Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on Windows

Download ODBC driver

The Microsoft ODBC Drivers for SQL Server are stand-alone ODBC drivers which provide an application programming interface (API) implementing the standard ODBC interfaces to Microsoft SQL Server.

The Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server can be used to create new applications. You can also upgrade your older applications which currently use an older ODBC driver. The ODBC Driver for SQL Server supports connections to Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, and SQL Server.

Summary

Version	Features Supported
Microsoft ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server	Support for TDS 8.0 Extensions to SQLGetData Option to send SQL_LONG_* types as (max)-types
Microsoft ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server	Always Encrypted support for BCP API New connection string attribute UseFMTONLY causes driver to use legacy metadata in special cases requiring temp tables
Microsoft ODBC Driver 13.1 for SQL Server	Always Encrypted Microsoft Entra authentication Always On Availability Groups (AG)
Microsoft ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server	Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)
Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server	Driver-Aware Connection Pooling Connection Resiliency Asynchronous execution (Polling Method)

Documentation

This documentation for the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server includes:

• Release Notes for ODBC to SQL Server on Windows
• Features of the Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server on Windows
• System Requirements, Installation, and Driver Files
• Driver-Aware Connection Pooling in the ODBC Driver for SQL Server
• Asynchronous Execution (Notification Method) Sample
• Connection Resiliency in the Windows ODBC Driver
• Using Always Encrypted with the ODBC Driver
• Using Microsoft Entra ID with the ODBC Driver
• Using Transparent Network IP Resolution

Community

• SQL Server Drivers blog

Related content

• Building Applications with SQL Server Native Client
• SQL Server Native Client FAQ
• ODBC Programmer's Reference
• SQL Server Native Client (ODBC)