News and Updates

The first beta release of the SQLAlchemy 2.1 series is now available.

Nearly two years in development, the 2.1 series builds upon the new Python typing-oriented architecture of SQLAlchemy 2.0, introducing a range of enhancements and new capabilities across both Core and ORM components, with an emphasis on newer Python idioms such as dataclasses, improved pep-484 typing, template strings, and continued accommodations for Python free threading.

Key improvements in SQLAlchemy 2.1 include:

• Python 3.14 Template String Support - A new tstring() construct works similarly to the text() construct, but works with the new t'' syntax added in Python 3.14+, allowing for automatic generation of bound parameters from a fully inline SQL string expression.
• CREATE VIEW and CREATE TABLE AS Support - New DDL constructs enable creation of views and table-as-select operations
• pep-646 typing for SQL SELECT statements, result sets, rows - The Tuple[] seen in type annotations for selectable statements and results has been replaced by the use of pep-646 Unpack directly, representing heterogeneous rows and supporting constructs directly without the need to manually unpack results from a tuple for typing of individual unpacked values to work.
• Refined Dataclass Mapping - ORM mapped dataclasses no longer populate implicit defaults in __dict__, resolving workflow issues where foreign key values would incorrectly override relationship attributes
• Default driver updates for PostgreSQL, Oracle - The default driver for postgresql:// URLs is now psycopg, replacing psycopg2, and the default driver for oracle:// URLs is now oracledb, replacing cx_oracle. This is the first release in SQLAlchemy's history to revise these default drivers.
• Support for monotonic server side functions such as PostgreSQL's uuidv7() in batched INSERTs - SQLAlchemy's "insertmanyvalues" feature introduced in version 2.0 allowed dramatic improvements for INSERT statements as used by the ORM, when primary key values needed to be fetched from newly inserted rows without executing row-at-a-time. Release 2.1 adds support for the use of monotonically increasing server side functions to be integrated within this system, with PG's uuidv7() construct as the current example.
• Greenlet is a fully optional dependency - SQLAlchemy's asyncio support in version 2.1 remains dependent on greenlet to switch between asyncio and synchronous internal logic. However, as greenlet continues to have sporadic compatibility issues when new Python versions are released, it no longer installs automatically and must be installed separately, typically using the sqlalchemy[asyncio] target. This change also supports Python free threading, as greenlet as of this writing is not yet compatible with free-threaded Python builds

SQLAlchemy 2.1 includes over 90 individual documented changes, so be sure to check out not just the What's New in SQLAlchemy 2.1? migration guide, but the detailed changelog at Changelog as well.

SQLAlchemy 2.1.0b1 by naming convention is a beta release, so only installs with pip if the --pre flag is included. Links to pypi for SQLAlchemy 2.1.0b1 are available on the Download Page.