Native integration

Connect MySQL to clariBI

Turn your MySQL or MariaDB tables into live AI dashboards. Ask questions in plain English and let clariBI's AI engine do the rest.

No SQL skills required. No data exports. Your database, your questions, your answers.

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What is MySQL?

MySQL is the world's most widely deployed open-source relational database management system. Originally developed in the mid-1990s, it now powers a vast share of web applications, e-commerce platforms, SaaS products, and enterprise systems worldwide. MySQL is part of the LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl) that defined a generation of web development.

MariaDB, a community-developed fork of MySQL, maintains full wire-level compatibility, meaning clariBI's MySQL connector works seamlessly with MariaDB installations as well. Both databases use the same connection protocol, the same port (3306 by default), and largely the same SQL dialect.

MySQL databases are commonly found hosting transactional data: customer orders, product catalogs, user accounts, inventory records, CRM data, financial transactions, and application event logs. This makes MySQL a natural fit for business intelligence because the data that matters most to your business is likely already living inside a MySQL instance.

clariBI connects to MySQL using the PyMySQL driver via SQLAlchemy (connection string format: mysql+pymysql). This pure-Python driver requires no native client libraries on your end. clariBI manages the entire connection layer, including a persistent connection pool (pool size 5, max overflow 10, connections recycled every hour) to ensure fast, reliable query performance without overwhelming your database server.

Learn more about MySQL at mysql.com →

How to connect MySQL in 5 steps

The whole setup takes about two minutes. You'll need your database host, port, name, username, and password ready.

Open Data Sources

Log in to clariBI and navigate to Data Sources from the left sidebar. Click Add Data Source to open the connector gallery.

Choose MySQL

Find MySQL in the database section of the connector gallery. The same connector works for MariaDB - just select MySQL and enter your MariaDB connection details.

Enter your connection details

Fill in the five required fields:

Host - your database server hostname or IP address (e.g. db.mycompany.com or 127.0.0.1)
Port - default is 3306; change only if your server uses a custom port
Database - the name of the specific database/schema to connect to
Username - the MySQL user account clariBI will use to run queries
Password - encrypted with Fernet symmetric encryption immediately on submission

Test and save

Click Test Connection. clariBI attempts a live connection, validates credentials, and introspects your schema to discover available tables and columns. Once the test passes, click Save. If the test fails, clariBI reports the exact error (authentication failure, host unreachable, wrong database name) so you can fix it quickly.

Start asking questions

Your MySQL database is now available as a data source across clariBI. Go to Conversational Analytics and type a question like "What were my top 10 products by revenue last quarter?" or "Show me daily new users over the past 6 months." clariBI's AI engine generates the query, runs it against your database, and renders an interactive chart, all in seconds.

What you can analyze

clariBI's AI engine can interpret and visualize virtually any structured data in your MySQL database.

Any table, view, or stored query, addressed in plain English without SQL
Multi-table joins across orders, customers, products and more
MySQL 5.7, MySQL 8.x, and all current MariaDB versions
Time-series and trend analysis with daily, weekly, monthly aggregations with automatic date handling
440+ pre-built analysis templates across 30 business categories (sales, finance, e-commerce, SaaS, and more)
Filtered and segmented analysis: drill down by region, product line, user cohort, or any column dimension
AI-recommended chart types (bar, line, pie, scatter, funnel, and more) chosen automatically
Cross-source dashboards that blend MySQL data with Google Ads, Meta Ads, Jira, uploaded CSV files, and other connected sources

Connection details

Everything your DBA or IT team needs to know about how clariBI connects to MySQL.

Default port	`3306`
Driver	PyMySQL via SQLAlchemy (`mysql+pymysql`)
Authentication	Username and password (MySQL native auth)
Required fields	Host, port, database name, username, password
Credential storage	Fernet symmetric encryption, encrypted at rest
Connection pooling	Pool size 5, max overflow 10, connections recycled every 1 hour
Access model	Read-only recommended; per-table allow and exclude lists supported
Compatible databases	MySQL 5.7, MySQL 8.x, MariaDB 10.x and later

Common MySQL use cases

clariBI is used to analyze MySQL data across dozens of industries and business functions. Here are six of the most common patterns.

E-commerce analytics

MySQL is the backbone of most WooCommerce, Magento, and custom e-commerce platforms. Connect your orders, products, and customer tables to track revenue trends, basket sizes, return rates, top SKUs, and customer lifetime value, all without writing a single SQL query.

SaaS product metrics

Most SaaS applications store user events, subscriptions, and billing records in MySQL. clariBI can compute MRR, churn rate, daily active users, feature adoption, trial conversion, and cohort retention directly from your application database. The same data your app uses, surfaced as business intelligence.

CRM and sales reporting

Whether your CRM data lives in a custom MySQL schema or exported into a MySQL warehouse, clariBI can build pipeline reports, win-rate analysis, rep performance dashboards, and forecast summaries. Ask "Which sales reps closed the most deals last month?" and get an instant chart.

Inventory and supply chain

Retail and manufacturing businesses storing inventory, purchase orders, and supplier data in MySQL can use clariBI to monitor stock levels, identify slow-moving items, track reorder points, and analyze supplier lead times, turning raw inventory tables into operational intelligence.

Financial transaction analysis

Finance teams with transaction logs, payment records, or accounting data in MySQL can use clariBI to produce revenue breakdowns, expense categorization, cash flow trends, and period-over-period comparisons. Scheduled reports can be emailed automatically to stakeholders each week.

Application performance monitoring

Development and operations teams that log application events, errors, or performance metrics into MySQL can query that data through clariBI to spot anomalies, track error rates over time, and visualize deployment impacts on key user behavior metrics without a dedicated monitoring tool needed.

Security & requirements

clariBI takes data security seriously. Here is everything you need to know before connecting your MySQL instance.

Credential security

Your MySQL username and password are encrypted using Fernet symmetric encryption before being stored. Credentials are never logged, never exposed in API responses, and never transmitted unencrypted. We recommend creating a dedicated, read-only MySQL user for clariBI with access limited to only the tables you want to analyze.

Network access

Your MySQL server must be reachable from clariBI's servers on port 3306 (or your custom port). For databases behind a firewall, you can whitelist clariBI's egress IP addresses. If your database is on a private VPC, consider using an SSH tunnel or a database proxy that exposes a public endpoint. Contact our support team for specific IP allowlist addresses.

SSL & encryption in transit

clariBI supports SSL/TLS-encrypted connections to MySQL. If your MySQL server requires SSL, enable the SSL option in the connection setup form. All traffic between clariBI's servers and your database is encrypted in transit. clariBI itself is served over HTTPS with TLS 1.2 and 1.3.

Recommended MySQL permissions

Grant clariBI's user only SELECT privileges on the specific tables you want to analyze. A typical grant statement looks like: GRANT SELECT ON mydb.orders TO 'claribi_user'@'%';. This ensures clariBI can read data but cannot modify, delete, or write anything to your database.

Pricing & availability

The MySQL integration is included on all paid plans and on the free 14-day trial. No extra fee, no add-on required.

Trial

Free

14 days

MySQL integration included
Up to 3 data sources
50 AI credits
No credit card required

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Connect MySQL in under 2 minutes

Start your free 14-day trial. No credit card required. Your MySQL database connected, your first dashboard live, your first question answered. All today.

Includes 50 AI credits, 3 data sources, and full access to all 440+ analysis templates.

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