dbt-native

Altimate AI vs dbt Wizard

Altimate Code beat dbt's agent on dbt's own benchmark, works across multiple platforms and tools, and is open source with free tokens to get started.

ADE-Bench score

Altimate AI

78%

dbt Wizard

59%

TL;DR

dbt Wizard is dbt Labs' AI agent, still in preview or beta on every surface as of August 2026, with billing docs that say pricing and usage are subject to change. On the public ADE-Bench leaderboard, Altimate Code leads at 78% while dbt Labs' agent posted 59%. Altimate Code is MIT-licensed, generally available, works with dbt Core and dbt Cloud without a paid-plan gate, and adds the warehouse cost layer Wizard does not have. Beyond dbt authoring, Altimate Code works across multiple platforms and tools — warehouses, BI, and cost — and stays free to start: it is open source with a free managed-token tier or your own LLM, where dbt Wizard's managed usage is plan-gated and its terminal bills tokens through your own AI provider.

Side by side

Capability comparison

Every capability, grouped by area.

CapabilityAltimatedbt Wizard
AI Coding Agent
BYO LLM, including self-hosted / local models
Enterprise / CLI only
Self-validation against the warehouse
Deterministic Rust validation core
Plan mode before applying changes
Custom skills encoding team conventions
Features
ADE-Bench score (public leaderboard)
78%
59% (76% self-graded, different cut)
General availability
GA
Preview / beta (Aug 2026)
MIT-licensed open source
Works without a paid platform plan
CLI only
Works beyond dbt — Airflow, E/L tools, BI, stored procedures
VS Code surface
Terminal CLI
Plugin for Claude Code and Codex
Pre-execution cost estimate on new SQL
Debug and fix dbt Cloud job runs

5 reasons

Where Altimate wins

78% vs 59% on the public ADE-Bench leaderboard

On dbt's own benchmark, Altimate Code leads at 78% while dbt's agent posted 59%; dbt's 76% is self-graded on a different, non-public set.

GA today vs preview on every surface

As of July 2026 Wizard is still preview or beta everywhere with pricing 'subject to change,' while Altimate Code is GA, MIT-licensed, and openly priced.

VS Code, where the engineers already are

Wizard has no VS Code surface, while Altimate owns it with dbt Power User at 460K+ installs, plus Altimate Code in the terminal, Cursor, and Copilot.

BYO LLM without asterisks

Wizard gates platform BYOK to Enterprise, blocks Claude subscriptions, and routes embeddings through its own OpenAI key, while Altimate's BYO LLM is unconditional across 10+ providers.

The cost layer dbt does not have

Wizard has no warehouse cost or FinOps capability, while Altimate estimates SQL cost at 85% accuracy and auto-tunes 10-20% off Snowflake compute.

Straight answer

Where dbt Wizard wins

Native metadata engine inside the dbt platform

Wizard grounds itself in dbt's lineage, tests, contracts, and run results and validates its own SQL, needing zero setup for teams deep in dbt Cloud.

The default choice inside a dbt Cloud renewal

For teams on paid dbt plans, Wizard arrives inside the existing contract, making it one renewal line item rather than a new vendor conversation.

What it costs

Pricing

Altimate Code

Free

MIT-licensed · BYO LLM · no lock-in

Or use our Model via Model Gateway:

Sign up free — 10M tokens

$29/month — 20M tokens

dbt Wizard

Paid dbt plans

Managed usage metered by actions; the terminal is bring-your-own-key.

dbt Wizard's managed usage requires a paid dbt plan (not the Developer plan) and is metered by actions; the Wizard terminal is free but bring-your-own-key, so you pay your AI provider directly. Altimate Code is MIT-licensed and free with BYO LLM keys, or the Model Gateway with a free 10M-token tier and $29/month for 20M tokens.

See full Altimate pricing →

Common questions

Frequently asked

Is dbt Wizard generally available?

No. As of July 2026, the Studio IDE surface is in public preview and the platform tab and terminal CLI are in public beta, all launched June 1, 2026 at Snowflake Summit. dbt Copilot stays available until Wizard goes GA, with a migration path and billing bridge. Altimate Code is GA and MIT-licensed today.

How do Altimate Code and dbt Wizard compare on ADE-Bench?

On the public ADE-Bench leaderboard, Altimate Code leads at 78% and dbt Labs' agent posted 59%. dbt's June 2026 blog quotes 76%, but that score is self-graded on a different 75-task set that is not the public leaderboard cut. The public numbers are verifiable at altimate.ai/benchmarks/ade-bench.

Does dbt Wizard work in VS Code?

No. Wizard runs in dbt's Studio IDE, the platform home tab, and a terminal CLI. The dbt VS Code extension's agentic story is a Fusion migration that runs in third-party agents like Copilot or Cursor. Altimate's dbt Power User extension has 460K+ VS Code installs, and Altimate Code runs in the terminal and embeds into Cursor, Copilot, and Claude Code.

Can I bring my own LLM to dbt Wizard?

With caveats. The CLI supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, Bedrock, Gemini, Snowflake Cortex, and Databricks Unity AI Gateway, but platform BYOK is Enterprise-only, Claude subscription licenses are not supported, and embeddings still route through dbt's managed OpenAI key. Altimate's BYO LLM has no such conditions and includes self-hosted models.

What does dbt Wizard cost?

Platform access requires a paid Starter, Enterprise, or Enterprise+ plan, metered in dbt Copilot actions (100, 5,000, and 10,000 per month respectively, with access cut off until the next cycle when exhausted). Wizard gets separate metering after July 13, 2026, and dbt's docs say pricing and usage are subject to change. The CLI is free but you pay your AI provider directly. Altimate Code is MIT-licensed free; Pro is $29/seat/month with 20M tokens included.

Does dbt Wizard help with warehouse costs?

No. There is no warehouse spend, query cost, or FinOps capability anywhere in Wizard's docs or marketing. Altimate pairs the coding agent with pre-execution cost estimates at 85% accuracy, Auto Tune savings of 10-20% on Snowflake compute, and cost attribution across teams and workloads.

Ready to try Altimate Code?

MIT-licensed. Free to install.
Install via npm in a few seconds.

No credit card. No vendor lock-in. Bring your own LLM.

← All comparisons