---
title: What is AutoML? | Databricks on AWS
source: https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/
ingestedAt: "2026-06-18T08:09:20.082Z"
---

AutoML simplifies the process of applying machine learning to your datasets by automatically finding the best algorithm and hyperparameter configuration for you.

note

In Databricks Runtime 18.0 ML or above, AutoML is not included as a built-in library.

## How does AutoML work?[​](#how-does-automl-work "Direct link to how-does-automl-work")

Provide your dataset and specify the type of machine learning problem, then AutoML does the following:

1.  Cleans and prepares your data.
2.  Orchestrates distributed model training and hyperparameter tuning across multiple algorithms.
3.  Finds the best model using open source evaluation algorithms from scikit-learn, xgboost, LightGBM, Prophet, and ARIMA.
4.  Presents the results. AutoML also [generates source code notebooks](#notebook-generation) for each trial, allowing you to review, reproduce, and modify the code as needed.

Get started with AutoML experiments through a low-code UI for [regression](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/regression); [classification](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/classification); or [forecasting](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/forecasting), or the [Python API](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/regression-train-api).

## Requirements[​](#requirements "Direct link to requirements")

*   AutoML depends on the `databricks-automl-runtime` package, which contains components that are useful outside of AutoML and also helps simplify the notebooks generated by AutoML training. `databricks-automl-runtime` is available on [PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/databricks-automl-runtime/).
    
*   No additional libraries other than those preinstalled in Databricks Runtime for Machine Learning should be installed on the cluster.
    
    *   Any modification (removal, upgrades, or downgrades) to existing library versions results in run failures due to incompatibility.
*   To access files in your workspace, you must have network ports 1017 and 1021 open for AutoML experiments. To open these ports or confirm they are open, review your cloud VPN firewall configuration and security group rules or contact your local cloud administrator. For additional information on workspace configuration and deployment, see [Create a workspace](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/admin/workspace/).
    
*   Use a compute resource with a supported [compute access mode](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/compute/configure#access-mode). Not all compute access modes have access to the Unity Catalog:
    

## AutoML algorithms[​](#automl-algorithms "Direct link to automl-algorithms")

AutoML trains and evaluates models based on the algorithms in the following table.

note

For classification and regression models, the decision tree, random forests, logistic regression, and linear regression with stochastic gradient descent algorithms are based on scikit-learn.

## Trial notebook generation[​](#trial-notebook-generation "Direct link to trial-notebook-generation")

Classic compute AutoML generates notebooks of the source code behind trials so you can review, reproduce, and modify the code as needed.

For forecasting experiments, AutoML-generated notebooks are automatically imported to your workspace for all trials of your experiment.

For classification and regression experiments, AutoML-generated notebooks for data exploration and the best trial in your experiment are automatically imported to your workspace. Generated notebooks for other experiment trials are saved as MLflow artifacts on DBFS instead of auto-imported into your workspace. For all trials besides the best trial, the `notebook_path` and `notebook_url` in the `TrialInfo` Python API are not set. If you need to use these notebooks, you can manually import them into your workspace with the AutoML experiment UI or the `databricks.automl.import_notebook` [Python API](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/automl-api-reference#import-notebook).

If you only use the data exploration notebook or best trial notebook generated by AutoML, the **Source** column in the AutoML experiment UI contains the link to the generated notebook for the best trial.

If you use other generated notebooks in the AutoML experiment UI, these are not automatically imported into the workspace. You can find the notebooks by clicking into each MLflow run. The IPython notebook is saved in the **Artifacts** section of the run page. You can download this notebook and import it into the workspace, if downloading artifacts is enabled by your workspace administrators.

## Shapley values (SHAP) for model explainability[​](#shapley-values-shap-for-model-explainability "Direct link to Shapley values (SHAP) for model explainability")

note

For MLR 11.1 and below, SHAP plots are not generated if the dataset contains a `datetime` column.

The notebooks produced by AutoML regression and classification runs include code to calculate [Shapley values](https://shap.readthedocs.io/en/latest/example_notebooks/overviews/An%20introduction%20to%20explainable%20AI%20with%20Shapley%20values.html#). Shapley values are based in game theory and estimate the importance of each feature to a model's predictions.

AutoML notebooks calculate Shapley values using the [SHAP package](https://shap.readthedocs.io/en/latest/overviews.html). Because these calculations are highly memory-intensive, the calculations are not performed by default.

To calculate and display Shapley values:

1.  Go to the **Feature importance** section in an AutoML-generated trial notebook.
2.  Set `shap_enabled = True`.
3.  Re-run the notebook.

## Next steps[​](#next-steps "Direct link to Next steps")

*   [Regression](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/regression)
*   [Classification](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/classification)
*   [Forecasting (serverless)](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/train-model/serverless-forecasting)
*   [Forecasting](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/forecasting)
*   [Feature store integration](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/feature-store-integration)
*   [AutoML Python API reference](https://docs.databricks.com/aws/en/machine-learning/automl/automl-api-reference)
