Is Snowflake Free? Understanding Snowflake’s Free Tier

Is Snowflake free?

Snowflake provides a perpetually free usage tier with monthly credit, storage, and feature limits; costs start once those caps are exceeded.

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Description

Is Snowflake completely free?

Snowflake is not 100% free for all workloads. It grants every new account a limited monthly allotment of compute credits and storage, marketed as the Free Usage Tier. Once you consume those credits or exceed storage quotas, on-demand pricing begins automatically.

What does the Snowflake Free Usage Tier include?

The tier supplies roughly US$400 in credits over the first 30 days plus ongoing free credits each month.You receive one X-Small warehouse, 10 GB of compressed storage, and access to core SQL features, secure data sharing, and Snowflake Marketplace.

How do I stay within the free limits?

Auto-suspend warehouses after short idle periods (e.g., 60 seconds), size down to X-Small, and drop unused databases.Continuously monitor credit consumption with ACCOUNT_USAGE views to avoid surprise charges.

How to check remaining free credits quickly?

Query the ORGANIZATION_USAGE view, filter by service_type = 'WAREHOUSE_METERING', and sum credits_used where date_part('month', usage_date) = date_part('month', current_date).

Can I use the free tier in production?

Use it only for development, proofs of concept, or light demos. Production workloads typically outgrow the free quotas, triggering paid usage.

Best practices for cost control

1) Keep warehouses small and transient. 2) Schedule resource monitors to suspend warehouses at credit thresholds.3) Compress and unload cold data to cloud object storage if idle longer than 90 days.

Why Is Snowflake Free? Understanding Snowflake’s Free Tier is important

Is Snowflake Free? Understanding Snowflake’s Free Tier Example Usage


-- Example: keep development analytics within free tier
-- 1. Spin up tiny warehouse
CREATE OR REPLACE WAREHOUSE analytics_free
  WITH WAREHOUSE_SIZE = XSMALL
  AUTO_SUSPEND = 60;

-- 2. Load small product catalog (10K rows) for demo
CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE products_demo AS
SELECT * FROM products LIMIT 10000;

-- 3. Query revenue by customer under 1 second compute
SELECT c.name, SUM(oi.quantity*p.price) AS lifetime_spend
FROM customers c
JOIN orders o  ON o.customer_id = c.id
JOIN orderitems oi ON oi.order_id = o.id
JOIN products p ON p.id = oi.product_id
GROUP BY c.name
ORDER BY lifetime_spend DESC
LIMIT 20;

Is Snowflake Free? Understanding Snowflake’s Free Tier Syntax


-- Create an X-Small warehouse that auto-suspends after 1 minute
CREATE WAREHOUSE dev_wh
  WITH WAREHOUSE_SIZE = XSMALL
  AUTO_SUSPEND = 60
  AUTO_RESUME = TRUE;

-- Monitor monthly credit usage in ACCOUNT_USAGE
SELECT
  SUM(credits_used) AS month_credits
FROM snowflake.organization_usage
WHERE service_type = 'WAREHOUSE_METERING'
  AND DATE_TRUNC('month', usage_date) = DATE_TRUNC('month', CURRENT_DATE);

Common Mistakes

Assuming free credits reset daily. They reset monthly—running large jobs early in the month can deplete the quota and trigger paid usage. Track credits with ACCOUNT_USAGE views.
Leaving warehouses running. Warehouses continue to consume credits while idle unless AUTO_SUSPEND is configured. Set AUTO_SUSPEND ≤ 60 seconds to avoid waste.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How long do free credits last?

Introductory US$400 credits expire after 30 days. Monthly recurring free credits renew on the first calendar day each month.

Does storage count against free credits?

Yes. The tier includes 10 GB compressed storage. Extra storage is billed per TB-month once you surpass the quota.

Can I disable billing completely?

No. You can set up resource monitors to suspend warehouses at credit thresholds, but a linked payment method is required and charges apply after limits.