# Missing Resource Monitors and Budgets on Snowflake Accounts Canonical: https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/missing-resource-monitors-and-budgets-on-snowflake-accounts Snowflake consumption is open-ended by default: any role that can use a warehouse can keep it running, and serverless features and AI services consume... By: PointFive Updated: 2026-09-28 [Cloud Efficiency Hub](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) The short version Snowflake consumption is open-ended by default: any role that can use a warehouse can keep it running, and serverless features and AI services consume credits without a warehouse at all. PointFive Research Cloud cost research at PointFive Snowflake service [Snowflake Virtual Warehouse](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/cloud-services/snowflake-virtual-warehouse) Category [Compute](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/service-category/compute) Reference CER-0513 Type Governance Gap ## Explanation Why the waste happens and who it affects. Without resource monitors or budgets, nothing notifies anyone or stops spend when a warehouse is resized and forgotten, a pipeline loops, a runaway query holds a warehouse open, or a new AI or serverless workload ramps up. The overrun is found when someone reads the usage statement, after the credits are gone. Snowflake provides two native guardrails that serve different purposes. Resource monitors set a credit quota on warehouses and can notify, suspend warehouses after running queries finish, or suspend immediately and cancel running queries. Budgets set a monthly spending limit on the account or on custom groups of objects, including serverless features and AI services that resource monitors cannot track, and send notifications when the limit is projected to be exceeded. Accounts that have neither, or that have a single monitor with only a notify action that nobody reads, have no spend control beyond manual review. ## Billing model The pricing dimensions that drive this cost. Warehouse credits Billed per second while a warehouse runs, with a 60-second minimum per start or resume, at an hourly rate set by warehouse size Serverless and AI credits Charged for Snowflake-managed compute such as tasks, pipes, clustering, replication and Cortex features, outside any warehouse Resource monitor scope Tracks credits used by warehouses and the cloud services supporting them only; it cannot track serverless features or AI services Budget scope A monthly spending limit on compute costs for the account or a custom group of objects, including supported serverless features and AI services ## How to detect 5 checks to find it in your estate. - Run SHOW RESOURCE MONITORS to check whether an account-level monitor exists, and SHOW WAREHOUSES to find warehouses whose resource\_monitor column is empty - For existing monitors, review credit\_quota, frequency and the notify and suspend thresholds; a monitor with only Notify actions and no suspend threshold does not cap spend - Check in Snowsight Admin \> Cost management \> Budgets whether the account budget is activated, and list custom budgets with SHOW SNOWFLAKE.CORE.BUDGET INSTANCES - Compare budgets against the largest non-warehouse consumers in METERING\_DAILY\_HISTORY by SERVICE\_TYPE (for example AI\_SERVICES, SERVERLESS\_TASK, PIPE, AUTO\_CLUSTERING, REPLICATION) to find spend that no budget covers - Look back through METERING\_DAILY\_HISTORY or WAREHOUSE\_METERING\_HISTORY for past credit spikes that were not caught until after the fact, as a sign that thresholds are missing or too loose ## How to fix 5 ways to remove the waste. - Create an account-level resource monitor (only ACCOUNTADMIN can create monitors) with a credit quota and Notify thresholds, plus a Notify & Suspend threshold as a backstop, for example CREATE RESOURCE MONITOR ... WITH CREDIT\_QUOTA = ... TRIGGERS ON 75 PERCENT DO NOTIFY ON 90 PERCENT DO SUSPEND; Snowflake suggests suspending below 100% because Suspend waits for running queries to finish - Assign warehouse-level monitors to high-spend or ad-hoc warehouses with ALTER WAREHOUSE ... SET RESOURCE\_MONITOR; each warehouse can have only one monitor, and an account can have only one account-level monitor - Use Notify & Suspend Immediately only where cancelling in-flight queries is acceptable, and expect some overrun, since Snowflake notes warehouses can take time to suspend after a threshold is reached - Activate the account budget (CALL SNOWFLAKE.LOCAL.ACCOUNT\_ROOT\_BUDGET!ACTIVATE() and SET\_SPENDING\_LIMIT) and create custom budgets for serverless and AI workloads and compute pools that resource monitors cannot see - Route budget notifications to email, a cloud queue or a webhook that reaches the owning team, and optionally attach stored procedures that act at thresholds, since budgets by themselves only notify; the default budget refresh interval is up to 6.5 hours ## Documentation Vendor references for pricing and configuration. - [Working with resource monitors docs.snowflake.com](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/resource-monitors) - [Monitor credit usage with budgets docs.snowflake.com](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/budgets) - [Work with the account budget docs.snowflake.com](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/budgets/account-budget) - [Understanding compute cost docs.snowflake.com](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/user-guide/cost-understanding-compute) - [METERING\_DAILY\_HISTORY view docs.snowflake.com](https://docs.snowflake.com/en/sql-reference/account-usage/metering_daily_history) ## Related inefficiencies [Browse the library](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub) - Snowflake Virtual Warehouse CER-0168 ### [Underutilized Snowflake Warehouse](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/underutilized-snowflake-warehouse) Underutilized Snowflake warehouses occur when a workload is assigned a larger warehouse size than necessary. For example, a workload that could efficiently execute on a Medium (M) warehouse may be running on a Large (L) or Extra Large (XL)... Compute - Snowflake Virtual Warehouse CER-0132 ### [Suboptimal Warehouse Auto-Suspend Configuration](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/suboptimal-warehouse-auto-suspend-configuration) If auto-suspend settings are too high, warehouses can sit idle and continue accruing unnecessary charges. Tightening the auto-suspend window ensures that the warehouse shuts down quickly once queries complete, minimizing credit waste while... Compute - Snowflake Virtual Warehouse CER-0129 ### [Suboptimal Query Timeout Configuration](https://www.pointfive.co/efficiency-hub/inefficiencies/suboptimal-query-timeout-configuration) If no appropriate query timeout is configured, inefficient or runaway queries can execute for extended periods (up to the default 2-day system limit). For as long as the query is running, the warehouse will remain active and accrue costs.... Compute --- Source: the public page above. Product screenshots and illustrative interfaces are examples, not live customer data.