diff --git a/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst b/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst
index d6a00022efb79..fa834552585d1 100644
--- a/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst
+++ b/doc/source/user_guide/io.rst
@@ -5785,21 +5785,6 @@ Specifying this will return an iterator through chunks of the query result:
     for chunk in pd.read_sql_query("SELECT * FROM data_chunks", engine, chunksize=5):
         print(chunk)
 
-You can also run a plain query without creating a ``DataFrame`` with
-:func:`~pandas.io.sql.execute`. This is useful for queries that don't return values,
-such as INSERT. This is functionally equivalent to calling ``execute`` on the
-SQLAlchemy engine or db connection object. Again, you must use the SQL syntax
-variant appropriate for your database.
-
-.. code-block:: python
-
-   from pandas.io import sql
-
-   sql.execute("SELECT * FROM table_name", engine)
-   sql.execute(
-       "INSERT INTO table_name VALUES(?, ?, ?)", engine, params=[("id", 1, 12.2, True)]
-   )
-
 
 Engine connection examples
 ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
diff --git a/pandas/io/sql.py b/pandas/io/sql.py
index e3510f71bd0cd..bccb582451032 100644
--- a/pandas/io/sql.py
+++ b/pandas/io/sql.py
@@ -169,9 +169,7 @@ def execute(sql, con, params=None):
     ----------
     sql : string
         SQL query to be executed.
-    con : SQLAlchemy connectable(engine/connection) or sqlite3 connection
-        Using SQLAlchemy makes it possible to use any DB supported by the
-        library.
+    con : SQLAlchemy connection or sqlite3 connection
         If a DBAPI2 object, only sqlite3 is supported.
     params : list or tuple, optional, default: None
         List of parameters to pass to execute method.
@@ -180,6 +178,10 @@ def execute(sql, con, params=None):
     -------
     Results Iterable
     """
+    sqlalchemy = import_optional_dependency("sqlalchemy", errors="ignore")
+
+    if sqlalchemy is not None and isinstance(con, (str, sqlalchemy.engine.Engine)):
+        raise TypeError("pandas.io.sql.execute requires a connection")  # GH50185
     with pandasSQL_builder(con, need_transaction=True) as pandas_sql:
         args = _convert_params(sql, params)
         return pandas_sql.execute(*args)
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_sql.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_sql.py
index 394fceb69b788..bbd9364475c2a 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_sql.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_sql.py
@@ -659,6 +659,11 @@ def psql_insert_copy(table, conn, keys, data_iter):
     tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
 
 
+def test_execute_typeerror(sqlite_iris_engine):
+    with pytest.raises(TypeError, match="pandas.io.sql.execute requires a connection"):
+        sql.execute("select * from iris", sqlite_iris_engine)
+
+
 class MixInBase:
     def teardown_method(self):
         # if setup fails, there may not be a connection to close.
@@ -952,7 +957,8 @@ def test_roundtrip_chunksize(self, test_frame1):
 
     def test_execute_sql(self):
         # drop_sql = "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS test"  # should already be done
-        iris_results = sql.execute("SELECT * FROM iris", con=self.conn)
+        with sql.pandasSQL_builder(self.conn) as pandas_sql:
+            iris_results = pandas_sql.execute("SELECT * FROM iris")
         row = iris_results.fetchone()
         tm.equalContents(row, [5.1, 3.5, 1.4, 0.2, "Iris-setosa"])
 
@@ -2692,7 +2698,8 @@ def format_query(sql, *args):
 
 def tquery(query, con=None):
     """Replace removed sql.tquery function"""
-    res = sql.execute(query, con=con).fetchall()
+    with sql.pandasSQL_builder(con) as pandas_sql:
+        res = pandas_sql.execute(query).fetchall()
     return None if res is None else list(res)
 
 
@@ -2757,7 +2764,8 @@ def test_execute(self, sqlite_buildin):
         ins = "INSERT INTO test VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)"
 
         row = frame.iloc[0]
-        sql.execute(ins, sqlite_buildin, params=tuple(row))
+        with sql.pandasSQL_builder(sqlite_buildin) as pandas_sql:
+            pandas_sql.execute(ins, tuple(row))
         sqlite_buildin.commit()
 
         result = sql.read_sql("select * from test", sqlite_buildin)
@@ -2792,11 +2800,12 @@ def test_execute_fail(self, sqlite_buildin):
         cur = sqlite_buildin.cursor()
         cur.execute(create_sql)
 
-        sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "bar", 1.234)', sqlite_buildin)
-        sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "baz", 2.567)', sqlite_buildin)
+        with sql.pandasSQL_builder(sqlite_buildin) as pandas_sql:
+            pandas_sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "bar", 1.234)')
+            pandas_sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "baz", 2.567)')
 
-        with pytest.raises(sql.DatabaseError, match="Execution failed on sql"):
-            sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "bar", 7)', sqlite_buildin)
+            with pytest.raises(sql.DatabaseError, match="Execution failed on sql"):
+                pandas_sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "bar", 7)')
 
     def test_execute_closed_connection(self):
         create_sql = """
@@ -2812,7 +2821,8 @@ def test_execute_closed_connection(self):
             cur = conn.cursor()
             cur.execute(create_sql)
 
-            sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "bar", 1.234)', conn)
+            with sql.pandasSQL_builder(conn) as pandas_sql:
+                pandas_sql.execute('INSERT INTO test VALUES("foo", "bar", 1.234)')
 
         msg = "Cannot operate on a closed database."
         with pytest.raises(sqlite3.ProgrammingError, match=msg):