Nov 21, 2025: External query engine support for Apache Iceberg™ tables with Snowflake Horizon Catalog (Preview)¶

You can now query Snowflake-managed Apache Iceberg™ tables by using any external query engine that supports the open Iceberg REST protocol, such as Apache Spark™. To ensure this interoperability with external engines, Apache Polaris™ (incubating) is integrated into Horizon Catalog. You can query these tables in a Snowflake account by using a single Horizon Catalog endpoint and you can use your existing users, roles, policies, and authentication in Snowflake.

For more information, see Query Apache Iceberg™ tables with an external engine through Snowflake Horizon Catalog.