---
title: "Metabase"
description: "Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool that lets people explore data, build charts, and share dashboards through a simple query builder or raw SQL."
canonical: "https://motherduck.com/glossary/metabase/"
related:
  - title: "DuckLake Architecture Deep Dive"
    url: "https://motherduck.com/blog/ducklake-architecture-deep-dive/"
  - title: "Metabase | MotherDuck Docs"
    url: "https://motherduck.com/docs/integrations/bi-tools/metabase/"
  - title: "Lightdash + MotherDuck Integration | DuckDB Analytics"
    url: "https://motherduck.com/ecosystem/lightdash/"
gated_asset:
  title: "DuckLake on MotherDuck"
  url: "https://motherduck.com/product/ducklake/"
---

# Metabase

> Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool that lets people explore data, build charts, and share dashboards through a simple query builder or raw SQL.

## Overview

Metabase is a business intelligence application built to make asking questions of a database approachable for non-SQL users while still giving analysts a full SQL editor when they need it. It's open source, self-hostable (as a single JAR or Docker container), and also available as a managed Metabase Cloud offering. Typical use: connect a warehouse or database, build "Questions" via the point-and-click query builder or native SQL, arrange them into dashboards, and set up scheduled alerts or email/Slack subscriptions.

<glossary-callout guide="guide-to-bi-in-the-agentic-era-full" />

## Core building blocks

- **Questions**: individual charts or tables, built either through the GUI query builder or a SQL editor.
- **Dashboards**: collections of Questions with shared filters, laid out for a specific audience.
- **Models**: curated, reusable views on top of raw tables that give the query builder cleaner columns and pre-applied logic.
- **Data permissions**: row- and column-level access control per group, useful for exposing self-service analytics without giving everyone raw table access.

```sql
-- A typical native-SQL question in Metabase
SELECT
  date_trunc('week', order_date) AS week,
  sum(order_total) AS revenue
FROM orders
GROUP BY 1
ORDER BY 1;
```

## Metabase and DuckDB

MotherDuck maintains an open-source Metabase driver (`metabase_duckdb_driver`) that adds DuckDB as a native database type inside Metabase. Installed as a plugin JAR on a self-hosted instance, it lets Metabase query local DuckDB files, in-memory databases, DuckLake, and MotherDuck cloud databases directly — connecting to MotherDuck by entering `md:<database_name>` as the database file and supplying a MotherDuck authentication token. Because custom drivers aren't supported on Metabase Cloud, this integration currently requires a self-hosted Metabase instance.