Snowflake editions and Capacity contracts are the two commercial choices that set what a Snowflake customer pays for each unit of consumption. The edition of an account (Standard, Enterprise, Business Critical or Virtual Private Snowflake) fixes which features are available and the price of each Platform Credit. The purchase model, On Demand or Capacity, decides whether usage is invoiced monthly in arrears or drawn down from an amount bought up front.[1][2] How many credits a workload consumes is a separate question, covered in Snowflake credit consumption. The contract that sits around both is summarised in Snowflake licensing.
The Service Consumption Table describes the Service as available “in several different editions” and hosted in different regions by third-party cloud providers.[1] The documentation names three factors that set unit costs: the edition, the region, and whether the account is On Demand or Capacity.[2]
Editions
Each edition includes everything in the edition below it.[2]
| Edition | Documentation description | Selected features first available in this edition |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | “Introductory level offering”, with full access to Snowflake’s standard features | Virtual warehouses, resource monitors, Standard Time Travel (up to 1 day), Fail-safe for 7 days beyond Time Travel |
| Enterprise | Adds features “designed specifically for the needs of large-scale enterprises” | Multi-cluster warehouses, Extended Time Travel (up to 90 days), column-level and row-level security, ACCESS_HISTORY |
| Business Critical | Formerly Enterprise for Sensitive Data (ESD); higher data protection, including for PHI under HIPAA and HITRUST CSF | Tri-Secret Secure, private connectivity, PHI and PCI DSS support, FedRAMP and ITAR workloads, account failover and failback |
| Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS) | All Business Critical features in “a completely separate Snowflake environment” | Dedicated metadata store and compute pool; full encryption of internal transmissions |
Source for the table: the documentation’s overview and feature matrix, which it describes as a partial list.[2] VPS accounts “do not share any type of hardware resources with accounts outside the VPS”.[2] Before any PHI is stored, HIPAA and HITRUST CSF require a signed business associate agreement between the customer and Snowflake Inc.[2]
Edition and price
The edition changes the price of a credit, not the number of credits a warehouse uses. In AWS US East (Northern Virginia) the On Demand Platform Credit price is $2.00 for Standard, $3.00 for Enterprise, $4.00 for Business Critical and $6.00 for VPS. In AWS EU Dublin the same four prices are $2.60, $3.90, $5.20 and $7.80.[1] Some regions offer only the upper editions. The US government regions listed in Table 2(a), such as AWS US Gov West 1 (DoD) and AWS US East 1 Commercial Gov, show no Standard or Enterprise price.[1] Catalog rule: Credit price set by Cloud Provider, Region and Edition (AWS US East: $2 / $3 / $4 / $6).
VPS also needs a separate annual fee per deployment, set in the Order Form. After the Subscription Term ends, and while the customer is On Demand, that fee continues for each deployment pro rata, monthly in arrears, until the Order Form is terminated or a new one is signed.[1] Cloud Services are not charged in VPS accounts except as part of Serverless Features.[1] Catalog rule: VPS only on an Order Form, with a separate annual fee per deployment.
Edition is per account
The edition is a property of each account. The documentation shows how to read it from the EDITION column of the SNOWFLAKE.ORGANIZATION_USAGE.ACCOUNTS view, or in Snowsight.[2] An organization can therefore hold accounts on different editions, each consuming credits at its own price. A cost review should list accounts by edition and region before comparing credit counts, since the same number of credits can differ in price by a factor of three between Standard and VPS.[1]
Purchase models
The Service Consumption Table defines the two models in one sentence: the Service “may be subscribed to on an On Demand basis, where usage is invoiced in arrears every month, or on a Capacity basis, where a set dollar amount of usage is purchased up front”.[1] The documentation describes On Demand as “usage-based pricing with no long-term licensing requirements” and Capacity as “discounted pricing based on an upfront Capacity commitment”.[2]
On Demand
While in On Demand, Platform Credits are priced at Table 2(a), AI Credits at the On Demand column of Table 2(b), and storage at the On Demand storage price.[1] On Demand is also where an account lands when Capacity runs out: the ON_DEMAND_CONSUMPTION_BALANCE column records “consumption at on demand prices that will be invoiced given that all the free usage and capacity balances have been exhausted”.[4]
Capacity
Capacity is bought in currency, not in credits. Capacity Platform Credit pricing applies the Platform Credit Discount in the Order Form to the On Demand price for the cloud provider, region and edition. The discount does not apply to AI Credits. Purchased Capacity may be applied toward any of the customer’s accounts, and Snowflake provides monthly statements of usage in arrears.[1] Catalog rules: Capacity price = Order Form Platform Credit Discount on On Demand price; usable on any Account, Rolled-over Capacity: tracked as a balance; excluded from ACV tiering.
AI Credit and standard storage prices under Capacity are tiered by the annualized contract value (ACV) of the Order Form, in seven ACV ranges from below USD 1,200,000 to USD 40,000,000 and above. In AWS US East (Northern Virginia), standard storage falls from $23.00 per TB per month at Tier 1 to $13.80 at Tier 7.[1] Three details limit the tiers:
- The ACV ranges in the tables are “for illustrative purposes only”. If a tier on the Order Form conflicts with them, the Order Form controls.[1]
- Neither Additional Capacity Orders nor rolled-over Capacity from prior Order Forms count towards the ACV used for tiering.[1]
- Tiered storage prices apply only to an Order Form designated a “Qualifying Order” in its own terms. Other Order Forms use the Tier 1 storage rate unless the Order Form or agreement says otherwise.[1]
Cortex Inference “may not be eligible” for Capacity AI Credit pricing.[1]
Contract mechanics
Order Form and Subscription Term
The Terms of Service define the Order Form as the ordering document “signed by Snowflake and Customer” that specifies the offerings procured, and the Subscription Term as the period of access “as specified in the applicable Order Form”.[3] Each Order Form terminates when its Subscription Term expires, unless it or the agreement says otherwise.[3] Fees and payment terms are those of the Order Form, and except as the agreement states, payment obligations are non-cancelable and Fees non-refundable.[3] Unused Capacity is therefore not refunded at the end of a term unless the Order Form provides for it.
Additional Capacity, rollover and free usage
The CONTRACT_ITEMS view lists each item of the active contract as one of “capacity, additional capacity, or free usage”, with an amount “measured in CURRENCY, not credits”.[5] Its EXPIRATION_DATE is the date after which either a renewal contract takes effect “if signed within 30 days” or the relationship ends.[5]
Rollover is described in the currency terms of the Service Consumption Table: “eligible Capacity Rollover” from a prior Order Form is added to the balance of the renewal Order Form.[1] The table does not state when rollover is eligible; that is set by the Order Form. The ROLLOVER_BALANCE column shows the amount available, calculated at the end of a contract term as the contract amount less usage in currency.[4]
Foreign currency contracts
Consumption is measured in US dollars. If an Order Form is payable in another currency, the total Capacity commitment is converted to a USD Total Capacity Balance at the spot rate on the Processing Date. At each Billing Event the balance is adjusted up or down at the spot rate of the invoice date (the FX Adjustment), so the percentage of Capacity consumed can move with exchange rates alone.[1] The same terms apply whether Capacity is bought from Snowflake or through an authorised reseller.[1]
Accounts, Affiliates and resellers
Customers may let Affiliates and Contractors serve as Users, provided each one’s use is solely for the benefit of the customer or that Affiliate.[3] Where several Snowflake organizations draw down one Capacity contract, only the primary, or funding, organization can see the balance and contract views, and customers who contracted through a reseller cannot access those views at all.[4][5]
Tracking a Capacity position
Snowflake publishes the balance as data in the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema. REMAINING_BALANCE_DAILY returns end-of-day FREE_USAGE_BALANCE, CAPACITY_BALANCE, ROLLOVER_BALANCE, ON_DEMAND_CONSUMPTION_BALANCE and MARKETPLACE_CAPACITY_DRAWDOWN_BALANCE.[4] Points to allow for:
- Latency may be up to 72 hours for
REMAINING_BALANCE_DAILYand 24 hours forCONTRACT_ITEMS.[4][5] - Until month close, figures for a day can change for end-of-month adjustments, credits or contract amendments. The On Demand balance resets after month close, typically on the 3rd or 4th day of the next month, once invoiced and paid.[4]
CONTRACT_ITEMSshows only the active contract, and neither view holds data from before June 2020.[5]
A non-zero ON_DEMAND_CONSUMPTION_BALANCE in a Capacity organization is the signal that Capacity, rollover and free usage are spent and that further usage is being invoiced at On Demand prices.[4]
Out of scope
- Negotiated Platform Credit Discounts and Order Form rollover clauses, which are not published.
- Marketplace Capacity Drawdown and the Collaboration Rebate Program, covered in Snowflake licensing.
- Credit rates per warehouse size and serverless feature, covered in Snowflake credit consumption.
- Support tiers and service levels.