero-copy operations between Arrow-native systems and avoids the conversion overhead incurred when columnar data must be converted to rows and back when using traditional row-oriented drivers.^[2][3] Its developers describe ADBC as complementing rather than replacing JDBC and ODBC, targeting applications that prioritize bulk columnar data access.^[2]

The specification defines three core abstractions: databases, which hold state shared across connections; connections, which represent individual logical connections to a database; and statements, which manage the execution of queries and prepared statements.^[4] Beyond executing SQL queries, ADBC supports inspecting database catalogs and table schemas, bulk data ingestion, partitioned result sets for distributed computation, query cancellation, and the retrieval of table and column statistics.^[1][4]

ADBC offers implementations across multiple programming languages, including C/C++, C#/.NET, Go, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, R, Ruby, and Rust; the C header file adbc.h is considered the canonical definition of the API.^[1][4]

Version 1.0.0 of the ADBC specification was announced by the Apache Arrow project management committee on January 5, 2023.^[2] The standard was created to address inefficiencies that arise when columnar database systems such as DuckDB, ClickHouse, and BigQuery are accessed through row-oriented APIs.^[2] A subsequent revision, version 1.1.0, added features including query cancellation, additional bulk ingestion modes, richer error metadata, table and column statistics retrieval, and incremental execution.^[5]

On October 29, 2025, the ADBC Driver Foundry was announced as an open-source hub for ADBC driver development, hosted separately from the central Apache Arrow repository to better accommodate the growing number of drivers. The initiative was developed by contributors from Columnar, Databricks, dbt Labs, Improving, Microsoft, Snowflake, and the Apache Arrow community, and does not alter the core ADBC specification.^[6]

ADBC defines a driver-based architecture in which language-neutral drivers connect the standard API to specific database backends. Drivers are distributed as shared libraries that can be loaded at runtime and reused across the different language bindings. Drivers maintained within the Apache Arrow project include those for Arrow Flight SQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and a generic JDBC adapter.^[1] Additional drivers are maintained at the ADBC Driver Foundry, among them those for BigQuery, Snowflake, Trino, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and Amazon Redshift.^[7] Columnar, a data-infrastructure company that contributes to the standard, develops dbc, a package manager for installing ADBC drivers on Linux, macOS, and Windows.^[8][9]

ADBC has been adopted by several data platforms and tools. Microsoft began transitioning the data-source connections in Power BI and Microsoft Fabric from legacy embedded ODBC drivers to ADBC drivers, citing more efficient retrieval of large datasets and security enhancements such as memory safety; affected connectors include those for Databricks, Snowflake, and Google BigQuery, with the removal of ODBC drivers scheduled to begin in late 2026.^[10] dbt Labs documents the use of pre-compiled ADBC drivers for connection management in its dbt Core v2 adapters.^[11]

• Apache Arrow
• Open Database Connectivity
• Java Database Connectivity
• Column-oriented DBMS

• Official website
• ADBC Driver Foundry

Category:Apache Software Foundation projects Category:Application programming interfaces Category:Database APIs Category:Data management