Introduction to cost anomalies

A cost anomaly occurs when daily consumption is above or below the expected range of consumption for the day. Snowflake uses an algorithm to automatically detect these cost anomalies based on prior levels of consumption, which simplifies the process of identifying spikes or dips in costs so you can find ways to optimize your spend. Snowflake also provides tools to investigate these cost anomalies to identify root causes.

Note

The algorithm that detects cost anomalies requires at least 30 days of consumption before it can identify anomalies. If your consumption in the last seven days was less than 10 credits, Snowflake does not identify changes as an anomaly.

Account-level vs. organization-level cost anomalies

An account-level cost anomaly occurs when the consumption in a single account falls outside the expected range of consumption for that account.

An organization-level cost anomaly occurs when the consumption in the entire organization falls outside the expected range of consumption for the organization. It is based on the aggregate consumption of all accounts in the organization. For example, if there is a significant consumption spike in one account, but a dip in another, the two might offset each other such that it is not flagged as an organization-level anomaly. To help investigate organization-level anomalies, Snowflake provides tools to identify which accounts had the biggest increase or decrease in consumption on a specific day.

To identify and investigate organization-level cost anomalies, you need to be signed in to the organization account or an ORGADMIN-enabled account.

Get started

To identify and investigate cost anomalies using a user interface:

  1. Sign in to Snowsight

  2. Select Admin » Cost Management » Anomalies.

Unit of measure for cost data

The account you are using to identify cost anomalies controls whether cost data uses a currency as the unit of measure or credits as the unit of measure.

  • If the account is the organization account or one that has the ORGADMIN role enabled, administrators can view consumption using currency as the unit of measure.

  • For all other accounts, cost data displays in credits, not a currency.

Access control requirements

Administrators with the following roles can perform all tasks related to identifying and investigating cost anomalies, both in Snowsight and using the ANOMALY_INSIGHTS class:

  • ACCOUNTADMIN role in the organization account or a regular account.

  • GLOBALORGADMIN role in the organization account.

Run queries against cost anomaly views

You can run queries against views in the ACCOUNT_USAGE and ORGANIZATION_USAGE schemas to return historical data about account-level cost anomalies. Each row in the view includes the consumption on a specific day, and whether that consumption was a cost anomaly.

Cost anomalies for current account

Execute queries against the ANOMALIES_DAILY view in the ACCOUNT_USAGE schema to gain insights into whether cost anomalies occurred in the current account.

This view uses credits as the unit of measure for consumption.

Cost anomalies for all accounts in an organization

Execute queries against the ANOMALIES_IN_CURRENCY_DAILY view in the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema to gain insights into whether cost anomalies occurred in accounts in the organization. Note that not all accounts have access to the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema.

Use this view to see currency as the unit of measure rather than credits.

Learn more

For information about how to work with cost anomalies, see the following:

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