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Snowflake credit consumption

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This article is about how the Snowflake Service is metered and priced in Platform Credits, AI Credits and storage terabytes under the Service Consumption Table. It is not legal advice and does not replace the executed Order Form.

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Snowflake credit consumption is the metering model of the Snowflake Service, a cloud data platform sold as a consumption service rather than as seats or cores. Compute is billed in Platform Credits consumed while virtual warehouses and compute nodes run, serverless features in Compute-Hours multiplied by a feature multiplier, AI features in AI Credits, and storage in average terabytes per month. The rates are published in the Snowflake Service Consumption Table, effective 25 September 2026.[1] The customer contracts under the Snowflake Terms of Service and an Order Form, and buys either On Demand or Capacity.[2] For the general pattern of metered licensing, see Subscription and consumption licensing.

Editions

Snowflake sells four editions: Standard, Enterprise, Business Critical and Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS). The documentation says the edition “determines the unit costs for the credits and the data storage you use”, and that region and On Demand or Capacity purchase also affect unit costs.[3] VPS includes all Business Critical features in a completely separate Snowflake environment, isolated from all other Snowflake accounts.[8]

The edition does not change how many credits a warehouse burns. It changes the price of each credit. Table 2(a) lists the On Demand Platform Credit price by cloud provider, region and edition:[1]

Region (Table 2(a)) Standard Enterprise Business Critical VPS 
AWS US East (Northern Virginia) $2.00 $3.00 $4.00 $6.00 
AWS EU Frankfurt $2.60 $3.90 $5.20 $7.80 
Azure East US 2 (Virginia) $2.00 $3.00 $4.00 $6.00 

VPS is available only if an Order Form specifies it, and it carries a separate annual fee per deployment set in the Order Form.[1] Some features are edition-gated. For example, multi-cluster warehouses are an Enterprise Edition feature.[6]

Metrics

Five catalog rows cover the Snowflake units. Snowflake’s own definitions are in the linked rows and are not restated here.

Snowflake name Catalog row What it meters 
Platform Credit Platform Credit Virtual warehouses, SPCS and Postgres compute nodes, Openflow, Cloud Services. Order Forms that say “Snowflake Credits” or “Credits” mean Platform Credits.[1] 
Compute-Hour Compute-Hour Serverless Features: compute comparable to an XS warehouse for one hour.[1] 
AI Credit AI Credit Snowflake AI Features (Cortex), priced separately from Platform Credits.[1] 
Token Token The unit most AI Features bill on, as AI Credits per one million Tokens.[1] 
Storage (average terabytes per month) Storage (average terabytes per month) Customer Data stored in the account.[1] 

The documentation describes total cost as the sum of compute, storage and data transfer, and compute cost as credits consumed multiplied by the price of a credit.[5]

Counting / floors

Warehouse credits per hour. Table 1(a) sets Platform Credits per hour for a standard warehouse. Each size doubles the one before: XS 1, S 2, M 4, L 8, XL 16, 2XL 32, 3XL 64, 4XL 128, 5XL 256, 6XL 512. Gen 2 warehouses (Table 1(b)) cost 1.35 credits per hour at XS on AWS and GCP and 1.25 on Azure. Interactive Warehouses (Table 1(d)) cost 0.6 at XS. Rule: Standard warehouse Platform Credits per hour by size (XS 1 to 6XL 512), effective 2026-09-25.[1]

Minimums and per-second billing. Each start or resume consumes at least one minute of credits for a virtual warehouse or Postgres compute node, sixty minutes for an Interactive Warehouse and five minutes for other compute nodes. After that, billing is per second, rounded up to the next whole second. Rule: Per-second billing after a start/resume minimum (1 minute; 60 minutes Interactive; 5 minutes Compute Nodes), effective 2026-09-25.[1] The documentation adds that resizing to a larger warehouse also bills one minute of the added resources.[4]

Suspended and multi-cluster warehouses. A suspended warehouse uses no credits. A multi-cluster warehouse bills the size rate multiplied by the number of running clusters. Rule: Suspended warehouses use no credits; multi-cluster = size rate x running clusters, effective 2026-09-25.[1] Snowflake’s own example: a 3X-Large running one cluster for an hour and then two clusters for an hour bills 192 credits (64 + 128).[6]

Cloud Services. Cloud Services are charged at 4.4 Credits per hour of use. They are free on any day when they stay at or below 10% of that day’s virtual warehouse credits (the Cloud Services Adjustment). Serverless and SPCS usage does not count toward the adjustment. Capacity accounts pay for Cloud Services only if their Subscription Term started on or after 1 February 2020. VPS accounts pay for them only inside Serverless Features. Rule: Cloud Services 4.4 Credits per hour, free up to 10% of daily warehouse credits, effective 2026-09-25.[1] The documentation says the adjustment is calculated daily in UTC.[4]

Serverless Features. Snowflake-managed compute is billed at one Platform Credit per Compute-Hour multiplied by the Table 5 feature multiplier. Some features add Unit Charges. For example, Serverless Tasks use 0.9, Search Optimization Service and Materialized Views maintenance use 2, and Snowpipe costs 0.0037 Platform Credits per GB. Rule: Serverless Features: 1 Platform Credit per Compute-Hour x Table 5 multiplier, effective 2026-09-25.[1]

Storage. Storage is billed on the average terabytes per month of Customer Data, calculated from periodic snapshots and averaged over the calendar days of the month. Compressed data counts at its compressed size. In AWS US East (Northern Virginia), On Demand storage is $23.00 per TB per month. Capacity storage runs from $23.00 (Tier 1, ACV below $1,200,000) down to $13.80 (Tier 7, ACV $40,000,000 and above). Rule: Storage billed on average TB per month; On Demand $23.00 TB/mo (AWS US East), effective 2026-09-25.[1]

AI Features. AI Features bill at Table 6 rates. Where a price is listed per quantity, billing is proportional to the units used, not rounded to whole increments. The On Demand AI Credit price is $2.00 (Global) or $2.20 (Regional). Rule: AI Features billed in AI Credits, proportionally per unit, effective 2026-09-25.[1]

To build an effective license position for Snowflake, reconcile consumed credits and storage against the contracted Capacity balance, not against a deployment count. The cited documents publish no user or core entitlement to count.

Virtualization & partitioning

Not applicable. The Snowflake Service runs on Snowflake-managed infrastructure. The Service Consumption Table has no core factor, socket rule or hypervisor rule. The customer chooses a warehouse size or compute node instance family, and the credit rate follows from that choice.[1] Contrast per-core models in Processor and core licensing.

Cloud / BYOL

Snowflake accounts are hosted in a region of a Cloud Provider (AWS, Azure or GCP), and the Platform Credit price depends on the provider and region. Some Gen 2 and SPCS rates also differ by provider.[1] There is no bring-your-own-license path. The Service Consumption Table prices Openflow BYOC deployments at 0.0225 Platform Credits per vCPU per hour, as a consumption rate rather than a license.[1]

Programs

  • On Demand. Usage is invoiced monthly in arrears at the Table 2(a) and 3(a) On Demand prices.[1] The documentation describes it as usage-based pricing with no long-term licensing requirements.[3] Rule: On Demand invoiced monthly in arrears; Capacity purchased up front.
  • Capacity. The customer buys a set dollar amount of usage up front. The Capacity credit price is the Order Form’s Platform Credit Discount applied to the On Demand price, and the discount does not apply to AI Credits. Purchased Capacity can be used on any of the customer’s accounts. Rule: Capacity price = Order Form Platform Credit Discount on On Demand price; usable on any Account, effective 2026-09-25.[1] Once free usage and Capacity balances are exhausted, further usage is invoiced at On Demand prices.[7]
  • Rollover. The Service Consumption Table refers to unused but paid-for Capacity from prior Order Forms “made available for use (i.e., rolled over)” during a later Subscription Term. It excludes that Capacity, and Additional Capacity Orders, from the ACV used for AI Credit and storage tiers.[1] Billing views track a ROLLOVER_BALANCE. At the end of a contract term it equals contracted amounts minus usage in currency.[7] The conditions for rollover eligibility are not published; they are in the Order Form. Rule: Rolled-over Capacity: tracked as a balance; excluded from ACV tiering.
  • Fees. Under Terms of Service Section 6.1, payment obligations are non-cancelable and Fees are non-refundable, except as the Agreement states otherwise. Rule: Fees non-refundable; payment obligations non-cancelable, effective 2026-04-16.[2]

The cited documents describe no periodic true-up. Capacity drawdown and On Demand invoicing in arrears settle usage continuously.

Out of scope

  • Data transfer (egress) rates in Tables 4(a)-4(c), SPCS instance families, Postgres compute and the full Table 6 AI model price list. These are in the Service Consumption Table but not in the catalog rows.
  • Negotiated Platform Credit Discounts, Capacity rollover eligibility and VPS deployment fees. These are Order Form terms and are not published.
  • The Snowflake Collaboration Rebate Program, Marketplace listings and Openflow Connector for Oracle licensing. Each has separate terms.

Catalog rows

References

  1. Snowflake Service Consumption TableEffective September 25, 2026. Tables 1(a)-1(i) credits per hour; 2(a) On Demand Platform Credit pricing; 2(b) AI Credit pricing; 3(a)-3(f) storage; 5 Serverless Feature multipliers; 6 AI Features. Catalog: Snowflake Service Consumption TableEffective 2026-09-25. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  2. Snowflake Terms of ServiceLast updated April 16, 2026. Order Form and Subscription Term definitions; Section 6.1 Fees and Payment. Catalog: Snowflake Terms of ServiceEffective 2026-04-16. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
  3. Overview of Snowflake editionsSnowflake Documentation, not date-stamped. Catalog: Overview of Snowflake editionsRetrieved 2026-09-26.
  4. Understanding compute costSnowflake Documentation, not date-stamped. Catalog: Understanding compute costRetrieved 2026-09-26.
  5. Understanding overall costSnowflake Documentation, not date-stamped. Catalog: Understanding overall costRetrieved 2026-09-26.
  6. Overview of warehousesSnowflake Documentation, not date-stamped. Catalog: Overview of warehousesRetrieved 2026-09-26.
  7. REMAINING_BALANCE_DAILY viewORGANIZATION_USAGE schema, Snowflake Documentation, not date-stamped. Catalog: REMAINING_BALANCE_DAILY viewRetrieved 2026-09-26.
  8. Snowflake Pricing Optionssnowflake.com, not date-stamped. Catalog: Snowflake Pricing OptionsRetrieved 2026-09-26.

See also

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