Marillo Review (2026): Pricing, Features & Honest Verdict

TLDR

Marillo is an AI SQL assistant that turns plain-English questions into real queries, charts, and CSV exports across PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. It works, and the access controls are smart, but the token pricing and three-database limit cap its reach. Best for: small teams querying a single relational database. Price: Free plan, then token-based paid usage. Rating: 6.7/10.

What is Marillo?

Marillo is a natural-language layer that sits on top of your relational database. You connect a database, ask a question like “how many orders shipped late last month,” and Marillo writes the SQL, runs it, and hands back a table, a CSV, or a chart. The point is to let people who cannot write SQL get answers without waiting on an analyst or engineer.

The product is built by Alzulejos and supports PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. It runs on a token model: each query spends tokens, and you can buy more or subscribe for a discount. We dug into how it positions itself, and the pitch is squarely self-service analytics for small teams who have a database but not a data team. That is a crowded space, but Marillo’s access controls give it a slightly different angle than the generic text-to-SQL crowd.

The context matters here. Every company now sits on more data than it can read, and the bottleneck is usually the one person who knows SQL. When they are busy, everyone else waits, or exports a rough CSV and guesses. Tools like Marillo exist to break that bottleneck by letting anyone ask a question directly. The wave of large-language-model quality over the last two years is what makes this practical now, because the generated SQL is finally accurate enough to trust for everyday questions. Marillo is one of many trying to own that moment, and it is betting on safety and simplicity rather than raw database coverage.

What Are Marillo’s Key Features?

Plain-English querying

The core feature is asking questions in normal language and getting back SQL that actually runs. Marillo interprets your intent against the connected schema and generates the query, so you see both the answer and, when you want it, the SQL behind it. For anyone who knows what they want but not how to join three tables to get it, this is the whole value proposition. Seeing the generated SQL is not just a nicety either. It lets someone who does know SQL sanity-check the query before trusting the number, which is how you catch the AI quietly counting the wrong thing. That transparency is what separates a serious tool from a black box that spits out a figure and hopes you believe it.

Table and column access controls

This is the feature we found most interesting. You define exactly which tables and columns Marillo is allowed to touch. That does two things: it keeps sensitive columns out of reach, and it improves accuracy by narrowing what the model has to reason about. Most cheap text-to-SQL tools skip this, so it is a real point in Marillo’s favor for anyone nervous about pointing an AI at a production database.

Charts and CSV export

Query results are not just raw rows. Marillo can turn a result set into a chart to spot a trend quickly, and it generates clean CSV tables you can drop into a spreadsheet or share. It is not a full BI suite with dashboards you pin and schedule, but for ad-hoc questions the visual output is enough to see what is going on.

Token-based usage

Every query consumes tokens. The free plan ships with 20, and you buy more as you go, with subscriber discounts of 20 to 50 percent. This keeps the entry cost at zero, but it also means exploratory work, where you ask ten follow-up questions to chase a number, burns through your balance faster than a flat monthly plan would. The upside of the model is that light users never pay for capacity they do not use, and a subscriber discount softens the blow for regulars. The downside is psychological as much as financial: watching a token counter tick down changes how freely people explore, and free exploration is exactly how you stumble onto the insight you were not looking for. We would rather see a flat option alongside the tokens for teams that query daily.

How Much Does Marillo Cost?

Marillo starts at free. The €0/mo plan gives you one database connection, 20 tokens, and 24-hour chat history, which is enough to connect a real database and see whether the answers hold up. Past that, you buy tokens, and subscribers get 20 to 50 percent off top-ups. There is also an Enterprise tier with custom pricing for high-volume users who need dedicated support.

Compared to flat-rate rivals, the math is a mixed bag. Text2SQL.ai runs about $19/mo for unlimited AI queries and broader database support. AI2SQL starts around $9/mo. Chat2DB is open-source and free if you self-host. Marillo’s free tier undercuts all of them for light use, but its token model makes sustained or heavy querying harder to predict than a fixed monthly bill.

Our take: the pricing is fair for someone who runs a handful of queries a week, and the Enterprise option covers the top end. The awkward middle is the team that queries constantly but is not big enough for a sales conversation. For them, a flat $19/mo competitor may work out cheaper and calmer. It is worth doing the arithmetic before you commit. Estimate how many questions your team really asks in a busy week, price the token top-ups against that, and compare the total to a flat-rate rival. If your usage is spiky, low most weeks with the occasional deep dive, the token model wins. If it is steady and high, it probably does not.

Who is Marillo Best For?

Use Marillo if you run a PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MariaDB database and have people who need answers but cannot write SQL. Founders, ops managers, and analysts at small companies are the sweet spot. The access controls also make it a sensible pick if you want to hand out query access without handing out the keys to every table.

Skip Marillo if your data lives in a cloud warehouse like Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, or in SQL Server, because none of those are supported. Skip it too if your team queries all day long, since the token model will either nag you or add up. Heavy, constant users are better served by a flat-rate tool or a proper BI platform.

Best Marillo Alternatives

Text2SQL.ai

Text2SQL.ai is the mainstream pick at around $19/mo billed annually, with unlimited AI queries, multi-database support, and API access. It covers more database engines than Marillo and swaps the token model for a flat rate, which suits people who query often. It leans more toward generating SQL you paste elsewhere than being a connected assistant, so you lose some of Marillo’s live-database polish.

AI2SQL

AI2SQL is the budget option, starting around $9/mo with plans in the $4 to $17 range. It is a solid, cheap query generator with “explain” and “fix” helpers that teach you SQL as you go. Like Text2SQL.ai it is more generator than connected agent, and it lacks Marillo’s per-column access controls, but for pure cost it is hard to beat.

Chat2DB

Chat2DB is the open-source route. You can self-host it for free, which gives you full control over your data and no per-query billing, at the cost of running and maintaining the infrastructure yourself. It also adds team dashboards and access control. If you have the technical muscle and want to avoid token math entirely, Chat2DB is the option to weigh against Marillo.

Final Verdict: Is Marillo Worth It?

Marillo does the thing it promises. It turns plain English into working SQL, the access controls are a genuinely thoughtful touch, and the free tier lets you prove it out with zero risk. For a small team sitting on a PostgreSQL, MySQL, or MariaDB database with no analyst to spare, it is a reasonable way to open up self-service querying. The zero-risk trial is worth stressing: because you can connect a real database and ask real questions without paying, you can judge the accuracy on your own schema rather than trusting a marketing demo.

The reasons it lands at 6.7 rather than higher are real, though. Three supported databases is a narrow footprint, the token model makes heavy use unpredictable, and the product is young with little independent track record to lean on. Try the free plan, and if your data and query volume fit the box, keep going. If you need broader database support or query constantly, a flat-rate rival like Text2SQL.ai is the safer bet.