Snowflake licensing is the set of terms under which Snowflake Inc. provides the Snowflake Service, a cloud data platform for data warehousing, data engineering, data sharing, applications and AI features. Snowflake does not license software by seat, core or server. A customer subscribes to the Service under the Snowflake Terms of Service and one or more Order Forms, and pays for what it consumes: compute in Platform Credits, AI features in AI Credits, and storage in average terabytes per month.[1][2] The Subscription Term is the period during which the customer is authorized to access the Snowflake Offerings, as specified in the Order Form.[1]
For a software asset manager, Snowflake is a spend-and-commitment problem rather than a deployment-count problem. The questions are which edition and cloud region set the unit price, whether the contract is On Demand or Capacity, how fast the Capacity balance is being drawn down, and which offering-specific terms (Previews, AI features, Marketplace, data sharing) attach to features in use. The metering detail is in Snowflake credit consumption. This page summarises the whole landscape and links to it.
Editions
Snowflake sells four editions: Standard, Enterprise, Business Critical and Virtual Private Snowflake (VPS). The documentation states that the edition “determines the unit costs for the credits and the data storage you use”, and that region and purchase model also affect unit costs.[3] VPS includes all Business Critical features in a completely separate Snowflake environment, isolated from other Snowflake accounts.[4]
| Edition | How it is priced | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Lowest Platform Credit price in each region[2] | The introductory offering, with full access to Snowflake’s standard features[3] |
| Enterprise | Higher credit price[2] | Adds multi-cluster compute, granular governance and extended Time Travel[4] |
| Business Critical | Higher credit price[2] | Formerly Enterprise for Sensitive Data (ESD); adds Tri-Secret Secure, private connectivity and failover[3][4] |
| VPS | Highest credit price, plus an annual fee per deployment[2] | Available only if specified on an Order Form[2] |
In AWS US East (Northern Virginia) the On Demand Platform Credit price is $2.00, $3.00, $4.00 and $6.00 for the four editions. The edition changes the price of each credit, not the number of credits a warehouse consumes.[2] Catalog rule: Credit price set by Cloud Provider, Region and Edition (AWS US East: $2 / $3 / $4 / $6). VPS needs a separate annual fee per deployment set in the Order Form, and after the Subscription Term expires that fee continues pro rata, monthly in arrears, while the customer remains On Demand.[2] Catalog rule: VPS only on an Order Form, with a separate annual fee per deployment.
Metrics
Five catalog rows hold the units the Service Consumption Table uses. Their definitions are in the rows and in Snowflake credit consumption.
| Snowflake name | Catalog row | What it meters |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Credit | Platform Credit | Virtual warehouses, compute nodes, Cloud Services and serverless features |
| Compute-Hour | Compute-Hour | Serverless Features, converted to Platform Credits by a feature multiplier |
| AI Credit | AI Credit | Snowflake AI Features, priced separately from Platform Credits |
| Token | Token | The unit most AI Features bill on |
| Storage (average terabytes per month) | Storage (average terabytes per month) | Customer Data stored in the account |
Where an Order Form, the Agreement or the documentation refers to “Snowflake Credits” or “Credits”, the Service Consumption Table reads that as Platform Credits.[2] Consumption is measured in US dollars; On Demand usage is converted to the invoice currency at the Spot Rate for the last day of the invoiced period, and a Capacity commitment in another currency is converted to a USD balance at the Order Form Processing Date.[2] Catalog rule: Consumption measured in USD; Foreign Currency Capacity converted at the Spot Rate.
Counting / floors
Snowflake meters usage itself, so there is no customer-declared count to reconcile. The counting rules that drive the bill are, in summary:[2]
- Warehouses. A standard warehouse consumes Platform Credits per hour by size, doubling from 1 (XS) to 512 (6XL). Each start or resume bills at least one minute, then billing is per second. Suspended warehouses consume nothing. Rules: Standard warehouse Platform Credits per hour by size (XS 1 to 6XL 512), Per-second billing after a start/resume minimum (1 minute; 60 minutes Interactive; 5 minutes Compute Nodes), Suspended warehouses use no credits; multi-cluster = size rate x running clusters.
- Cloud Services. Charged at 4.4 Credits per hour, but free on any day when they stay at or below 10% of that day’s warehouse credits. Rule: Cloud Services 4.4 Credits per hour, free up to 10% of daily warehouse credits.
- Serverless Features. One Platform Credit per Compute-Hour multiplied by a feature multiplier, plus unit charges for some features. Rule: Serverless Features: 1 Platform Credit per Compute-Hour x Table 5 multiplier.
- Storage. Average terabytes per month of Customer Data, at the compressed size. Rule: Storage billed on average TB per month; On Demand $23.00 TB/mo (AWS US East).
- AI Features. Billed in AI Credits, proportionally for all units used rather than in whole increments. Rule: AI Features billed in AI Credits, proportionally per unit.
Data sharing has its own payment rule: the providing customer pays for all usage by its Reader Accounts.[2] Catalog rule: Reader Account usage is paid by the providing customer.
Support and service levels
Support and availability commitments are in the Support Policy and Service Level Agreement, last updated 2026-09-28. The customer receives the support level designated in its Order Form.[5] Initial response targets for a Severity Level 1 issue are one hour under Snowflake Support and 15 minutes under Priority Support. Cases default to Severity Level 4 unless the customer designates otherwise.[5] Catalog rule: Initial response time targets: Snowflake Support and Priority Support. Snowflake describes Priority Support as “a paid support offering” with a higher level of engagement than its other support offerings.[6]
When the Service misses its availability target, the sole remedy is Service Level Credits, credited against usage in the same Cloud Provider Region in the following month. The credit runs from one to seven times Average Daily Snowflake Credits depending on the Monthly Availability Percentage, must be requested within 21 days of the month in which the failure occurred, and cannot be converted to money. Free trial and proof-of-concept use and Preview features are excluded.[5] Catalog rule: Service Level Credits: 1x to 7x Average Daily Snowflake Credits, request within 21 days.
Use rights and restrictions
The Terms of Service set who may use the Service and for what:[1]
- Users. Contractors and Affiliates may be Users provided that their use is solely for the benefit of the customer or that Affiliate, and the customer answers for every User’s acts. Client Software is licensed in object code for internal use during the Subscription Term. Rule: Contractors and Affiliates may be Users solely for the customer's benefit.
- Affiliates. An Affiliate that signs its own Order Form creates a new and separate agreement with the Snowflake entity that signs it, and the liability caps apply in aggregate across those agreements. Rule: Affiliate Order Forms create a separate agreement.
- No service bureau. The customer may not resell, sublicense or provide access to the Snowflake Technology to third parties, or use it to provide a substantially similar cloud service to a third party, except through Service features intended to give third parties access to Customer Data. Rule: No service bureau, resale or substantially similar service for third parties.
- Resellers. For purchases through a Reseller, Snowflake may share information about the customer’s use and consumption with the Reseller, and the Terms of Service still govern use. Rule: Reseller purchases: Snowflake may share consumption data with the Reseller.
Audit and compliance
Because Snowflake operates the Service and meters consumption itself, the Terms of Service contain no customer software audit clause of the kind found in on-premises licences. Instead, Section 4.2 allows Snowflake to collect and use Usage Data, defined as usage and operations data including query logs and metadata, to develop, improve, support and operate its products.[1] Compliance exposure therefore sits in payment and use-restriction clauses:
- All payment obligations are non-cancelable and Fees are non-refundable except as the Agreement states. Rule: Fees non-refundable; payment obligations non-cancelable.[1]
- Snowflake may suspend the Service if Fees are 30 or more days overdue, or for breach of the General Restrictions or Use Obligations. Rule: Suspension when Fees are 30 or more days overdue.[1]
- If Snowflake terminates for the customer’s breach, all outstanding payment obligations under all Order Forms become immediately due. If the customer terminates for Snowflake’s uncured breach, it is refunded prepaid unused Fees. Rule: Termination for cause: refund of prepaid unused Fees or acceleration of all payments.[1]
- After termination or expiration the customer has up to 30 days, on written notice, to retrieve Customer Data, and must still pay for all use. Rule: 30-day Customer Data Retrieval Right after termination; all use remains payable.[1]
- Each party’s aggregate liability is capped at the amounts paid or payable in the prior 12 months, and at twice that amount for Data Protection Claims. Rule: Liability cap: 12 months of Fees; 2x for Data Protection Claims.[1]
The practical effective license position for Snowflake compares consumed credits and storage against the contracted Capacity balance. Snowflake’s ORGANIZATION_USAGE views expose the daily remaining balance, including any rollover balance; once free usage and Capacity are exhausted, further usage is invoiced On Demand.[11]
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable. The Service runs on Snowflake-managed infrastructure, and the Service Consumption Table has no core, socket or hypervisor rule: the customer chooses a warehouse size or compute instance family and the credit rate follows.[2]
Cloud / BYOL
Each Snowflake account is hosted in a region of a Cloud Provider (AWS, Azure or Google Cloud), and the credit price depends on the provider and region. There is no bring-your-own-licence path. Openflow on a customer’s own cloud (a BYOC Deployment) is priced as a consumption rate of 0.0225 Platform Credits per vCPU per hour, billed per second with a 60-second minimum.[2] Catalog rule: Openflow BYOC: 0.0225 Platform Credits per vCPU per hour, per-second billing with 60-second minimum.
Programs
- On Demand. Usage is invoiced monthly in arrears at On Demand prices.[2] The documentation calls it usage-based pricing with no long-term licensing requirements.[3]
- Capacity. A set dollar amount of usage is bought up front. The Order Form’s Platform Credit Discount is applied to the On Demand credit price, but not to AI Credits, and purchased Capacity can be used on any of the customer’s accounts. AI Credit and storage prices are tiered by annual contract value (ACV), and rolled-over Capacity is excluded from the ACV used for tiering.[2] 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.
- Marketplace Capacity Drawdown. Under an MCD Order Form, a customer may apply part of its paid Capacity, up to the MCD Cap, to purchases from Snowflake Marketplace providers during the Subscription Term. If Service consumption reaches committed Capacity minus the MCD Cap, the remaining MCD Balance reverts to Service consumption. Unused MCD Balance returns to the Capacity balance at termination or expiration.[9] Rule: Marketplace Capacity Drawdown: MCD Cap applied to Marketplace purchases within the Subscription Term.
- Collaboration Rebate Program. A data provider with 50 or more Stable Edges at the start of a calendar month receives a rebate of 50% of the Snowflake Credits its consumers spend on qualifying jobs, divided by the number of participating Snowflake customers. Rebate credits can offset Platform Credit usage.[10][2] Rule: Collaboration Rebate Tier 1: 50% rebate with 50 or more Stable Edges.
Offering-specific terms
Some features carry their own terms on top of the Terms of Service:
- Previews. Preview features may be used solely for internal evaluation. They are excluded from support, service levels and Snowflake’s security, compliance and privacy commitments, must not process personal or regulated data, and may still be charged under the Service Consumption Table. Snowflake’s liability for Previews is limited to $50.00.[7] Rule: Previews: internal evaluation only, no SLA or support, may be charged.
- AI features. The Snowflake AI Terms state that Snowflake will not use Customer Data or Usage Data, including inputs and outputs, to train, re-train or fine-tune any model that it makes available to other parties, and extend Snowflake’s IP indemnity to outputs, subject to exclusions.[8] Rule: AI Terms: Customer Data not used to train models offered to other parties.
Recent licensing changes
- Terms of Service, 2026-04-16. The current Terms of Service were last updated on 2026-04-16. Unless Snowflake specifies otherwise, a new version applies to a customer from the renewal of its Subscription Term or from a new Order Form, so customers on older Order Forms may still be on an earlier version.[1] Rule: Terms of Service changes apply from renewal or a new Order Form.
- Service Consumption Table, 2026-09-25. The version effective 2026-09-25 is the one cited on this page. It prices AI Features in AI Credits, separately from Platform Credits, publishes AI Credit prices by ACV tier, and states that the Platform Credit Discount does not apply to AI Credits.[2] Because the table changes often, an effective position must use the version in force for each usage period.
- Support Policy, 2026-09-28. The Support Policy and Service Level Agreement was last updated on 2026-09-28.[5]
Guides
The articles on Snowflake licensing, in reading order:
- Snowflake credit consumption: how warehouses, serverless features, Cloud Services, AI features and storage are metered and priced, and how On Demand and Capacity settle usage.
- Snowflake editions and Capacity contracts: what each edition adds and costs, On Demand against Capacity, ACV tiers, rollover, foreign currency Order Forms and tracking the Capacity balance.
Out of scope
- Negotiated terms. Platform Credit Discounts, Capacity rollover eligibility, VPS deployment fees and committed spend are Order Form terms and are not published.
- Data transfer rates, SPCS instance families and the full AI model price list. These are in the Service Consumption Table and are summarised in Snowflake credit consumption.
- Marketplace provider listings. Products bought from Marketplace providers are governed by the provider’s own terms.
- Technical Services. Consulting and professional services under a statement of work.