Looker release notes

Looker 26.18 will roll out to Looker (original) instances on the following schedule:

• Expected deployment start: Monday, September 21, 2026
• Expected final deployment and download available: Sunday, October 4, 2026

Looker 26.18 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes.

An issue has been fixed in self-service analytics where CSV and Excel uploads to BigQuery and Snowflake could fail or corrupt data when files contained multiline headers, leading numeric characters, UTF-8 BOM markers, or special characters. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where custom content theme fonts were improperly applied to the Look edit mode bar. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where creating a shared branch based on the production branch in a bare repository project could initialize from stale remote commits, causing the Looker IDE to immediately report the branch as being behind production. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where scheduled deliveries intermittently failed with permission errors such as Cannot send all results because user permissions were incorrectly cached across scheduled jobs on worker threads. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where downloading a dashboard as a CSV or ZIP file could result in a 500 error if any dashboard elements lacked an explicit title. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where links created using the LookML link parameter could return a 500 error if no label was specified. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where dashboard filter token chips didn't display an active highlighted background when a filter value was selected. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where the Git connection test could fail to recognize Git credentials as sufficient if a branch protection rule on the Git provider restricted temporary branches. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where analytic models that referenced cross-database, schema-qualified, or dot-delimited table names failed to compile in BigQuery and Snowflake DDL generation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where custom tooltips in Single Record visualizations appeared at the bottom of the Explore panel rather than directly beneath the selected row. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where dashboard filter tokens and popover menus could fail to inherit fonts from custom themes. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where dragging series between Y-axes on pivoted Cartesian charts could cause the Explore page to crash or prevent visualization configurations from being saved. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed in Explores where you couldn't scroll within the Chart Config Editor dialog when editing JSON visualization configurations. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where scheduled PDF deliveries to Cloud Storage could produce corrupted files and unexpectedly replace spaces in filenames with underscores. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where attempting to visualize pivoted query results in SQL Runner resulted in a TypeError configuration error. This feature now performs as expected.

API requests that target a LookML project whose files or directories aren't found on the instance now return a 404 Not Found error instead of a 500 Internal Server Error.

In Conversational Analytics, the Open in Explore button and sidebar exploration links are now hidden or disabled with explanatory tooltips when you lack explore permissions for the underlying model.

The embed preload page now supports custom theming using the theme URL query parameter.

Donut Multiples visualizations now automatically hide overlapping value labels.

The Looker extension for VS Code is now generally available, enabling local LookML development and AI-assisted "vibe coding" using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). This update introduces an interactive onboarding walkthrough, support for populating workspaces from bare repositories, and enhanced synchronization between local Git branches and Looker Development Mode. Additional improvements include support for OAuth with the Kiro IDE and more secure storage of API client secrets.

The deprecation of the Looker Mobile (Legacy) application has been postponed to January 31, 2027. Starting on January 31, 2027, support for the Looker Mobile (Legacy) app will be discontinued and the app will be unavailable for download from the App Store or Play Store. Although users will still be able to use the Looker Mobile (Legacy) app if they already have it installed, we recommend that you install the non-legacy Looker mobile app.

Looker 26.16 will roll out to Looker (original) instances on the following schedule:

• Expected deployment start: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
• Expected final deployment and download available: Sunday, September 20, 2026

Looker 26.16 is expected to include the following changes, features, and fixes.

An issue has been fixed where IAM administrators on Looker (Google Cloud core) instances failed authentication when the auth_requires_role and strict Group Role Mapping were enabled. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where logging in with a Google Cloud Workforce Identity within an embedded iframe could fail as a result of frame restrictions or because the authentication popup closed before session cookies were established. This feature now performs as expected.

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

The Semantic Search feature is now generally available.

An issue has been fixed where switching to a histogram visualization in an Explore could fail or revert unexpectedly. Additionally, stack resolution on pivoted histograms has been improved. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where the alert creation and edit modal displayed Method instead of defaulting to Email as the notification method. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where embedded dashboards with numerous filters caused horizontal container overflow, prevented filters from wrapping across rows, and resulted in clipped tiles during PDF and PNG exports.

An issue has been fixed where custom themes configured as the instance default were not applied to dashboards in view-only mode or during dashboard navigation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where LookML dashboard URLs that were opened from the search page contained encoded colons (%3A%3A), which prevented filter interactions from updating URL query parameters. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where Single Value visualizations and KPI visualizations would not allow creating a comparison against a non-measure table calculation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where visualization-level filters could not be edited or deleted because of missing popover menus. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where resizing an Explore that contained a Word Cloud visualization could cause the Explore to crash. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where generating LookML for analytic models without selecting any database tables could cause Looker to create views for all database tables and to drop certain properties because of identifier case sensitivity. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where filter context banners and timezone settings were not preserved when generating PNG downloads from drill menus. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where applying pivots to merge queries could cause visualization errors and blank column headers in the results table. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where standalone tile exports from embedded dashboards with filter context could render off-screen or with clipped visualizations in PDF and PNG formats. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where clearing all text from a dashboard note tile failed to persist upon page refresh. This feature now performs as expected.

The BigQuery High Throughput API has been disabled by default to prevent connection errors for environments without bigquery.readsessions.create permissions. Additionally, required JVM flags for JDK 11 environments have been added. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where multi-line prompt text in dashboard chat views caused action buttons (such as the Thinking toggle and Send button) and vertical scrollbars to be misaligned. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where pinned Looks on boards generated broken URLs that redirected to the home page and failed to dynamically reflect title updates. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where selecting a suggestion could reset the dropdown to a loading spinner. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where collapsible navigation items in the Admin panel and the main navigation pane rendered rectangular focus outlines rather than rounded focus indicators during keyboard navigation. This feature now performs as expected.

An issue has been fixed where typed search strings persisted after you selected an autocomplete suggestion in multi-select filters. This feature now performs as expected.

When you duplicate a user-defined dashboard, associated Looker data agent instructions, configurations, and sources are now preserved on the copied dashboard.

Self-service models have been restricted to only their assigned user database connections, preventing unintended instance-wide database connection access.

Boxplot visualizations now render transparent median dividers and borders properly in inverted and dark theme layouts.

OpenJDK 11 will no longer be supported as of January 14, 2027. Customer-hosted instances must upgrade to OpenJDK 21.

Localized data processing for European Union (EU)-based customers now applies to all Conversational Analytics data agents, including agents that are associated with Looker Explores, user-defined dashboards, and LookML dashboards. This support means that localized data processing now applies to all Conversational Analytics in Looker features.

Note: This item was added September 9, 2026.

The Looker Mobile (Legacy) application is no longer available for download from the App Store or Play Store and support for the app has been discontinued. Although users will still be able to use the Looker Mobile (Legacy) app if they already have it installed, we recommend that you install the non-legacy Looker mobile app.

Note: The deprecation of the Looker Mobile (Legacy) application has been postponed to January 31, 2027. This item was updated on September 9, 2026.

From August 24 through August 26, 2026, the following features will be automatically enabled for Looker (original) instances running Looker 26.14.

Looker now supports connections to MongoSQL. Although existing connections to the legacy MongoDB Connector for BI are still fully supported, Looker recommends that you update MongoDB Connector for BI connections to use the MongoSQL dialect.

See the MongoDB documentation Transition from Atlas BI Connector to MongoSQL and the Looker documentation Migrating to MongoSQL for information on migrating from the MongoDB Atlas BI Connector to the newer MongoSQL Interface.

Note: One year before the MongoDB Connector for BI is to be deprecated, customers will be sent a service announcement to that effect. The information will also be reflected in product documentation and release notes.

The Advanced Unused Content Cleanup feature is now generally available.

Looker Continuous Integration (CI) can be triggered from GitLab CI, Bitbucket Pipelines, and GitHub Actions workflows by using the Looker API and the official Looker Python SDK (looker-sdk). For configuration steps and sample scripts, see the Admin settings - Continuous Integration documentation.

Note: This item was added on August 28, 2026 and changed from a non-breaking change to a feature on September 9, 2026.

Now available in preview, the visual modeling canvas lets you connect to BigQuery data sources to build and edit LookML data models using an interactive, drag-and-drop canvas. With the visual modeling canvas, you can visually join tables, define dimensions and measures, preview query results in real time, and publish Explores without writing LookML code.

For more information, see the Using the visual modeling canvas documentation page.

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

Conversational Analytics verified queries, also known as golden queries, are now generally available. You can also now define verified queries in Looker (Google Cloud core) instances.

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: yesstatement to thelocalization_settings parameter in your importing project's manifest file. See the Localizing your LookML model documentation page for more information.

Note: This item was added on August 31, 2026 and changed from a non-breaking change to a feature on September 9, 2026.

You can now configure Continuous Integration to automatically run CI suites when a dbt Cloud CI job finishes. The CI suite run verifies whether changes in your dbt models will cause SQL errors in your Looker Explores before the dbt changes are deployed.

Now available in preview, the New/Edit Roles Enhancement feature provides a modernized, step-by-step interface for creating and editing roles on the Roles page in the Users section of the Admin panel.

Now available in preview, you can define and chat with data agents on a LookML dashboard. To use this feature, the Conversational Analytics and Enable Dashboard Agents settings must be enabled on the Gemini in Looker Admin page.

Now available in preview, you can define Looker-managed, in-database analytic models directly from existing LookML Explores by using the model_source subparameter of the derived_analytic_model parameter. Looker automatically translates your Explore topology, joins that are defined with foreign_key, dimensions, and measures into in-database analytic models (such as BigQuery Graphs or Snowflake semantic views).

For more information, see the derived_analytic_model parameter reference page.

The Google Maps Enhancements preview feature now includes the following features:

The Dual-axis Map option now supports points and circles. You can now specify a custom map layer by providing a URL to a TopoJSON file.

When the New Looker Explore and Merge Query Experience preview features are enabled, editing a merge query tile on a dashboard now opens the Join data page directly within the dashboard edit canvas, rather than opening a new tab.

The Conversational Analytics System Activity dashboard Token usage tab now includes observability information about top users and top conversations by token usage. The tab also now indicates the type of data agent in its observability metrics.

When connecting Looker to your database, you can specify additional Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) parameters. To maintain security, Looker restricts the allowed values for certain parameters. For the JDBC parameters that have a restricted set of allowed values, the allowed values are listed in the "Supported JDBC parameters" section of the database configuration instructions page for your dialect.

Dashboard parameter filters now correctly respect manually restricted option lists when determining default values. This prevents filters from reverting to base LookML defaults that were intentionally hidden from the dashboard's user interface.

Tiles that are on dashboard tabs will now run only when the dashboard tab that they are saved on is opened.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Now generally available, the Granular Dashboard Sizing feature allows dashboard editors to change the size and layout of dashboard tiles with more granularity.

When you first open a dashboard to edit it after the Granular Dashboard Sizing feature has been enabled, the tiles will be in a different configuration because of the new sizing constraints and layout formats. This behavior is expected. Once you have manually reorganized the tiles and saved the dashboard with the new granular layout, that tile arrangement will persist and won't change unexpectedly.

Note: This item was added on August 13, 2026 and updated on August 19, 2026.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

The custom calendar feature is now generally available.

The Expression Assistant is now generally available.

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.

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.

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.

The Table Visualization Improvements feature is now generally available.

You can now use the following features for table visualizations:

• Pagination
• Show/Hide Table Headers
• Table Borders
• Cell Highlighting
• Conditional formatting for string fields

The Enhanced search feature is now generally available.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The custom calendar feature is now generally available.

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.

The Expression Assistant is now generally available.

The Enhanced search feature is now generally available.

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.

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.

The New Looker Explore and Merge Query Experience preview feature is now enabled by default.

Note: This release note was added on August 21, 2026.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Looker admins can now stop running queries in bulk by appending ?cleanup=true to the URL of the Queries admin page. This lets admins terminate all running queries across the instance or for a specific database connection without restarting the instance. For more information, see the Stop queries in bulk section of the Admin settings - Queries documentation page.

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

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

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) 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The KPI Visualization preview feature is now enabled by default.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Self-service Explores feature has the following updates:

• You can now upload data from a BigQuery database table to create a self-service Explore.
• Previously, on the Looker Self-service Explores Admin page, there was a single toggle to enable data uploads on the instance. If the Data Uploads toggle was enabled, and your Looker admin also enabled the APIs to support Google Sheets uploads, then data imports from Google Sheets were enabled on the instance. Starting in Looker 26.10, there is a separate toggle for Google Sheets data import to allow your Looker admin more granular control over the data uploads on the instance. Your Looker admin can't enable this toggle until after the Looker admin has enabled the the APIs to support Google Sheets uploads.

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

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.

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.

Continuous Integration (CI) suites can now be configured to automatically run on a recurring schedule.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

When you first open a dashboard to edit it after the Granular Dashboard Sizing preview feature has been enabled, the tiles will be in a different configuration because of the new sizing constraints and layout formats. This behavior is expected. Once you have manually reorganized the tiles and saved the dashboard with the new granular layout, that tile arrangement will persist and won't change unexpectedly.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.