dbt Incremental Models Documentation (2026)

Official dbt documentation for incremental models — transforms only new/updated rows on subsequent runs, reducing compute cost versus full rebuilds. Supports on_schema_change config (sync_all_columns) and unique key definitions for upsert semantics.

docs.getdbt.com — view original source

confidence 85%v1published 2026indexed May 19, 2026dbt, incremental, data-transformation, delta-load, vendor-doc, curriculum

dbt Incremental Models Documentation (2026)

Official dbt documentation for incremental models — last updated May 18, 2026.

Key facts surfaced (2026-05-19):

Transforms only new or updated rows on subsequent runs versus reprocessing all source data.
on_schema_change: sync_all_columns automatically adds or removes columns without full refreshes.
Unique key definitions enable upsert semantics for idempotent processing.
Significantly reduces runtime and compute cost for large, frequently-updated datasets.
Curriculum reference: composable CDP equivalent of AEP delta field for incremental dataset updates (Module 12).