Looker release notes

This page documents production updates for Looker (original) and Looker (Google Cloud core). Check the page for announcements about new, updated, and deprecated features, bug fixes, and known issues. You may also be interested in the Data Studio release notes.

You can see the latest product updates for all of Google Cloud on the Google Cloud page, browse and filter all release notes in the Google Cloud console, or programmatically access release notes in BigQuery.

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August 18, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Announcement

The latest versions in the Looker (Google Cloud core) release channels are beginning deployment as follows:

  • Latest version in the Rapid channel: Looker 26.14
  • Latest version in the Regular channel: Looker 26.12
  • Latest version in the No Channel channel: Looker 26.14

August 17, 2026

Announcement

Looker's Continuous Integration is based on the legacy standalone Spectacles service. Looker will continue to integrate and evolve the Spectacles features into Looker's Continuous Integration, and the legacy standalone Spectacles service itself will be discontinued starting November 30, 2026. Existing Spectacles customers will receive an email with details. If you have any questions or require assistance, please contact us at spectacles-support@google.com.

August 06, 2026

Announcement

Looker 26.14 will roll out to Looker (original) instances on the following schedule:

  • Expected deployment start: Monday, August 10, 2026
  • Expected final deployment and download available: Sunday, August 23, 2026

Looker 26.14 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where users with Admin via IAM privileges on Looker (Google Cloud core) couldn't enable the Looker Marketplace. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard filters of type: string_filter could spin indefinitely if no suggestions were configured. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clicking edit for a visualization from a dashboard caused the dashboard tile header to render on top of the Explore, preventing editing. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where LookML drill links and Liquid variables inside table cells could fail to render properly on dashboards and embedded visualizations. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now generally available, the Dashboard Tile Limits feature allows admins to set limits on tiles per dashboard and per tab to optimize performance, which is configured on the Content Guardrails page in the Performance Center section of the Admin panel. Note: This item was added on August 13, 2026.

Feature

Now generally available, the Granular Dashboard Sizing feature allows dashboard editors to change the size and layout of dashboard tiles with more granularity. Note: This item was added on August 13, 2026.

Feature

The Axis Order options in the Y tab of the visualization editor now support keyboard inputs.

Feature

Conversational Analytics data agent editors can now specify whether the agent will show its thinking or debugging information when generating a response.

Change

A Conversational Analytics data agent now displays query results in its thinking rather than in its final response.

Change

The timeout length for Conversational Analytics queries has been increased from two to five minutes. Note: This item was updated on August 7, 2026.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where large queries on Snowflake connections could fail with an SSLHandshakeException: No trusted certificate found error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Show Region Field in Tooltip option was hidden for region maps that were configured without LookML map layer metadata. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the list of Explores in the Conversational Analytics agent's card could be cut off for embed users with longer names. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where users with mixed roles across projects were unable to see and re-authorize OAuth connections for projects where they had viewer-only access. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where a secondary Y-axis could reset its position if a parameter value was updated. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where validating LookML with an empty value_format parameter could result in a 500 internal server error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where modifying table calculations could cause Looker to run a new query rather than pulling results from cache. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clicking the Fullscreen button while using the Conversational Analytics dashboard caused the chat view to disappear. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where scheduled jobs that were owned by users who authenticated by using Workforce Identity (BYOID) could fail with IAM login failures. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the merged results page could return a 403 error after a period of user inactivity while cookieless embedding was being used. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where some characters were incorrectly displayed as HTML entities. For example," would render as ". This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could generate incorrect SQL when creating a Self-service Explore from a spreadsheet. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the drill modal incorrectly displayed a pivot option for queries that couldn't be pivoted. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where updating the data for a Self-service Explore could fail with a generic error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Timeline visualizations could fail to respect admin color collection overrides. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where visualizations were not respecting internal dashboard theme color collections, which caused custom theme color collections to revert to the defaults.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where timeout settings in the Extension SDK could be reset to their default value of 120 seconds. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the items in the Axis Order section in the Y panel of the visualization edit panel were inaccessible to screen readers. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where non-admin user OAuth tokens remained valid even after database connection parameters were updated. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue with column numbers has been fixed that could occur when XLSX results for tiles that used pivots were generated. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed in the Conversational Analytics interface where chats that used deleted agents or Explores could neither be deleted nor restored. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where searching by label in the field picker would fail to find fields where the group_label or group_item_label was set to an empty string. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

Looker now displays a more informative error when a Conversational Analytics conversation fails to load as the result of a network failure. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where LookML dashboards could fail to deploy if the project name exceeded 64 characters. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where modifying a self-service model that was created from a blank canvas could return a Resource already exists error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Waterfall chart visualization configurations could fail to render if the X-axis label rotation was set to an empty, a null, or another undefined value. This feature now performs as expected.

August 05, 2026

Announcement

From August 3 through August 5, 2026, the following features will be automatically enabled for Looker (Google Cloud core) instances running Looker 26.12.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Announcement

Complimentary Data Studio Pro licenses aren't available for Looker (Google Cloud core) instances that are created after August 1, 2026.

Feature

Looker Continuous Integration (CI) now supports email alerts. When you create or edit a CI suite, you can enable the Enable email alerts toggle to specify email recipients and select which run statuses will trigger emails (Failed, Error, Passed, or Cancelled). For more information, see Set up alerting.

Feature

The custom calendar feature is now generally available.

Feature

The Expression Assistant is now generally available.

Feature

Localization is now supported for the dimension_group parameter. You can localize the timeframes, intervals, or custom timeframes generated by a dimension group by providing translations in your locale strings files. For more details, see Localizing dimension groups.

Feature

The LookML Projects page has been updated with a more performant tabbed layout, which features three tabs: Models and Projects, Pending Projects, and Marketplace Projects.

Feature

Looker admins now have the ability to configure a Looker instance to require multi-factor authentication (MFA) whenever a user tries to log in by using an email and a password. This feature is enabled by default.

Feature

The Enhanced search feature is now generally available.

Feature

Now available in preview, the Admin Assistant helps you use natural language to manage Looker roles.

Feature

Now available in preview, enhanced observability metrics — including engagement and estimated token usage data — are available for Conversational Analytics on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Conversational Analytics Agent Token usage setting on the General page in the Preview section of the Admin panel.

Feature

Now available in preview, the new Modern User Interface feature enables modernized layouts and design alongside new configuration settings for visualizations and dashboards. When this preview feature is enabled, users can apply a Modern visualization theme that features updated typography and modern, accessible color palettes for improved data legibility. Additionally, a new Modern dashboard style provides a high-density, streamlined design that optimizes data viewing and aligns with Google's latest design standards.

Change

The Insight Assistant now displays the process the assistant uses to generate the response, showing key details in your data that it used to generate the response, and listing the fields from your Explore that it used.

Change

When you chat in Gemini Enterprise with data agents that you create in Looker, agent responses now include charts and visualizations.

August 04, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Announcement

From August 3 through August 7, 2026, the following features will be automatically enabled for Looker (original) and Looker (Google Cloud core) instances running Looker 26.12.

Feature

Now available in preview, enhanced observability metrics — including engagement and estimated token usage data — are available for Conversational Analytics on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Conversational Analytics Agent Token usage setting on the General page in the Preview section of the Admin panel.

Feature

Now available in preview, Looker admins can review end-user query success rates, rating distributions, and written user feedback in the Responses & Feedback tab on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard. This data helps administrators improve system performance, support troubleshooting, and refine data agents.

To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the End User Conversational Analytics (CA) Query Review setting on the General page in the Preview section of the Admin panel. The End User Conversational Analytics (CA) Query Review admin setting is disabled by default.

Specific user query data is visible only for users who have consented to share their query data in their account settings. The End User Conversational Analytics (CA) Query Review user setting is disabled by default.

August 03, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

A localized processing option for Conversational Analytics is now available for European Union (EU) based customers, enabling data processing within the EU jurisdiction by routing traffic through an EU multi-regional endpoint.

Note that the EU multi-region endpoint covers data residency strictly within EU member states and does not include the europe-west2 (London, UK) or europe-west6 (Zurich, Switzerland) regions. Support for the europe-west12 (Turin, Italy) region is also unavailable at this time.

July 30, 2026

Announcement

From July 27 through July 30, 2026, the following features will be automatically enabled for Looker (original) instances running Looker 26.12.

Feature

Looker admins now have the ability to configure a Looker instance to require multi-factor authentication (MFA) whenever a user tries to log in by using an email and a password. This feature is enabled by default.

Feature

The custom calendar feature is now generally available.

Feature

Localization is now supported for the dimension_group parameter. You can localize the timeframes, intervals, or custom timeframes generated by a dimension group by providing translations in your locale strings files. For more details, see Localizing dimension groups.

Note: This item was added on August 5, 2026.

Feature

The Expression Assistant is now generally available.

Feature

The Enhanced search feature is now generally available.

Feature

Looker Continuous Integration (CI) now supports email alerts. When you create or edit a CI suite, you can enable the Enable email alerts toggle to specify email recipients and select which run statuses will trigger emails (Failed, Error, Passed, or Cancelled). For more information, see Set up alerting.

Feature

The LookML Projects page has been updated with a more performant tabbed layout, which features three tabs: Models and Projects, Pending Projects, and Marketplace Projects.

Feature

Now available in preview, the new Modern User Interface feature enables modernized layouts and design alongside new configuration settings for visualizations and dashboards. When this preview feature is enabled, users can apply a Modern visualization theme that features updated typography and modern, accessible color palettes for improved data legibility. Additionally, a new Modern dashboard style provides a high-density, streamlined design that optimizes data viewing and aligns with Google's latest design standards.

Feature

Now available in preview, verified queries (also referred to as golden queries) are predefined pairs of natural language questions and their exact, corresponding Looker Explore queries that act as verified standards of truth to teach your Explore data agent how to handle complex business requests without guessing.

To enable verified queries, a Looker admin must turn on the Verified Queries setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page. The Conversational Analytics setting must also be enabled for verified queries to be used.

Change

When you chat in Gemini Enterprise with data agents that you create in Looker, agent responses now include charts and visualizations.

Change

The Insight Assistant now displays the process the assistant uses to generate the response, showing key details in your data that it used to generate the response, and listing the fields from your Explore that it used.

July 22, 2026

Security

A Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in Looker. An attacker could craft a malicious URL that, when opened by a Looker administrator, would allow the attacker to execute arbitrary scripts on their behalf and potentially compromise the administrator account.

Both Looker-hosted and self-hosted instances were found to be vulnerable.

This issue has already been mitigated for Looker-hosted instances.

What should I do?

For Looker-hosted instances, no action is required.

For self-hosted Looker instances, update your Looker instances as soon as possible. This vulnerability has been patched in all supported versions of Looker for self-hosted instances. The following versions have all been updated to fix this vulnerability:

  • Looker 26.8.7 and all later versions
  • Looker 26.6.28+
  • Looker 26.4.36+
  • Looker 26.2.47+
  • Looker 26.0.66+
  • Looker 25.18.68+
  • Looker 25.12.65+
  • Looker 25.6.103+

For more information, see CVE-2026-15810.

July 21, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Deprecated

As of July 13, 2026, Looker reports have been deprecated. If you had previously enabled the preview for Looker reports, be aware of the following:

  • You will no longer have the option to create new reports.
  • You will lose the ability to view or edit reports that were created during the preview period.

Access to the rest of your Looker content in your instance will remain unaffected and you will continue to have access to Looker as a data source from Data Studio and Data Studio Pro.

You can create ad hoc Explores using Looker's Self-service Explores feature, which lets you upload CSV, XLS, and XLSX files to Looker and then query and visualize the data in a Looker Explore without needing to configure a LookML model or set up Git version control.

July 17, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Starting in Looker 26.8, Looker supports Java OpenJDK version 21. Looker-hosted instances have been upgraded to OpenJDK 21. Customer-hosted instances should upgrade to OpenJDK 21.

Looker recommends that you transition to new Java updates as they are released. Other versions of Java, Oracle JDK, and OpenJDK aren't supported at this time.

July 13, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Announcement

The latest versions in the Looker (Google Cloud core) release channels are beginning deployment as follows:

  • Latest version in the Rapid channel: Looker 26.12
  • Latest version in the Regular channel: Looker 26.10
  • Latest version in the No Channel channel: Looker 26.12

July 09, 2026

Announcement

Looker 26.12 will roll out to Looker (original) instances on the following schedule:

  • Expected deployment start: Sunday, July 12, 2026
  • Expected final deployment and download available: Sunday, July 26, 2026

Looker 26.12 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

Looker (Google Cloud core) now supports FIPS 140-3 level 1 compliance. Existing FIPS 140-2 compliant instances will be automatically upgraded to the FIPS 140-3 standard when they're upgraded to Looker 26.12.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where accessing a folder that contained scheduled content that was configured for disabled integrations could cause Looker to crash with a TypeError. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where users with only the Admin via IAM role on Looker (Google Cloud Core) instances would incorrectly lack access to connections when Advanced Control Governance (ACG) was enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

Layout spacing and column alignment issues have been fixed on the OIDC and SAML authentication Admin pages. These features now perform as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clicking Reset Styles in the table visualization formatting panel would unexpectedly reset the table theme, color palette, and custom borders. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Workflows page was not visible to users with the create_alerts permission. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the comparison value in a KPI visualization could be incorrectly centered when the sparkline was disabled. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now available in preview, the Table Row Grouping feature option for table charts lets users display table chart data hierarchically in groups and customize the appearance with new Grouping menu options. This feature is enabled by default.

Feature

The KPI Visualization preview feature is now enabled by default.

Feature

The Increased Row Limit feature is now out of labs and generally available.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the LookML validator used a stale cache for local project dependencies when the dependencies were updated in production. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where some custom visualizations could be cut off in PDF exports. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where, if a dashboard tile contained no results, the row_total table calculation function could return an error, which would prevent scheduled deliveries. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the commit hash in the Deploy Manager displayed PENDING during compilation and didn't update upon refresh. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where drilling down on a value for which the custom value format contained the # character could cause the page to crash. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where inline button toggle filters on dashboards could be cut off or could overlap with adjacent filters. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where deleting a duplicated dashboard tab would incorrectly delete shared elements from other tabs. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the column limit could fail to apply to an Explore that used pivots. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where added_params metadata in streaming JSON responses could be malformed or missing. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where OAuth connections would incorrectly fail connection tests on the Self-service Explores Admin page. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Run and Settings buttons were not correctly being displayed on embedded Explores with the _theme URL parameter. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Content Validator returned a generic error message instead of returning the specific models that were affected. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where drilling into a value while in Dev mode could return a 500 internal server error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where API calls that were made by service account users without a configured last name failed with a 500 internal server error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where view.field references in Liquid were not correctly rendered if the field name matched a built-in Liquid variable. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where autosizing table columns didn't work as expected in drill menus. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where drill modals could repeatedly render a visualization, which would present as constant flickering in the browser. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where invalid parameters in an embed URL could result in Looker displaying an unnecessarily verbose stack trace instead of a concise error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where editing a workflow on the Workflow Management page could load indefinitely. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clearing the Totals Labels option for the Totals Color setting in the color picker resulted in black text in the chart. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

The OAuth interface now prohibits forward slashes in the OAuth Client ID field. Previously, the inclusion of one or more forward slashes would result in a 401 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Change

Looker CI Run Alert emails now include the Run ID in the subject line to prevent email threading. The email body now includes the Git branch and commit details.

July 07, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

When you delete a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance, it is now moved to the trash for seven days before being permanently deleted. During this period, you can restore the instance to its previous state. After seven days, the instance is permanently deleted from the trash and cannot be recovered.

Update: This feature will be released in early September. This release note was modified on August 12, 2026.

July 01, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

Looker (Google Cloud core) has introduced release channels in preview, allowing users to choose between Rapid, Regular, and "No channel" options to manage the cadence of version updates. The Rapid channel provides early access to new capabilities but is excluded from the Service Level Agreement (SLA), while the Regular channel offers balanced stability with an optional Accelerated Security Patching flag.

Announcement

The latest versions in the Looker (Google Cloud core) release channels are beginning deployment as follows:

  • Latest version in the Rapid channel: 26.10
  • Latest version in the Regular channel: 26.10
  • Latest version in the No Channel channel: 26.10

June 22, 2026

Announcement

Starting June 22, 2026, the following features will begin rolling out as part of Looker 26.10.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

Now available in preview, enhanced observability metrics, including engagement and token usage data, are available for Conversational Analytics on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Conversational Analytics Observability setting on the Previews admin page.

Note: The Conversational Analytics Observability preview feature is temporarily unavailable. You can still monitor Conversational Analytics engagement on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard, but metrics on token usage are not available. This item was updated on June 29, 2026.

Feature

The Gemini Expression Assistant preview feature has been updated to increase performance.

Note: This item was updated on June 26, 2026 to indicate support for Looker (original) only.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Breaking

When you update the Gemini Enterprise instance that is connected to Looker, any data agents that you published to the previous Gemini Enterprise instance will be unpublished. You can still access these data agents in Looker, but you must re-publish them to the new Gemini Enterprise instance before you can chat with those agents in Gemini Enterprise.

Feature

New in Looker 26.10, Looker project deployments have transitioned from a synchronous to an asynchronous process to improve reliability and efficiency. Deployments now run as background processes. Instead of waiting for a deployment to finish, the system immediately returns a deployment ID, allowing you to continue your work without being blocked. In addition, the Looker IDE's Deploy tab is visible for all LookML projects, not just for projects where advanced deploy mode is enabled. For projects where advanced deploy mode is disabled, when a LookML developer deploys to production, the Looker IDE displays a confirmation that the deployment was submitted. The confirmation dialog has a Go to Deployment Manager button, which you can click to open the Deploy tab in the IDE and see the status of your recent deployments.

Note: This item was added on June 23, 2026.

Feature

The Self-service Explores feature has the following updates:

Feature

Now available in preview, model localization is supported for imported projects. By default, Looker uses the locale definitions from the importing project only, if the importing project has locale definitions. However, if you want to merge the locale definitions from an imported project with the locale definitions of the importing project, you can add the import_locale_defs: yes

Feature

Dashboard editors can now enable the Preserve desktop layout setting to preserve the layout of a dashboard when users view the dashboard in a smaller browser or on a mobile screen. Users can navigate the dashboard with a zoom slider that enlarges tiles, and they can switch between desktop and mobile view.

Feature

When you publish an in-database analytic model as a stable model on your database, you can now view its stable name in the Stable Name field of the PDT Details modal on the Persistent Derived Tables admin page. You can then use the stable name to query the published analytic model. See the derived_analytic_model parameter page for more information.

Note: This item was added on June 26, 2026.

Feature

The character limit for descriptions on dashboards and Looks has been increased to 2,000 characters, giving content creators the ability to add comprehensive descriptions, operational definitions, and notes to their dashboards and Looks to ensure that viewers fully understand the data context.

This feature is available to any user with standard content editing rights (Edit content access level or save_dashboards or save_looks permissions).

Feature

The Enhanced search feature is now generally available.

Note: The general availability of Enhanced Search preview feature has been temporarily delayed. This release note was updated on July 1, 2026.

Feature

For type: custom_calendar dimension groups, Looker no longer includes Custom in timeframe names in the Explore field picker (for example, Custom Year or Created Custom Year). Instead, Looker groups the timeframes under a default dimension group label appended with Custom Calendar (for example, Created Custom Calendar) and prepends Fiscal to each timeframe name (for example, Fiscal Date, Fiscal Week, Fiscal Year). You can customize how dimension field labels and group labels appear in the Explore field picker by using the label and group_label parameters on the dimension group. For more information, see Labels for custom calendar dimension groups.

Note: This item was added on July 30, 2026.

Feature

For self-service Explores, Looker admins can now enable your instance with Advanced connection governance, which means that more than one connection can be used for data uploads. Looker admins can individually test the validity of each connection directly from the Self-service Explores Admin page. When a user uploads data to create a self-service Explore, the user can choose from a list of connections that their Looker admin has enabled for data uploads and to which the user has access.

Note: This item was added on July 17, 2026.

Feature

Looker admins can now programmatically change the owner of dashboards, boards, and agents with the Looker API by updating the associated user ID. This simplifies offboarding and content reassignment when users change roles or leave the organization.

When the owner of a dashboard, a board, or an agent is changed, new owners are automatically granted Manage/Edit access to transferred agents. Any existing certification badges on transferred dashboards remain intact.

The API initiator must have save_content and manage_spaces access to the folder where the asset resides.

Transferring ownership of dashboards and boards doesn't automatically grant the new owner access to parent folders, models, or underlying Looks.

Feature

Now available in preview, the Filters as tiles and tile-level filter context feature lets you convert dashboard filters into draggable tiles on the dashboard canvas. A dashboard editor can then drag and arrange filter tiles on the dashboard canvas in the same way as other dashboard tiles. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Filters as tiles and tile-level filter context setting on the Previews admin page.

In addition, viewers can now check which filters are applied to a specific visualization tile.

Feature

Now available in preview, the Google Maps enhancements feature adds the following features:

  • Fully supported vector maps for rendering thousands of data points seamlessly that support tilt, rotation, and dynamic 3D extrusions to elevate visual storytelling at every zoom level.
  • Dual-axis metric comparison that lets you analyze multiple business metrics simultaneously on a single map interface, using heatmaps and points to uncover spatial correlations without switching views.
  • Contextual and custom overlays that enhance geographical analysis by layering live traffic, transit, or bicycle routes, with granular styling controls for tailored iconography, colors, and sizing.
Feature

The Visualization Assistant is now available in the new Explore experience.

Feature

Now available in preview, the KPI Visualization feature replaces the Single Value chart option with the KPI (Single Value) chart option. The new KPI (Single Value) chart option lets users access the following enhanced styling options for single value visualizations:

  • Adding secondary visualizations: Users can add a sparkline or bar chart within a visualization to show trends or distributions that are related to the primary KPI.
  • Showing enhanced comparisons: Users can specify and compare a primary value against any other measure in an Explore query, using data from the first row, second row, last row, or totals row.
  • Accessing improved styling options: Users have more control over the appearance of the visualization, including the background color of the tile and the alignment of the values. This feature is disabled by default. Learn more about the new KPI (Single Value) Visualization.
Change

Looker dashboard agents are now included in the embedded Looker experience. Embed users with the appropriate permissions can see dashboard agents on all the embedded dashboards that they have access to.

Learn more about how to configure an embedded dashboard for embed user visibility.

Change

The Granular Dashboard Sizing preview feature is now enabled by default.

Change

Conversational Analytics data agents that are published to Gemini Enterprise now support visualizations in their conversations. Note: This feature is not yet available. This item was updated on July 9, 2026.

Change

The dashboard summary feature can now be enabled separately from dashboard data agents. This feature is disabled by default. When this feature is enabled, a dashboard summary is generated automatically at the top of the dashboard data agent conversation. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Enable Dashboard Summary feature on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Note: This feature is not yet available. This item was updated on July 6, 2026.

June 04, 2026

Announcement

Looker 26.10 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

  • Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Sunday, June 7, 2026
  • Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Sunday, June 21, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Sunday, June 7, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Sunday, June 21, 2026
Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where some PDT settings were unavailable when you created a BigQuery connection by using the Quickstart flow in a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clicking Save and Schedule on an Explore could fail to load the Schedule dialog in a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Period-over-period (PoP) measures are now supported on connections to Trino databases.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where cross filters didn't properly appear in the right-aligned filter bar. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where attempting to download or schedule the Recent Login Failures tile on the User Activity System Activity dashboard could fail. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where users were unable to scroll dashboards when the filter bar was open. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dragging a dashboard tile horizontally could cause the tile to expand beyond the browser window. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed for filters on custom calendar fields that was causing a SQL error when the custom calendar dimension_group or the custom calendar reference_date had a non-timestamp datatype specified. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where configuring remote dependencies with custom SSH ports for on-premise Git repositories could fail. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where applying string matching filters (such as Contains or Starts With) with an empty value could generate incorrect filter SQL. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the labels that were specified in the PDT Override Additional JDBC Parameters field weren't being applied to BigQuery table creation jobs. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where changes to Markdown files weren't saved when you switched between Edit and Preview mode. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where running queries against derived tables in SQL Runner could cause Looker to return a 500 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the right-aligned filter bar could become wide enough to require a scroll bar if a range slider filter was added. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where right-clicking in a drill-down menu during a cookieless embed session could incorrectly close the menu. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where retrieving all schemas for a Denodo connection could overload the database CPU. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Unsubscribe link could fail to appear in a scheduled report email. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Advanced Vis Config editor would not recognize the plotOptions.column.borderRadius option. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard filters could fail to be updated from inactive to active color highlighting when certain types of date inputs were present. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where visualizations could overflow instead of shrinking when a tile or browser was resized. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

When you edit a visualization, the Advanced Vis Config editor can now override default theme border and padding styles. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where a join wouldn't be added to a query if the join was required by a measure that was excluded from an Explore. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where period-over-period (POP) measures of types previous and difference that were based on count and sum measures would incorrectly return null instead of zero when no data was available for the comparison period. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where filter suggestions on dashboard filters could incorrectly retain previous filter values. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where setting a field name or an Explore name in a LookML dashboard as a non-string datatype could cause the LookML validator to return a 500 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the button group dashboard filter type could display more than 30 options, cluttering the UI. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where moving a filter by dragging it could also inadvertently highlight text. This feature now performs as expected.

May 27, 2026

Announcement

The following features will begin rolling out as part of Looker 26.8.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

Looker admins can no longer create or manage API credentials for individual standard users in Looker (original) instances. Users must now manage their own keys from their Account page. Admins can enable or disable self-service API key management for users and continue to manage credentials for API-only service accounts. To improve security, API keys are no longer visible to admins while they are sudoing as another user.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The Admin > Roles panel user interface has been updated.

Feature

The Looker Continuous Integration (CI) feature is now generally available.

Feature

You can now include Gemini-powered insights in your alert notifications. This analysis provides insight about the change in your data that triggered the alert, and why that change may have occurred. To use this feature, enable the Gemini powered key driver analysis setting when creating or editing an alert. Note: This item was added on June 29, 2026.

Feature

Conversational Analytics now supports the ability to run queries when users are in Development Mode.

Feature

Now available in preview for BigQuery and Snowflake connections, Looker integrates with in-database analytic models (BigQuery Graph and Snowflake semantic views), so that you can keep your semantic definitions consistent across Looker and other BI tools, applications, or workloads that interface with your data warehouse.

See the In-database analytic models documentation page for more information.

Note: This item was added on May 28, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, dashboard editors can change the size and layout of dashboard tiles with more granularity. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Granular Dashboard Sizing setting on the Preview page in the Admin panel.

Feature

Now available in preview, enhanced observability metrics, including engagement and token usage data, are available for Conversational Analytics on the Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Conversational Analytics Observability setting on the Preview admin page. Note: Token usage monitoring for Conversational Analytics is not available at this time. This item was updated on June 1, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, you can use natural language to instruct a Conversational Analytics data agent to create a workflow that notifies you when your data has met certain conditions. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Agentic Workflows setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Feature

Now available in preview, the Looker-managed Model Context Protocol (MCP) server allows AI agents to securely connect to your Looker instance without requiring separate middleware. Looker admins can enable this feature and manage which AI tools are available to developers from the new Model Context Protocol (MCP) page in the Admin panel. Usage of the managed MCP server is also tracked within System Activity Explores and Cloud Audit Logs.

Feature

Model localization for imported projects will be supported in a future release.

Note: This item was updated on May 28, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, you can publish the Conversational Analytics data agents that you create in Looker to Gemini Enterprise. All users who have the save_agents permission will be granted the publish_agent_externally permission. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Publish to Gemini Enterprise setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Feature

Now available in preview, you can create and use Conversational Analytics data agents on Looker user-defined dashboards. Conversational Analytics uses the Production Mode of content when it queries Looker dashboards. To use this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Enable Dashboard Agents setting on the Gemini in Looker admin page.

Feature

The Self-service Explores feature is now supported on Snowflake connections. Your Looker admin can select a Snowflake connection in the Default Connection field of the Self-service Explores admin page. On Snowflake connections, you can upload comma-separated files (CSV) and Excel files (XLS and XLSX) to create a self-service Explore.

Feature

Looker has introduced a security sandboxing enhancement for Git command-line interface (CLI) operations. For Looker projects that are configured with SSH connections, this enhancement restricts which directories and executables can be accessed on the instance when Git worktree commands are executed. Looker projects that use HTTPS connections are not affected.

This sandboxing feature is enabled automatically for Cloud-hosted Looker (original) and Looker (Google Cloud core) instances starting in Looker 26.8.

For customer-hosted Looker instances, this security enhancement is available starting in Looker 26.10. To opt in to security sandboxing, you must install the proot package on your Looker host machine. If proot isn't installed, SSH-connected Git operations will still be executed successfully but won't have the sandboxing protection.

Note: This item was updated on May 29, 2026.

May 08, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Announcement

Dataplex Universal Catalog is now called Knowledge Catalog. The API, client library, CLI, and Identity and Access Management (IAM) names remain unchanged. For more information, see Knowledge Catalog overview.

May 07, 2026

Announcement

Looker 26.8 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

  • Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Sunday, May 10, 2026
  • Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Monday, May 25, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, May 11, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, May 25, 2026
Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The Conversational Analytics Advanced Analytics feature, formerly known as the Code Interpreter, is now generally available.

Feature

The ability for dashboard editors to set default row and column limits for dashboard tile downloads and for dashboard viewers to choose to edit these values when downloading the tile is now generally available.

Feature

Now available in preview, you can create and use Conversational Analytics data agents on dashboards. Dashboard agents use the Production Mode of content when querying Looker dashboards. Note: This feature is not yet available. This release note was updated on May 14, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, you can publish the Conversational Analytics Explore data agents that you create in Looker to Gemini Enterprise. All users who have the save_agents permission will be granted the publish_agent_externally permission. Note: This feature is not yet available. This release note was updated on May 14, 2026.

Feature

The approximate parameter is now supported on Snowflake connections.

Change

Conversational Analytics now supports querying Looker Explores in Development Mode.

Change

When you use custom calendars in Looker, the previous_ordinal_mapping parameter block is optional starting in Looker 26.8. In Looker 26.8 and later, if you use period-over-period measures, Looker assumes for custom calendars that the previous week for Week 1 is Week 52, and the previous day for Day 1 is Day 364. If this isn't the case for your custom calendar, you need to use the previous_ordinal_mapping parameter block if you want to use the custom calendar with period-over-period measures.

Note: This item was added on June 9, 2026.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where queries that used custom calendars with subtotals may have produced incorrect results. Note: This item was updated on May 12, 2026.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could use an aggregate table of incorrect granularity if the SQL of a dimension was defined by using Liquid and if aggregate awareness was enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where users who don't have the see_user_dashboards permission could get a 404 error when viewing the Looker home page. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where only admins could use the Unlock Branch feature. This feature is now available to LookML developers.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the sync_lookml_dashboard API endpoint was not compatible with tabbed dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Select All button on dashboards filters could appear even if the filter was not populated. The Select All button will only appear when there is non-empty filter input.

Fixed

The generic error message that Looker produces when BigQuery OAuth connections are being tested has been updated to encourage checking the correct root cause, such as context-aware access restrictions. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Conversational Analytics could not be used when an IP allowlist was enabled.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where appending the string /edit to an Explore URL could incorrectly change the Explore UI to the legacy Explore UI. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

The Page breaks between tabs option no longer appears on dashboards that don't have any tabs. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where enabling totals on a query with a period-over-period measure could cause Looker to return a 500 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could incorrectly display string filter options for a time timeframe instead of datetime filter options. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where LookML projects that contained the string "self-service" were incorrectly hidden in the Manage LookML Projects UI. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where navigating dialogs with the Tab key could cause the user to unexpectedly exit the dialog. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where enabling Admin Assistant could have no effect. This feature now performs as expected. Note: This release note was updated on June 22, 2026. This feature is not yet available.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could fail to save Markdown files that were edited in the Looker IDE. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where updating dashboard filters could fail to update linked child filters. This feature now performs as expected. Note: This release note was updated on May 18, 2026. This feature is not yet available.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clearing numeric input fields on the Content Guardrails admin page caused Looker to input a zero that would be appended to subsequent user input. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clicking links inside an iframe could result in a 401 or 403 error when cookieless embed was enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where LookML dashboards could fail to appear on the home page. This feature now performs as expected.

April 20, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now available in preview, the Looker VS Code Extension brings LookML development to local desktop IDEs like Visual Studio Code, Claude Code, and Cursor. The extension supports syntax highlighting, autocomplete, real-time file synchronization with your Looker instance, and LookML validation. With the Looker MCP server, it enables AI-assisted development, allowing you to use natural language with agents like Gemini to generate and edit LookML code.

April 15, 2026

Breaking

Migrate your Teams webhook to "Workflows"

Microsoft is retiring the legacy Office 365 Connectors in favor of Power Automate Workflows. Connectors will stop working by the end of April 2026. To ensure that your Looker alerts continue to deliver to Teams, you must replace your current webhook URL with a new "Workflow" URL. For more information, see the Migrate your Teams webhook to "Workflows" Best Practices notice.

April 09, 2026

Looker (original) only changes
Announcement

Starting with the Looker 26.8 release, which will release in May 2026, the following changes will occur:

  • Looker (original) admins will no longer be able to access or manage the API credentials of their standard users.
  • Looker (original) admins will be able to manage which users have access to individually owned API credentials.
  • Users with access to API credentials will be able to access and manage their own API credentials.

Before your Looker instance is upgraded to the Looker 26.8 release, your admin must follow the steps in the Migrating users to service accounts documentation page. This is to ensure admins can either create or migrate service accounts from existing standard users if they require access to users' API credentials.

For more information, see the Discontinuing the admin capability to create, view, and manage API credentials for a standard user deprecation notice.

April 07, 2026

Feature

The Table Visualization Improvements preview feature is now available and is disabled by default.

When this preview feature is enabled, you can use the following features for table visualizations:

March 30, 2026

Announcement

Starting March 30, 2026, the following features will begin rolling out.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

For customer-hosted Looker instances, Looker 26.6 supports MySQL 8.4.X for the Looker backend database. For customer-hosted instances that use MySQL 8.0.X for the Looker backend database, it is recommended that you update to MySQL 8.4.X as soon as you update your Looker instance to 26.6 or later. Note: This item was added on April 6, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

Available in preview, Looker (Google Cloud core) now integrates with Dataplex Universal Catalog, providing a unified discovery and management experience for your Looker metadata. This allows you to search for Looker assets like LookML models and dashboards directly within Dataplex, giving you a comprehensive view of your data landscape.

Feature

Available in preview for Looker (Google Cloud core), you can now track end-to-end data lineage from BigQuery to Looker content, including views, Explores, dashboards, and Looks, through the Looker and Dataplex lineage integration. This enables impact analysis to see how BigQuery changes affect downstream Looker (Google Cloud core) contents.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

When connecting Looker to your database, you can specify additional Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) parameters that you want Looker to include when it communicates with your database driver. In order to keep your connection secure, Looker now has an allowlist for the additional JDBC parameters that are supported for each database dialect.

  • If you try to create or update a connection that uses unsupported JDBC parameters, Looker will display an error message that shows the non-allowed parameters.
  • If you have an existing connection that uses unsupported JDBC parameters, Looker will remove the parameters and then connect to your database.

For a list of the supported JDBC parameters for your dialect, see the "Supported JDBC parameters" section of the database configuration instructions page for your dialect.

Feature

The Looker mobile application now supports sending alert notifications as push notifications to users who have the Looker mobile application on their mobile device. (This release note was updated on April 9, 2026 to reflect that this update is a feature and to correct a documentation link.)

Feature

Available in preview, you can chat with Conversational Analytics data agents in user-defined dashboards and in LookML dashboards. Note: This feature is not yet available. This release note was updated on April 29, 2026.

Feature

Available in preview, you can publish the Conversational Analytics data agents that you create in Looker to Gemini Enterprise. Note: This feature is available in Looker 26.8. This release note was updated on June 14, 2026.

Feature

The Enhanced Content Cleanup preview feature is now available. When this feature is enabled for your instance, it lets admins and content owners access an enhanced content management experience in Looker. The Enhanced Content Cleanup preview feature provides the following capabilities:

  • Lets admins and users access a new Unused content folder to quickly identify and manage the unused content on a Looker instance.
  • Lets admins programmatically schedule content cleanups for individual content or in bulk, and send automatic notifications to content owners.
  • Lets content owners opt out of automated scheduled cleanups for specific content.
  • Lets admins and users move content to the trash.

This feature is disabled by default. Learn more about managing unused content with Enhanced Content Cleanup.

Feature

Now generally available, Looker has full support for connections with AlloyDB for PostgreSQL. When you create a connection in Looker, you can now select Google Cloud AlloyDB for PostgreSQL from the Dialect drop-down menu. This update doesn't affect existing AlloyDB connections that were created using the PostgreSQL 9.5+ option in the Dialect menu.

Feature

The New Looker Explore and Merge Query Experience preview feature is now available.

When this feature is enabled for your instance, it lets individual users have the option to try the redesigned Looker Explore and Merge Query interfaces. The streamlined interfaces let Looker users find connections and gain insights from their data more quickly. For an AI-assisted experience, enable additional options on the Gemini in Looker page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.

This feature is disabled by default.

Learn more about the new Explore and Merge Query experience.

March 26, 2026

Feature

As part of Looker 26.6, Conversational Analytics now offers new modes for asking questions. Fast mode allows you to get answers more quickly. Thinking mode allows you to ask more complex questions and test your agent's capabilities.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

As part of Looker 26.6, Conversational Analytics will now ask you questions to clarify any ambiguities in your original query.

March 25, 2026

Announcement

Looker 26.6 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

  • Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Sunday, March 22, 2026

  • Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Sunday, April 5, 2026

  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, March 23, 2026

  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Friday, April 3, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Breaking

Tabbed dashboards with unsupported layouts will now display a warning message prompting users to update to a new layout.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where creating or updating database connections that use OAuth (such as Snowflake or BigQuery) could fail with the error JDBC Parameter Validation Failed. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

When no theme is selected, the Theme picker will now display "Default" rather than "None".

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard themes were not applying color collections correctly. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where buttons on dashboards that used the extension framework could unnecessarily add /embed/ to link URLs. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the font and background color picker was not accessible when you edited visualizations on merge queries. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where opening the Interaction Details dialog on the Historical Analytics Interactions Search dashboard in a new window could result in a 401 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where searching for content could return a 500 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where pressing Enter to confirm IME composition when writing a message in Conversational Analytics would prematurely submit the message. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the LookML Assistant could return a 404 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where tabs could be automatically added to existing dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where visualization tooltips on dashboards could use incorrect background or text colors. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the LookML dashboards folder could fail to display the complete list of LookML dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.

March 23, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Announcement

To enhance security, the Looker language SDKs and the Looker API /login endpoint are being modified. They will exclusively accept passing credentials in the HTTP request body and will no longer support using URL query parameters.

Release date: This update is expected to take effect with the Looker 26.18 release in October 2026.

Potential impact: Any scripts or applications currently passing credentials in the URL query parameters in the Looker SDK libraries, or directly calling the /login API endpoint, will fail after this update.

Who is affected: All customers using Looker SDKs, custom scripts, or applications that call the /login API endpoint directly.

Action required:

We have sent a message to your affected customers. However, to help avoid service disruptions, please recommend that they evaluate their environment and take the following actions before October 2026:

  • Upgrade SDKs: Upgrade the Looker SDKs to version 26.4 or later as soon as possible.
  • Update custom scripts: Modify any scripts or applications that rely on passing Looker API credentials in URL query parameters so that they will pass credentials in the HTTP request body.
  • Test the environment: Validate these changes in an environment that can identify these potential misconfigurations.

March 20, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

A new version of the Looker mobile app is available for iOS (version 2.2.0) and Android (version 2.0.88). The mobile app now includes the following features and improvements:

  • The app supports tabbed dashboards.
  • You can open dashboard links directly in the app.
  • Load time has been improved.
  • Dashboard opening zoom bugs and other issues have been fixed.

March 17, 2026

Announcement

As part of Looker 26.4, the following features will begin rolling out on March 17, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Conversational Analytics now offers new modes for asking questions. Fast mode allows you to get answers more quickly. Thinking mode allows you to ask more complex questions and test your agent's capabilities. (Note: Question modes are not yet available. This release note was updated on March 24, 2026.)

Feature

Looker Connections Settings page has a new option, Disable Connection, that allows a Looker admin to disable a connection in cases where there are downstream issues with the database, instead of killing queries manually or allowing queries to remain in the query queue. When the connection is disabled, Looker will not send queries to the database and will return an error message to users.

Feature

The Visualization Assistant, which lets you customize formatting options for Looker visualizations in natural language with Gemini assistance, is now generally available. This assistant can be enabled by turning on the Gemini in Looker and Looker Assistants settings on the Gemini in Looker page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.

Feature

The Self-service Explores feature is now generally available.

In addition, if your Looker admin has enabled your Looker instance to support OAuth for Google Sheets uploads, the self-service Explores feature supports uploading data from Google Sheets using Google Drive navigation.

Feature

The content certification feature is now generally available. In Looker 26.4, the following support has been added:

  • LookML Explores can now be certified.
  • Looker admins can now automatically certify all current and future LookML dashboards and LookML Explores.
  • When Enhanced Search is enabled, searching for content now includes the ability to sort and filter search results based on certification status.
Feature

The Continuous Integration (CI) feature is updated for better integration with the Looker user interface:

  • Your Looker instance will be migrated to the new version of Looker CI. The migration will take a few minutes.
  • While your instance is migrating, any existing CI suites will not appear on the CI Suites page, and the history on the CI Runs page will be empty. During this time, do not create new suites or initiate manual runs.
  • When the migration is complete, the Suites and Runs pages will be repopulated.
  • If you encounter an issue during the migration, please report it using the Looker Continuous Integration - Preview Issue Tracker form.

The updated Looker Continuous Integration feature includes the following:

  • Your Looker admin no longer needs to manually add CI users. After your Looker instance is enabled for CI (or once your instance is updated to the new CI, if your instance was already enabled for CI), Looker automatically creates ten Looker CI users. The Looker CI users are created in the Looker CI Users user group with the Looker CI Users role. A Looker admin can view the Looker CI users from the Service Accounts tab of the Users Admin page.
  • A new GitHub table on the Continuous Integration Admin page lists the GitHub repositories that have been granted access to the Looker CI GitHub application, which enables Looker CI to be triggered automatically when pull requests are created.

Note: This item was updated on March 27, 2026.

Feature

The Dashboard Tile Limits preview feature is now available, and is disabled by default.

When enabled, the Dashboard Tile Limits preview feature lets admins set limits to how many query tiles can be added to each tab in a dashboard. Admins can set these limits in the Maximum Query Tiles per tab setting on the Content guardrails admin page.

Feature

The Gemini in Looker assistant that helps you generate LookML parameters is now available to enable individually from other Gemini in Looker features. This assistant, which continues to be available in preview, suggests LookML parameters that are based on the natural language prompts that you add to your project files. This assistant can be enabled by turning on the Gemini in Looker and LookML Assistant settings on the Gemini in Looker page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.

Feature

The Increased Row Limit preview feature feature is now available, and is disabled by default.

When enabled, the Increased Row Limit preview feature lets admins set row limits up to 50,000 rows or datapoints for map charts, scatterplot charts, and table charts. Admins can set the limits for each visualization type in the Visualization limits setting on the Content guardrails admin page.

Table charts, scatterplot charts, and Google Maps charts that have increased row limits are subject to additional limitations when you download, send, or schedule dashboards in PDF format. See Downloading or delivering dashboards in rendered formats for more information about scheduling and downloading dashboard PDFs with increased row limits.

Note: This item was originally published on March 16, 2026 and was updated on March 17, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, you can use Gemini in Looker to assist you in writing Looker expressions for table calculations and custom fields. This feature can be enabled by turning on the Expression Assistant setting on the Gemini in Looker page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.

Feature

The Enhanced Search preview feature is now available.

When enabled, Enhanced Search helps you find saved content on your instance using Gemini in Looker. Enhanced Search moves beyond keyword matching to interpreting the conceptual meaning of your search queries, letting you search for saved content using business terms or analytical questions (for example, "total customer acquisition cost").

You can filter your search results to limit them to specific content types, folders, content creators, creation dates, modification dates, and the content certification status.

To enable Gemini in Looker assistance with searching content, you must also enable the Semantic Search setting on the Gemini in Looker page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.

Note: The Semantic Search option will begin rolling out on April 6, 2026. This item was updated on April 2, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, Gemini in Looker can automatically generate Quick Start analyses for Explores. This feature can be enabled by turning on the AI-assisted Quick Starts setting on the Gemini in Looker page in the Platform section of the Admin panel.

Feature

Available in preview, you can now use custom calendars, such as fiscal or retail calendars, for dialects that support it. The custom calendar feature lets your Looker developers create a LookML model of a custom calendar table in your database and then create custom calendar dimension groups that use the custom calendar. Your end users can then create Explore queries using the custom calendar dimension timeframes.

In addition, your LookML developers can create period-over-period measures based on custom calendar dimension groups.

Note: This item was updated on March 19, 2026.

March 12, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Change

The Granular Dashboard Sizing preview feature is temporarily unavailable for some Looker instances. Any dashboard tiles that were resized during this feature's enablement must be reconfigured manually. Note: This release note was updated on June 8, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

Looker (Google Cloud core) instances with public or hybrid connections now support IP allowlists, which enhance security by ensuring that only traffic from specified IP addresses can access your instance. To connect to certain Google Cloud services, like Conversational Analytics or Connected Sheets, you can select an option to automatically allowlist the necessary IP ranges for those services. You can configure an IP allowlist for an existing instance by editing it in the Google Cloud console.

This feature will roll out to instances over the next week.

March 11, 2026

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

Beginning in Looker 26.4, customer-hosted Looker instances will use a new LookML parser with optimized performance. This parser is already in use for Looker-hosted instances. For customer-hosted instances on Looker 26.4, if you want to revert to the legacy parser, contact Looker Support for details on how to disable the new parser. The legacy parser will be fully deprecated in Looker 26.6.

March 09, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

It is no longer necessary to manually configure OAuth credentials when creating a Looker (Google Cloud core) instance that uses only public secure connections and no custom domain. For these instances, Looker (Google Cloud core) now automatically manages OAuth client and secret information, simplifying the setup process. Manual OAuth configuration is still required for instances that use private connections, hybrid connections, or a custom domain.

March 05, 2026

Announcement

Looker 26.4 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

  • Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Sunday, March 8, 2026
  • Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Thursday, March 19, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, March 16, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Monday, March 23, 2026
Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The Gemini in Looker page in the Admin panel has been redesigned to allow Looker admins to selectively enable Gemini in Looker features. For more information about how to enable the features that are available for each Looker instance type, see the following documentation:

Feature

Full support for connections with AlloyDB for PostgreSQL is available in preview. When you create a connection in Looker, you can now select Google Cloud AlloyDB for PostgreSQL from the Dialect drop-down menu. This update does not affect existing AlloyDB connections that were created using the PostgreSQL 9.5+ option in the Dialect menu.

Note: This item was updated March 9, 2026.

Feature

Dashboard filter enhancements are now generally available. Dashboard filter enhancements include the following improvements:

  • Persistent filter suggestion drop-down: Filter suggestion drop-downs remain open for easier multi-selection for tag list and advanced filter type filters.
  • Select or deselect all filter values: Lets users select or deselect all values in tag list and advanced filter type filters.
  • Limit condition controls for advanced filters: Lets dashboard creators limit the condition options that are available to users for advanced filters.
  • Enable Include custom filter values by default for boards: Admins can choose to enable Include custom filter values for boards by default instance-wide.
Feature

Tabbed dashboards are now generally available. Dashboard editors can use tabs to organize dashboard content across multiple tabs within a single dashboard. Adding tabs to dashboards lets you do the following:

  • Better organize content: Group related visualizations and tiles into separate tabs.
  • Improve data storytelling: Guide viewers through different aspects of your data in a structured way.
  • Enhance performance: Load only the tiles on an active tab, potentially speeding up initial dashboard load times.
  • Reduce clutter: Consolidate multiple related analyses into a single dashboard.
Feature

The Looker API now includes Looker Conversational Analytics endpoints that you can use with applications that embed Looker to create and manage agents, conversations, and messages.

For tips on using the Conversational Analytics endpoints, see the Best practices for using the ConversationalAnalytics API endpoints in Looker's API documentation page.

Note: This item was updated March 13, 2026.

Feature

Custom tooltips are now generally available and supported for more visualization types. Custom tooltips let you configure tooltips within the Explore visualization editor by using a combination of UI settings and an HTML editor that supports Liquid templating. Custom tooltips are supported for most visualization types except the following:

Learn more about custom tooltips.

Feature

The Embed Conversational Analytics feature is now generally available. In Looker 26.4, the following support has been added:

  • Embedding Conversational Analytics is now supported on Looker (Google Cloud core).
  • The Looker embed SDK now supports embedded Conversational Analytics.
  • Embedded themes are now partially supported with embedded Conversational Analytics. All of the General options for themes are supported. All other theme options are not supported.
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard buttons that open links in a new tab could fail to work properly when cookieless embed was enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where certain tables were being unnecessarily truncated when they were downloaded to PDF. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the "raw" timeframe of a dimension_group could be displayed in a 12-hour format instead of the expected 24-hour format. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dimension fill could fail to populate values when the row limit is reached. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard table tiles could fail to display the scroll bar and total row. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could fail to retain sorts when content from a drill modal was being downloaded. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where selecting the Expand tables option during a PDF download or schedule could cause the tables to shrink instead of expand. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where pivoted columns could fail to be sorted correctly when content was being downloaded. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where conditional formatting rules could fail to be saved. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where LookML dashboards could not be created using the ProjectFile API endpoint. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker would prevent users from saving changes on the Content Guardrails admin settings page. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could fail to recognize non-numeric values in conditional formatting rules for single value visualizations. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where entering Japanese characters into advanced filters could add extra characters. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboards that used ClickHouse connections could fail to load with a ClassCastException error. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where comma-separated negative filters could be incorrectly interpreted with OR logic in the filter UI. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (original) only changes
Breaking

Project-level local git hooks are no longer supported for security reasons. This change will have no effect on Looker-hosted instances, but it may affect customer-hosted instances depending on your Git setup.

Feature

The Labs page in the Admin panel has been renamed Preview Features. The new page organizes in-progress features into two categories to provide better clarity on their status:

  • Preview features: These features have a planned path to general availability.
  • Labs features: These experimental features may be removed from the product at any time, and issues may not be resolved.

Your enablement status for each feature has not changed. For more information, see the Preview Features documentation page.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

The Preview Features page is now available in the Admin panel for Looker (Google Cloud core). This page lets you enable or disable new features that are currently in preview.

The following preview features are now available in Looker (Google Cloud core):

  • Access Content Certification
  • Granular Dashboard Sizing
  • Internal Dashboard Theming
  • Tile Download Default Options

Preview features that are categorized as "Labs" on the Preview Features page of the Admin panel aren't supported in Looker (Google Cloud core).

March 02, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

You can now manage backups for Looker (Google Cloud core) instances in the Google Cloud console. From the new Backups tab on the instance details page, you can create manual backups, and you can view, restore, or delete both automatic and manual backups. Previously, these operations were only available through the gcloud command-line tool.

February 17, 2026

Announcement

The following features will roll out over a four-day period starting February 17, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The System Activity User Activity dashboard has been updated to improve authentication troubleshooting. New information includes recent login failures, the authentication method that was used, the error message that was returned, and the time of the attempt.

Feature

Looker admins can grant the new schedule_without_limit permission to restrict a user's ability to deliver all data results from a Look or an Explore. This permission must be combined with another Looker permission that permits delivering data.

This permission will be automatically granted to any existing roles that already contain a data delivery permission. Looker admins must remove this permission from any users whom they wish to prevent from delivering all results from a Look or an Explore.

Note: This item was added on February 19, 2026.

Feature

The content certification feature, already available in preview, includes the following updates:

  • The Settings page in the General section of the Admin panel now includes options that let admins enable or disable content certification, set a custom URL for the certification process, and control whether certification is revoked when content is edited.
  • LookML dashboards can now be certified.
  • Looks and dashboards that are based on uncertified self-service Explores now display the "ungoverned" badge.
  • Searching for content now includes the ability to sort content based on its certification status. (Note: This capability is not yet available. This item was modified on February 26, 2026.)
Feature

Now available in preview, the Self-service Explores feature supports uploading data from Google Sheets. To support uploading data from Google Sheets, your Looker admin must enable the required APIs in the Google Cloud project that houses your BigQuery database.

Feature

Now available in preview, LookML developers can unlock their Git branch in cases where their Git branch is locked as a result of another Git operation in progress or a previous Git operation failing. When the Git repository is locked, Looker displays the Unlock Branch option in the Git Actions panel of the Looker IDE. In addition, if a LookML developer tries to commit a change on a locked Git branch, Looker displays a warning in the Commit dialog, along with an option to delete the Git lock. See the Using version control and deploying documentation page for details.

Note: This item was added on February 18, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, the In-database merge queries feature is supported for merging results of two queries that are on the same BigQuery connection. Previously, the join for merging results was always performed in Looker memory, which limited each query to 5,000 rows that could be calculated in the join. If your Looker admin has enabled the In-database merge queries Looker Labs feature, the join between two queries that are on the same BigQuery connection is performed in the BigQuery database itself. Performing the join in the database is more performant and allows for unlimited rows that can be joined.

Feature

Now available in preview, the Self-service Explores feature supports updating the data for a self-service Explore. The owner of a self-service Explore can update it with data from the latest version of the file that was used to create the self-service Explore. See the Creating self-service Explores documentation page for more information.

Feature

Now available in preview, dashboard editors can change the size and layout of dashboard tiles with more granularity. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Granular Dashboard Sizing Labs feature.

Feature

Now available in preview, the Embed Conversational Analytics Labs feature is now available. When enabled, the Embed Conversational Analytics Labs feature lets you embed Conversational Analytics conversations and agents in an iframe like other Looker content types.

Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now available in preview, dashboard editors can set default options for how the download of a dashboard tile includes query results. They can set the download to include by default all query results or the current result table that is displayed in the visualization, or set a custom number of rows and columns. To enable this feature, a Looker admin must turn on the Tile Download Default Options Labs feature.

February 09, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Announcement

Looker 26.2 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

  • Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, February 9, 2026
  • Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Monday, February 16, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, February 9, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Friday, February 27, 2026
Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Breaking

When you use Elite System Activity, all System Activity fields of the longtext type that have a size greater than 2 MB will be truncated. If a table has only one column with a longtext type, that column will be set to a maximum of 1.9 MB in size. If a table has multiple columns of the longtext type, the total maximum size across all such columns is 2 MB, and this limit is distributed uniformly among those columns. For example, if a table has x longtext columns, each column will have a maximum length of 2 MB divided by x.

Breaking

The see_lookml_dashboards permission is now required for a user to be able to see a LookML dashboard, even if the user already has View access to the dashboard's folder. The enforcement of this permission may result in users seeing an incomplete list of LookML dashboards where they may have been able to access more dashboards in previous versions of Looker. Note: This release note was added on June 8, 2026.

Feature

Now available in preview, Looker has full support for connections with AlloyDB for PostgreSQL. When you create a connection in Looker, you can now select "Google Cloud AlloyDB for PostgreSQL" from the Dialect drop-down menu. This update does not affect existing AlloyDB connections that were created using the PostgreSQL 9.5+ option in the Dialect menu.

Feature

Looker admins can now grant essential Google Cloud services, such as Conversational Analytics, access to a Looker instance, even when an IP allowlist is active.

Feature

The Customer Engineer Advanced Editor default role now includes the gemini_in_looker, chat_with_agent, chat_with_explore, and save_agents permissions, which grant access to Gemini features and Conversational Analytics functionality.

Feature

The user attribute pairing user interface for SAML, LDAP, and OpenID Connect authentication has been updated. A new "Manage Pairings" side panel provides a robust interface for adding, removing, and viewing attribute pairings. This new interface also includes filtering and pagination and allows for a single claim to be associated with multiple Looker user attributes.

Feature

When you are delivering content to an SFTP server, additional key exchange algorithms and host key algorithms are now supported.

Feature

The Increase SQL Runner Schema and Table Limit preview feature is now available. This preview feature increases the total number of schemas that can be returned to SQL Runner to 12,000. Enabling this feature will increase the table name display response time if your instance has access to a large number of schemas and tables.

Note: This item was added on February 20, 2026 and updated on March 16, 2026.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

Looker admins can now enforce a password expiration policy, enhancing security for users who authenticate with an email and a password. This new feature lets admins set a password expiration window between 30 and 365 days. Fourteen days before password expiration, a banner will notify the user, and, once their password has expired, the user must reset it at the next login.

Change

The Looker Action Hub has been updated to support newer API versions for Google Ads (from v19 to v22) and Facebook Custom Audiences (from v22 to v24).

Change

When you use Elite System Activity, the merge_query table now refreshes every 10 minutes.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where dashboard tiles with titles that included the % symbol could not be downloaded in the Safari 26.0 browser. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where adding a new field to a conditionally formatted result set could fail to apply the conditional formatting to the new field. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where switching filter types from Matches (Advanced) to another filter type could populate that filter with an incorrect filter configuration. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the filter bar would automatically expand on dashboard load when the filter location was set to "Right". This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where changing the collection in a conditional formatting rule could reset styles for the rule. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the pagination option was not being displayed in the LookML dashboards folder for some users. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where conditional formatting no longer appeared on certain dashboard tiles. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where switching a visualization type from Table to Single Value could carry over unwanted conditional formatting. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker could return a 500 error if a user with one or more single quotes in their name attempted to commit LookML. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where non-admin users could not favorite LookML dashboards. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where a modification to the color palette for the "Along a scale..." conditional formatting feature could fail to be saved. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where choosing a non-default color collection and then choosing a custom color in a conditional formatting rule could cause the rule to revert to the default color collection. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where custom dimensions that were based on numeric fields could be converted to strings, which caused incorrect sorting. This feature now performs as expected.

Fixed

An issue has been fixed where some drill links could fail to work when cookieless embed was enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

February 06, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Deprecated

The DataRobot action is now deprecated. This action is no longer available in the Looker Action Hub.

February 02, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Conversational Analytics now displays its reasoning for how it analyzes queries. After you enter your query, click Show reasoning to see a plain text explanation of the steps that Conversational Analytics took to interpret your query.

January 28, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

You can now view the public egress IP addresses for Looker (Google Cloud core) instances that use Private Service Connect and controlled native egress. These IP addresses may be used when setting up outbound connections.

January 26, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Announcement

Looker 26.0 includes the following feature updates, which will start rolling out on January 26, 2026:

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Updates to the Continuous Integration (CI) feature will be available in February, 2026.

Note: This item was added on January 28, 2026 and updated on January 30, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now available in preview, the Configuration tab of the Projects Settings page in the Looker IDE contains a Delete Developer Copy button that lets LookML developers delete their local developer copy of the project's Git repository. See the Using version control and deploying documentation page for details.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Custom Tooltips Labs feature is now available. The Custom Tooltips Labs feature lets you configure tooltips within the Explore visualization editor using a combination of UI settings and an HTML editor that supports Liquid templating.

This feature is only for Looker (original) instances and is enabled by default.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The Self-service Explores admin page now supports a connection test button so that Looker admins can verify that the BigQuery connection is able to support self-service Explores.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Dashboard Filter Enhancements Labs feature is now available. The Dashboard Filter Enhancements Labs feature includes the following improvements:

  • Persistent filter suggestion drop-down: Filter suggestion drop-downs remain open for easier multi-selection for tag list and advanced filter type filters.
  • Select or deselect all filter values: Lets users select or deselect all values in tag list and advanced filter type filters.
  • Limit condition controls for advanced filters: Lets dashboard creators limit the condition options that are available to users for advanced filters.
  • Enable Include custom filter values by default for boards: Admins can choose to enable Include custom filter values for boards by default instance-wide.

This feature is only for Looker (original) instances and is enabled by default.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Tabbed Dashboards Labs feature is now available. The Tabbed Dashboards Labs feature lets dashboard editors organize dashboard content across multiple tabs within a single dashboard. Adding tabs to dashboards lets you do the following:

  • Better organize content: Group related visualizations and tiles into separate tabs.
  • Improve data storytelling: Guide viewers through different aspects of your data in a structured way.
  • Enhance performance: Load only the tiles on an active tab, potentially speeding up initial dashboard load times.
  • Reduce clutter: Consolidate multiple related analyses into a single dashboard.

This feature is only for Looker (original) instances and is enabled by default.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature
Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Available January 29, 2026: Conversational Analytics includes a Show reasoning toggle that provides step-by-step insight into how the agent reaches its answers. This update also includes improvements to overall answer accuracy. See the Conversational Analytics API documentation for details.

January 14, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

Looker (Google Cloud core) is now available in the asia-southeast3 (Bangkok) region. For more information, see the Looker (Google Cloud core) locations documentation.

January 08, 2026

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Announcement

Looker 26.0 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes:

  • Expected Looker (original) deployment start: Monday, January 12, 2026
  • Expected Looker (original) final deployment and download available: Monday, January 19, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) deployment start: Monday, January 12, 2026
  • Expected Looker (Google Cloud core) final deployment: Friday, January 23, 2026
Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Breaking

When you use Elite System Activity, the System Activity field scheduled_plan.filters_string is limited to a length of 1.9 MB. Any data beyond the 1.9 MB limit is truncated.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Breaking

HTML characters are now displayed in plaintext in table visualizations to match other visualization types. For example, " is no longer rendered as ".

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Looker now supports conditional formatting rules for string types in single value and table visualizations.

Note: This item was added incorrectly. This feature is not included with the 26.0 release. It may be available in a future release.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Looker now supports key-pair authentication in the PDT overrides for Snowflake connections.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The user interface for configuring group mappings for LDAP, SAML, and OpenID Connect has been updated for improved management. The new interface allows administrators to more easily add, edit, remove, and search for group mappings.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The JDBC driver for Databricks connections has been updated to version 3.0.5.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The new LookML parameter autogenerate_primary_keys parameter is now supported. When a view or Explore is defined with autogenerate_primary_keys: yes, Looker generates a temporary, distinct key for a view, allowing symmetric aggregates and one-to-many counts to be calculated correctly without any changes to your underlying database table. The primary key is generated at query runtime; it does not persist across queries. Note: This item was added on January 12, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Looker now supports encrypted files for key-pair authentication for Snowflake connections.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

When you view folders on embedded content, LookML dashboards are now visible. The LookML dashboards folder, however, will not be visible.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The LookML dashboards folder is now paginated, showing 30 dashboards per page.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

For creating self-service Explores from Excel files that contain multiple worksheets, the Data upload dialog now lets you specify which Excel worksheet to upload. Previously, the self-service Explore was always based on the first worksheet in the Excel file. Note: This item was added on January 15, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Custom mail settings that are configured for SMTP servers now support OAuth 2.0 authentication.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The JDBC driver for Apache Spark 3+ connections has been updated to version 2.7.6.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Dashboard Filter Enhancements Labs feature includes the following improvements:

  • Persistent filter suggestion drop-down: Filter suggestion drop-downs remain open for easier multi-selection for tag list and advanced filter type filters.
  • Select or deselect all filter values: Lets users select or deselect all values in tag list and advanced filter type filters.
  • Limit condition controls for advanced filters: Lets dashboard creators limit the condition options that are available to users for advanced filters.
  • Enable Include custom filter values by default for boards: Admins can choose to enable Include custom filter values for boards by default instance-wide.

This feature will be available beginning January 26, for Looker (Original) instances, and will be enabled by default.

Note: This item was updated on January 20, 2026.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The API endpoint search_lookml_dashboards is out of Labs and now generally available.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Custom Tooltips Labs feature lets you configure tooltips within the Explore visualization editor using a combination of UI settings and an HTML editor that supports Liquid templating.

This feature will be available beginning January 26, for Looker (Original) instances, and will be enabled by default.

Note: This item was updated on January 20, 2026.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Favoriting LookML Dashboards Labs feature, which enables LookML dashboards to be marked as favorites and displays them on the Looker Favorites tab, is now out of Labs and generally available.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

Looker admins can now create dedicated service accounts for API-only access. Additionally, eligible standard user accounts that are being used for API access can be migrated to the new service account type from the Users page in the Admin panel.

Looker (original) only changes
Feature

The Tabbed Dashboards Labs feature lets dashboard editors organize dashboard content across multiple tabs within a single dashboard. Adding tabs to dashboards lets you do the following:

  • Better organize content: Group related visualizations and tiles into separate tabs.
  • Improve data storytelling: Guide viewers through different aspects of your data in a structured way.
  • Enhance performance: Load only the tiles on an active tab, potentially speeding up initial dashboard load times.
  • Reduce clutter: Consolidate multiple related analyses into a single dashboard.

This feature will be available beginning January 26, for Looker (Original) instances, and will be disabled by default.

Note: This item was updated on January 20, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

The API endpoint search_lookml_dashboards is now generally available.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

Looker (Google Cloud core) instances that use Private Service Connect can now connect to Google APIs through controlled native egress.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

LookML dashboards can now be marked as favorites, allowing the LookML dashboards to appear on the Looker Favorites tab.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where creating a custom dimension with a single letter name could cause the query to fail. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where downloaded reports with pivoted tables could contain extra whitespace. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Show Totals option in the Plot menu was not correctly hiding totals when a user downloaded results. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where filtered custom measures could fail to load if they referenced a dimension that used the alias parameter in their filter. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Explore from SQL Runner query feature could return an error if it found Liquid syntax in the query. The feature now exports the query as plaintext.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where tooltips incorrectly displayed the text [object Object]. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where an empty sorts: property in a LookML explore file definition could cause Looker to return a 500 error. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where very long dashboard names were not properly truncated. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the LookML Validator was not surfacing errors if an invalid field name was referenced in a suggest_dimension field. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where custom measures with invalid field references could cause queries to fail, even if those measures weren't selected in the query. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Show More button wouldn't appear for large lists when a user was managing folder access. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where modifying conditional formatting rules other than the first one incorrectly affected the first rule. This fix has been backported to Looker versions 25.18.41 and 25.20.17.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where clicking Status details in the connection setup page without first selecting a dialect caused the page to crash. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where any Liquid usage in a derived table SQL resulted in full suggestions behavior. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where downloading pivoted queries with table calculations while using an Exasol database could return an error. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where a table visualization could become unresponsive if a fixed column width was specified for multiple columns. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where filters with commas were not including all filter conditions on Safari browsers. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker extensions could not access webpack development servers. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where selecting the filter option "is before N hours ago" incorrectly displayed "is before N hours" in the filter.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where value_format was not respected in table visualizations for numeric values larger than 16 digits. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the dialog to select a folder would attempt to load a second page of results without being prompted by the user. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where certain fields in dialogs, such as the Format field in the Download dialog, were incorrectly labeled as read-only to screen readers. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where tooltip background colors were not being correctly rendered. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the custom tooltip editor was unable to scroll to edit long tooltip templates. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been identified and fixed in search where the latency in fetching search results spiked, causing search to be slow in returning results. A layer of caching has been added, causing search results to be more performant. Note: This item was added on January 13, 2026.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where merged queries could disappear if a user edited one of the settings in the Values tab for a field. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where a SQL Runner query against a model would fail if the user had not yet opened the model in Development Mode. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

The Skip to Main Content accessibility link for dashboards has been removed for embedded dashboards.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where, after you uploaded data, Looker would not redirect you to the uploaded file. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

A retry limit has been added for scheduled jobs. If a scheduled job fails five times in a row, then it's skipped until the next time the schedule is triggered.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where long content in tooltips could not be scrolled. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where manually resetting column widths from a dashboard grid tile header had no effect. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where the Get LookML Model Explore API endpoint could time out without returning results. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where strings with accented characters were not being displayed properly in the Y-Axis of a visualization. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

When you use the Field Picker to clear all fields, the chart type no longer changes to Table (Legacy).

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where testing a connection could fail to return an error message in cases where the user had insufficient permissions or if the connection no longer existed. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker would prevent users from uploading data if they lacked the explore permission. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where a join wouldn't be added to the query, even if one was required by a measure of type count_distinct, sum_distinct, or avg_distinct.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where some columns in the Query Concurrency System Activity Explore were displaying null values. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where applying filters to a Google Map visualization would require a refresh before the filters would take effect. This feature now performs as expected.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

For the Spanish (es_ES) locale, the weekday initials for Sunday and Tuesday in the schedule dashboard dialog have been set to the correct values (D and M).

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Fixed

An issue has been fixed where Looker would generate inefficient SQL for some Databricks queries that included date manipulation for weekly data. Looker now uses Databricks functions like date_trunc when generating SQL.

December 23, 2025

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Historical data cannot be accessed with the API Usage System Activity Explore for Looker instances that are running Looker 25.16 or later. Looker instances that are running Looker 25.16 or later must use the API Usage Hourly System Activity Explore.

December 03, 2025

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

For Looker instances that are running Looker 25.20 or later, admins can now test the connection between their instance and the Looker Action Hub. This option is available only for the Looker Action Hub. It is not available for custom action hubs.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now available in preview, the Self-service Explore feature lets Looker users upload CSV, XLS, and XLSX files to Looker and then query and visualize the data in a Looker Explore without needing to configure a LookML model or set up Git version control. In addition, content certification is supported for self-service Explores.

December 02, 2025

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

Now available in preview, Looker can display a new Connected Sheets option in the Explore actions menu. The Connected Sheets option opens Google Sheets and initiates a connection from Google Sheets to the Looker Explore. You can then build reports, pivot tables, or charts within the newly created Google Sheets using the fields available from the selected Looker Explore. The Connected Sheets quick link feature must be configured in the Google Cloud console and on your Looker instance. See the Connected Sheets quick link documentation page for details.

December 01, 2025

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is now available on Tableau Exchange. This means that for Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server, you no longer need to manually download and install the Tableau connector (TACO) file. Note: This item was added on December 12, 2025.

Looker (Google Cloud core) and Looker (original) changes
Feature

The Looker–Tableau BI Connector is now supported for Tableau Cloud, so that you can use a Looker Explore as a data source in Tableau Cloud. See the Looker–Tableau BI Connector documentation page for more information.

To use the Looker–Tableau BI Connector with Tableau Cloud, your admin must configure your Looker instance and your Tableau Cloud instance as described on the Administering Tableau to Looker connections documentation page.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature

You can now use Google-managed certificates for Looker (Google Cloud core) instances that use Private Service Connect connections. This feature simplifies custom domain configuration by using a *.private.looker.app domain, eliminating the need to manage your own SSL certificates. Instances may need to migrate to the updated service attachment URI.

Looker (Google Cloud core) only changes
Feature