In-process & embedded engines · ClickHouse, Inc. (open-source project)
clickhouse-local
Single-binary command-line tool that runs ClickHouse's query engine locally over files, without installing a server.
clickhouse-local is a command-line utility, bundled with ClickHouse, that runs the full ClickHouse SQL engine as a single standalone binary against local or remote files, without setting up a ClickHouse server, cluster, or persistent database. It reads and writes formats including CSV, Parquet, JSON, ORC, and Arrow directly from disk or object storage (S3, HTTP), applying the same vectorized, columnar execution engine and SQL dialect as ClickHouse Server, so queries and functions behave identically. It is typically used for one-off analytical queries, log or file transformation, format conversion, and ad hoc data exploration in scripts and shell pipelines where standing up a database is unnecessary overhead. Because it is part of the open-source ClickHouse distribution, it has no separate license or pricing of its own.
At a glance
| Vendor | ClickHouse, Inc. (open-source project) |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Open source + paid options |
| Free tier | Yes |
| Deployment | Self-hosted |
| Open source | Yes (Apache-2.0) |
| Best for | Engineers wanting fast, one-off SQL analytics or format conversion over files without running a database server. |
Pricing
Free and open source as part of the ClickHouse distribution; no separate pricing or license.
Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site.
Features
- Single-binary CLI, no server or cluster to install
- Full ClickHouse SQL dialect and function library
- Direct querying of CSV, Parquet, JSON, ORC, and Arrow files
- Reads from local disk, HTTP, and S3-compatible object storage
- Vectorized, multi-threaded columnar execution
- Format conversion between supported file types
- Scriptable for shell pipelines and ad hoc log analysis
Integrations
Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026