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01
Understanding Snowflake Pricing
Snowflake charges for compute (credits based on warehouse size and runtime) and storage ($23/TB/month for on-demand). Compute is typically 80% of the bill. A medium warehouse (4 credits/hour) running 8 hours/day costs ~$1,500/month. Most overspending comes from oversized warehouses and long-running queries.
02
Warehouse Sizing Strategy
Start small (XS or S) and scale up only if query performance is unacceptable. Use multi-cluster warehouses for concurrent workloads instead of oversizing single warehouses. Set auto-suspend to 60 seconds (not the default 600). Create separate warehouses for different workloads (ETL, BI, ad-hoc).
03
Query Optimization
Use Snowflake's Query Profile to identify bottlenecks. Avoid SELECT * — columnar storage means fewer columns = less cost. Use LIMIT for exploratory queries. Leverage result caching (no-cost re-runs within 24 hours). Use clustering keys for large tables (>1TB) to improve pruning.
04
Resource Monitors
Set resource monitors at account and warehouse levels. Configure alerts at 75% and hard stops at 100% of monthly credit budgets. Monitor per-user and per-query credit consumption. Audit warehouse usage weekly to find idle warehouses.
05
How Cloptima Will Help
Cloptima's Snowflake cost optimization (coming soon) will analyze query patterns, identify expensive warehouses, recommend right-sized configurations, and provide AI-powered query suggestions — the same approach we use for BigQuery optimization today.