ML Specific computes in data bricks free edition

[ManojkMohan]

Given free edition data bricks has serverless compute only is there any work around to 

chose 

ML Specific computes like below

is paying for it the only option ?

[Advika]

Hello @ManojkMohan!

Free Edition is limited to serverless compute, and there is no such workaround, ML-specific runtimes can only be used on the paid Databricks tier.

[FedeRaimondi · Accepted solution]

Hi @ManojkMohan , as part of Databricks Free Edition you have access to serverless compute resources only.

Databricks Runtime for Machine Learning and Apache Spark MLlib are not supported.

Resources:

Databricks Free Edition limitations | Databricks Documentation

Serverless compute limitations | Databricks Documentation

So I guess no workaround except switching for a paid version (maybe taking advantage of the free trail? Try Databricks for Free | Databricks)

[pjvi]

Hi,

In May 2026, I have tried with the environment v5 and still the same issue. However, looks like a Databricks employee answered short before, that in environment v4 it was available again, but not working for me, neither v4 nor v5.

https://www.reddit.com/r/databricks/comments/1nn1wy9/not_able_to_user_pyspark_mllib_in_free_tier/

Are there any plans to fix this? People using Free Edition cannot even try Spark ML ... 

Thanks