diff --git a/docs/api/expressions/top_level.md b/docs/api/expressions/top_level.md
index 9b85ee04eee5..f2af4a282314 100644
--- a/docs/api/expressions/top_level.md
+++ b/docs/api/expressions/top_level.md
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ These methods and objects are available directly in the `ibis` module.
 ::: ibis.read_parquet
 ::: ibis.row_number
 ::: ibis.schema
+::: ibis.set_backend
 ::: ibis.struct
 ::: ibis.table
 ::: ibis.time
diff --git a/ibis/backends/tests/test_client.py b/ibis/backends/tests/test_client.py
index 48157f33e703..1217b6799761 100644
--- a/ibis/backends/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/ibis/backends/tests/test_client.py
@@ -878,6 +878,57 @@ def test_get_backend(con, alltypes, monkeypatch):
     assert ibis.get_backend(expr) is con
 
 
+def test_set_backend(con, monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(ibis.options, "default_backend", None)
+    ibis.set_backend(con)
+    assert ibis.get_backend() is con
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "name",
+    [
+        param("duckdb", marks=mark.duckdb, id="duckdb"),
+        param("polars", marks=mark.polars, id="polars"),
+        param("sqlite", marks=mark.sqlite, id="sqlite"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_set_backend_name(name, monkeypatch):
+    # Don't need to test with all backends, only checking that things are
+    # plumbed through correctly.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(ibis.options, "default_backend", None)
+    ibis.set_backend(name)
+    assert ibis.get_backend().name == name
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "url",
+    [
+        param(
+            "clickhouse://default@localhost:9000/ibis_testing",
+            marks=mark.clickhouse,
+            id="clickhouse",
+        ),
+        param(
+            "mysql://ibis:ibis@localhost:3306/ibis_testing",
+            marks=mark.mysql,
+            id="mysql",
+        ),
+        param(
+            "postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/ibis_testing",
+            marks=mark.postgres,
+            id="postgres",
+        ),
+    ],
+)
+def test_set_backend_url(url, monkeypatch):
+    # Don't need to test with all backends, only checking that things are
+    # plumbed through correctly.
+    monkeypatch.setattr(ibis.options, "default_backend", None)
+    name = url.split("://")[0]
+    ibis.set_backend(url)
+    assert ibis.get_backend().name == name
+
+
 @pytest.mark.notyet(
     [
         "bigquery",
diff --git a/ibis/expr/api.py b/ibis/expr/api.py
index ee333384113f..e3a05fce6f13 100644
--- a/ibis/expr/api.py
+++ b/ibis/expr/api.py
@@ -147,6 +147,7 @@
     'schema',
     'Schema',
     'sequence',
+    'set_backend',
     'show_sql',
     'to_sql',
     'struct',
@@ -871,6 +872,40 @@ def read_parquet(sources: str | Path, **kwargs: Any) -> ir.Table:
     return con.read_parquet(sources, **kwargs)
 
 
+def set_backend(backend: str | BaseBackend) -> None:
+    """Set the default Ibis backend.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    backend
+        May be a backend name or URL, or an existing backend instance.
+
+    Examples
+    --------
+    May pass the backend as a name:
+    >>> ibis.set_backend("polars")
+
+    Or as a URI:
+    >>> ibis.set_backend("postgres://user:password@hostname:5432")
+
+    Or as an existing backend instance:
+    >>> ibis.set_backend(ibis.duckdb.connect())
+    """
+    import ibis
+
+    if isinstance(backend, str) and backend.isidentifier():
+        try:
+            backend_type = getattr(ibis, backend)
+        except AttributeError:
+            pass
+        else:
+            backend = backend_type.connect()
+    if isinstance(backend, str):
+        backend = ibis.connect(backend)
+
+    ibis.options.default_backend = backend
+
+
 def get_backend(expr: Expr | None = None) -> BaseBackend:
     """Get the current Ibis backend to use for a given expression.