Snowflake Cortex Analyst is part of Snowflake's AI-powered analytics offering, designed to let people talk to their data. It turns natural-language questions into AI-powered SQL so business stakeholders and analysts can explore data conversationally, while Snowflake Horizon Context supplies a governed semantic layer that builds trusted metrics for both human analysts and AI agents. It sits within a fully managed platform that supports structured, semi-structured and unstructured data, with built-in visualizations, worksheets, notebooks and workspaces. Teams can use it to broaden data exploration beyond SQL specialists and to ground AI conversations in agreed business semantics. Access is through Snowflake; the site offers a 30-day free trial with free credits, and pricing is consumption-based.
How to use Snowflake Cortex Analyst
1
Start with a Snowflake trial
Sign up for the 30-day free trial with free credits to explore Snowflake features, or use an existing Snowflake account.
2
Ground metrics with Horizon Context
Use Snowflake Horizon Context, a governed semantic layer, to define trusted metrics that both human analysts and AI agents can rely on.
3
Ask questions in natural language
Use conversational AI to explore data and generate AI-powered SQL, making data exploration more intuitive for team members of all levels.
Snowflake Cortex Analyst Features
Conversational AI for intuitive data exploration
AI-powered SQL generation for users of all levels
Governed semantic layer via Snowflake Horizon Context for trusted metrics
Support for structured, semi-structured and unstructured data
Built-in visualizations, worksheets, notebooks and workspaces
Fully managed, AI-ready platform
Snowflake Cortex Analyst Use Cases
Let business stakeholders ask questions of data without writing SQL
Ground AI analytics in governed, agreed business metrics
Explore diverse data types conversationally for faster insights
Snowflake Cortex Analyst FAQs
It is part of Snowflake's AI-powered analytics offering that lets users talk to their data through conversational AI and AI-powered SQL, grounded in governed semantics.
You can sign up for a 30-day free trial with free credits, or follow quickstart guides that walk through setting up an environment and performing analytical tasks.
Snowflake Horizon Context is a governed semantic layer that builds trusted metrics for both human analysts and AI agents, and Open Semantic Interchange lets metrics be defined once and shared across tools.
It natively supports structured data including Apache Parquet, semi-structured data such as JSON, Avro and XML, and can store and integrate unstructured data.
Pricing is consumption-based, with compute and storage as the primary cost drivers; detailed breakdowns are on the Snowflake pricing page.
Yes, it offers integrations and dedicated connectors such as ODBC and JDBC for leading BI tools including Tableau, Power BI and Looker.
Snowflake uses a consumption-based pricing model. Credit prices shown are list prices for AWS, US East (Northern Virginia); prices vary by cloud platform and region. Compute is billed per credit and storage per TB per month. Virtual Private Snowflake pricing is not published. A free trial signup is offered but is not a permanently free plan.
Standard
$2.00USD / per credit
Entry-level, introductory Snowflake edition providing access to core platform functionality on a consumption-based model. Price shown is for AWS, US East (Northern Virginia).
All core platform functionality with fully managed elastic compute
Security with automatic encryption of all data
Snowpark
Data sharing
Optimized storage with compression and Time Travel
Enterprise
$3.00USD / per credit
Edition for high-growth, large-scale customers, including all Standard features plus additional governance and compute capabilities. Price shown is for AWS, US East (Northern Virginia).
All Standard Edition features
Ability to use multi-cluster compute
Granular governance and privacy controls
Extended Time Travel windows
Business Critical
$4.00USD / per credit
Edition for highly regulated industries handling sensitive data, including all Enterprise features plus additional security and availability capabilities. Price shown is for AWS, US East (Northern Virginia).
All Enterprise Edition features
Tri-Secret Secure
Access to private connectivity
Failover and failback for backup and disaster recovery
Virtual Private Snowflake
Includes all Business Critical Edition features within a completely separate Snowflake environment isolated from all other Snowflake accounts. Pricing is not published; contact sales.
All Business Critical Edition features
Completely separate Snowflake environment
Isolated from all other Snowflake accounts
On-Demand Storage
$23.00USD / per TB per month
Monthly fee for data stored in Snowflake, calculated using the average amount of storage used per month after compression. Price shown is the list price for AWS, US East (Northern Virginia).
Pay for usage month-to-month
Calculated on average monthly storage used after compression
Capacity storage discounts available per the Service Consumption Table