How to Enable Enterprise Edition in Snowflake

What is Snowflake Enterprise Edition and how do I use its features?

Enterprise Edition unlocks Time Travel up to 90 days, Fail-safe, and extra governance options for Snowflake accounts.

Welcome to the Galaxy, Guardian!

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Description

What is Snowflake Enterprise Edition used for?

Enterprise Edition adds long-term Time Travel, Fail-safe, access-control features, and better resource governance. Teams choose it when they need point-in-time recovery beyond one day, stricter security, and compliance guarantees.

How do I check which edition my account runs?

Run SELECT CURRENT_ACCOUNT(), CURRENT_REGION(), EDITION; from ACCOUNT_USAGE.ORGANIZATION_INFORMATION. If the EDITION column shows ENTERPRISE, features are already available; otherwise request an upgrade.

Can I upgrade through SQL?

No. Edition changes happen through Snowflake Support or your account team. After the upgrade, Enterprise-only parameters become configurable through SQL DDL.

How to enable Enterprise-only Time Travel?

Step 1 — Set database retention period

Enterprise lets you keep historical data up to 90 days. Execute:
ALTER DATABASE ecommerce SET DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 30;

Step 2 — Verify retention

Query SHOW PARAMETERS IN DATABASE ecommerce LIKE 'DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS'; to confirm. Attempting the same on Standard edition returns an error.

How to create a table with long Time Travel?

Specify the retention clause during table creation. Enterprise supports 1-90 days; Standard limits to 1.

How to recover dropped data with Enterprise?

Use UNDROP DATABASE|SCHEMA|TABLE within the configured Time Travel window. After that, a 7-day Fail-safe period still allows Snowflake Support to restore data.

How to control costs while using Enterprise?

Longer retention increases storage costs. Periodically run SELECT table_name, retained_for_time_travel...FROM snowflake.account_usage.table_storage_metrics; and down-tune retention on low-value objects.

Which other features unlock?

Enterprise allows reader accounts, multi-cluster warehouses, and network policies. Configure them with CREATE NETWORK POLICY or ALTER WAREHOUSE … MAX_CLUSTER_COUNT.

Best practices for Enterprise Edition

• Set database-level retention instead of table-level for consistency.
• Review storage bills monthly.
• Automate DELETE/TRUNCATE instead of dropping objects when possible, preserving history.

Why How to Enable Enterprise Edition in Snowflake is important

How to Enable Enterprise Edition in Snowflake Example Usage


-- Restore an Orders row accidentally deleted yesterday
SELECT *
FROM Orders AT (TIMESTAMP => DATEADD('day', -1, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()))
WHERE id = 1042;

How to Enable Enterprise Edition in Snowflake Syntax


-- Database-level retention (Enterprise only)
ALTER DATABASE ecommerce
  SET DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 30;

-- Table with 60-day Time Travel
CREATE TABLE Orders (
    id            INT,
    customer_id   INT,
    order_date    DATE,
    total_amount  NUMERIC(12,2)
) DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS = 60;

-- Recover a dropped table within Time Travel
UNDROP TABLE Orders;

-- Fail-safe recovery (Support-initiated) happens after Time Travel expires

Common Mistakes

Setting DATA_RETENTION_TIME_IN_DAYS above 1 on Standard edition causes error 3914. Fix by upgrading or lowering the value to 1.
Ignoring increased storage costs when raising retention leads to bill shock. Monitor ACCOUNT_USAGE.TABLE_STORAGE_METRICS monthly and adjust.