Databricks uses a pay-as-you-go model based on compute resources consumed, measured per hour in Databricks Units (DBUs). There’s no upfront cost or required contracts. Here’s a breakdown of Databricks pricing:

• Pricing Model: Per-second billing based on DBUs consumed per hour.
• Databricks Units (DBUs): Measure processing power used on Databricks. Cost is determined by the DBU hours used.
• Cost Factors: DBU price depends on workload type (e.g., data engineering, data warehousing, machine learning) and your chosen pricing tier.

Databricks offers free options to get started:

• Databricks Community Edition: Fully open-source version with limited features, suitable for learning.
• 14-day Free Trial: This lets you experience the entire platform before committing.

Paid tiers with discounted rates compared to on-demand pricing:

• Committed Plans: Reserve DBUs for a set period for a lower price.
• Spot Instances: Use unused compute capacity at a significant discount.

Here are some resources to estimate Databricks costs:

• Databricks Pricing Page: https://www.databricks.com/product/pricing
• Databricks Pricing Calculator: https://www.databricks.com/product/pricing/product-pricing/instance-types