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# Snowflake usage templates

Sigma's Snowflake usage templates provide an accurate, in-depth, and prebuilt analysis that helps you understand your company's Snowflake consumption and performance. These templates combine descriptive and prescriptive analytics to provide a foundation for starting an unrestricted analysis into Snowflake usage data. Sigma offers the following templates:

* [Cost monitoring](/docs/snowflake-usage-templates#types-of-snowflake-usage-templates)
* [Performance monitoring](/docs/snowflake-usage-templates#types-of-snowflake-usage-templates)
* [User activity](/docs/snowflake-usage-templates#types-of-snowflake-usage-templates)
* [Reader cost](/docs/snowflake-usage-templates#types-of-snowflake-usage-templates)

## User requirements

The ability to view Snowflake usage templates for your organization's Snowflake usage data requires the following:

* You must be assigned the **Admin** account type or be assigned an [account type](/docs/account-type-and-license-overview) with the **View usage dashboard** permission enabled.
* Your connection must have access to the relevant Snowflake usage data schema for each template (see [Grant privileges to a role in Snowflake](/docs/snowflake-usage-templates#grant-privileges-to-a-role-in-snowflake)).

You can explore the templates on sample Snowflake usage data by using the template.

## Types of Snowflake usage templates

The following Snowflake usage templates are available in Sigma:

| Template               | Description                                                                                                                                                                    | Data                                                                                    | Privileges |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- |
| Cost Monitoring        | Covers compute and storage cost across all accounts in the organization. Tracks contract consumption, compute cost and storage cost across your entire Snowflake organization. | `ORGANIZATION_USAGE` schema. This schema exists only in your primary Snowflake account. | `SELECT`   |
| Performance Monitoring | Monitors queries in an individual Snowflake account. Tracks query performance, warehouse activity, and other performance metrics.                                              | `ACCOUNT_USAGE` schema.                                                                 | `SELECT`   |
| User Activity          | Monitors users in an individual Snowflake account. Tracks how Snowflake users use warehouses and databases.                                                                    | `ACCOUNT_USAGE` schema.                                                                 | `SELECT`   |
| Reader Cost            | Monitors compute cost for reader accounts of an individual Snowflake account.                                                                                                  | `READER_ACCOUNT_USAGE` schema.                                                          | `SELECT`   |

To access the relevant Snowflake views in Sigma, the role associated with the connection or assigned to the user, if using OAuth to authenticate to Snowflake, must be granted the ACCOUNTADMIN role or relevant privileges. See <a href="https://docs.snowflake.com/en/sql-reference/account-usage#enabling-other-roles-to-use-schemas-in-the-snowflake-database" target="_blank">Enabling other roles to use schemas in the SNOWFLAKE database</a> in the Snowflake documentation.

## Create a new document from a Snowflake usage template

To visualize your organization's Snowflake usage data in Sigma, create a document from a Snowflake usage template:

1. Go to **Home** > **Templates**.

2. Select the Snowflake usage template that you want to use, then click **Use template**.

   The template opens in an [exploration](/docs/ad-hoc-exploration) with sample data.

3. To replace the sample data with your own Snowflake usage data, click **Change sources**.

4. When you click **Change sources**, Sigma searches your connections for tables that match the structure of the current sources and attempts to match the tables.

   Because Snowflake usage tables are consistent in structure, there should be a fully compatible match. If no match is found, you can manually locate the correct table.

5. After you locate the correct tables to change to in your own Snowflake connection, click **Swap now**.

6. To create an editable and publishable document from the template, click **Save as**, then save your new document.

## Related resources

* [Get started with templates](/docs/get-started-with-templates)
* [Create and edit document templates](/docs/create-and-edit-workbook-templates)
* [Connect to Snowflake](/docs/connect-to-snowflake)