Connecting to Azure SQL Database

Starting with version 2.1.1 pymssql can be used to connect to Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

Make sure the following requirements are met:

  • Use FreeTDS 0.91 or newer
  • Use TDS protocol 7.1 or newer
  • Make sure FreeTDS is built with SSL support
  • Specify the database name you are connecting to in the database parameter of the relevant connect() call
  • IMPORTANT: Do not use for the user parameter of the relevant connect() call! You must use the shorter username@server form instead!


pymssql.connect("", "username@xxx", "password", "db_name")

or, if you’ve defined myalias in the freetds.conf FreeTDS config file:

host =
tds version = 7.1

then you could use:

pymssql.connect("myalias", "username@xxx", "password", "db_name")