> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Active Warehouses, Snowflake

> Active Warehouses for Snowflake accounts. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it.

**Card class:** [Non-Hero](/nerve-centre/overview#card-classes-explained)  •  **Category:** [Executive Overview](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type)

## At a glance

> **Active Warehouses** is the live count of Snowflake virtual warehouses currently in a `STARTED` (running) state. Each running warehouse is billing credits by the second, so this number is the single fastest read on "how much compute am I paying for right this moment?" A healthy steady-state count tracks your scheduled workload; a count that climbs unexpectedly is the earliest sign of a runaway job or a forgotten ad-hoc warehouse left on.

|                    |                                                                                                                                                                                         |
| ------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **What it tracks** | The number of virtual warehouses in the `STARTED` state for the selected period, read from the warehouse state surfaced by `SHOW WAREHOUSES` and the `WAREHOUSE_METERING_HISTORY` view. |
| **Data source**    | `detail`: Active Warehouses for the selected period. Drawn from the account's warehouse state, not from a query count.                                                                  |
| **Time window**    | `RT` (real-time, refreshed on the live polling cycle).                                                                                                                                  |
| **Alert trigger**  | None configured by default. Pair with credit-burn cards for spend alerting.                                                                                                             |
| **Roles**          | owner, platform, SRE                                                                                                                                                                    |

## Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Snowflake account state. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the reconcile pointer below for the native check.

## What it tracks

Active Warehouses counts the virtual warehouses that are powered on and able to execute queries. In Snowflake, compute is decoupled from storage: each warehouse is an independent cluster of compute that you start, suspend, and resize on its own. A warehouse only bills credits while it is in the `STARTED` state, so the count of active warehouses is a direct proxy for live compute spend. A warehouse with auto-suspend configured will drop out of this count after its idle timeout; one left running without auto-suspend, or held open by a long query, keeps counting. Read this card alongside [Credits Burned (24h)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/credits-burned-24h) and [Idle Warehouse Credits Wasted (24h)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/idle-warehouse-credits-wasted-24h) to turn the count into a cost picture, and with [Warehouse Saturation %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/warehouse-saturation) to confirm the running warehouses are actually busy.

**Reconcile against the source:** run `SHOW WAREHOUSES;` in a Snowflake worksheet (or `snowsql`) and count rows where `state = 'STARTED'`, or open Snowsight under Admin to Warehouses and read the running list. The Vortex IQ count should match the live state at poll time.

***

### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

*Active Warehouses* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Snowflake and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English.

[Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.