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Download and install the sqlcmd utility

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW) SQL database in Microsoft Fabric

The sqlcmd utility lets you enter Transact-SQL statements, system procedures, and script files.

sqlcmd variants

There are two variants of sqlcmd:

  • sqlcmd (Go): The go-mssqldb-based sqlcmd, sometimes styled as go-sqlcmd. This version is a standalone tool you can download independently of SQL Server. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and in containers.

  • sqlcmd (ODBC): The platform-aligned, ODBC-based sqlcmd, available with SQL Server or the Microsoft Command Line Utilities, and part of the mssql-tools package on Linux. It also runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and in containers.

Download and install sqlcmd (Go)

sqlcmd (Go) can be installed cross-platform, on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. Versions newer than 1.6 might not be available in all package managers. There's no estimated date yet for their availability.

winget (Windows Package Manager CLI)

  1. Install the Windows Package Manager Client if you don't already have it.

  2. Run the following command to install sqlcmd (Go).

    winget install sqlcmd

Chocolatey

  1. Install Chocolatey if you don't already have it.

  2. Run the following command to install sqlcmd (Go).

    choco install sqlcmd

Direct download

  1. Download the corresponding -windows-amd64.zip or -windows-arm.zip asset from the latest release of sqlcmd (Go) from the GitHub code repository.

  2. Extract the sqlcmd.exe file from the downloaded zip folder.

Download and install sqlcmd (ODBC)

sqlcmd (ODBC) can be installed cross-platform, on Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Download the command line utilities for Windows, using the following table.

Driver Platform
Microsoft Command Line Utilities 15 for SQL Server x64 x86

The command line tools are General Availability (GA), however they are also released with the installer package for SQL Server 2019 (15.x) and later versions.

Version information

  • Release number: 15.0.4298.1
  • Build number: 15.0.4298.1
  • Release date: April 7, 2023

Note

The sqlcmd download provided here might not have the same release and build number as sqlcmd installed with the latest SQL Server cumulative update (CU). This behavior is expected. This version contains all the fixes included in the latest CU.

sqlcmd (ODBC) supports authentication with Microsoft Entra ID, including multifactor authentication (MFA) support for Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, and Always Encrypted features.

System requirements

  • Windows 10 and later versions
  • Windows Server and later versions

This component requires both the built-in Windows Installer 5 and the Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server.

Preinstalled

You can also find sqlcmd preinstalled in certain environments.

Azure Cloud Shell

You can try the sqlcmd utility from Azure Cloud Shell, as it's preinstalled by default.

Launch Cloud Shell

Azure Data Studio

To run SQLCMD statements in Azure Data Studio, select Enable SQLCMD from the editor toolbar.

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

To run SQLCMD statements in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), navigate to Query > SQLCMD Mode.

SSMS uses the Microsoft .NET Framework SqlClient for execution in regular and SQLCMD mode in Query Editor. When sqlcmd is run from the command-line, sqlcmd uses the ODBC driver. Because different default options could apply, you might see different behavior when you execute the same query in SSMS in SQLCMD mode and in the sqlcmd utility.

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