> ## 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.

# Top 10 Slowest Queries, Snowflake

> Top 10 Slowest Queries 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:** [Performance](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type)

## At a glance

> **Top 10 Slowest Queries** is the named leaderboard behind your performance metrics: the ten queries with the longest total elapsed time in the last 24 hours, broken down by row. Where the rate and percentile cards tell you *how much* of your workload is slow, this card tells you *exactly which* queries to fix first.

## Calculation

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

## What it tracks

This card lists the ten slowest queries of the last 24 hours, one per row, ranked by `TOTAL_ELAPSED_TIME` (compile plus queue plus execution) from `QUERY_HISTORY`. Each row typically surfaces the query id, the warehouse it ran on, the elapsed duration, bytes scanned, and a truncated query text, so a platform team can go straight from "something is slow" to the specific SQL responsible. A query appearing here is doing one of a few things: scanning far more data than it needs (no pruning predicate), sitting in a warehouse queue (saturation), spilling to local or remote storage (under-sized warehouse for the join), or simply being a heavy but legitimate batch job. The leaderboard is the drill-down companion to [Slow-Query Rate %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/slow-query-rate) and [Query Latency p95 (ms)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/query-latency-p95-ms): when those move, this card names the offenders. Pair it with [Warehouse Saturation %](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/warehouse-saturation) and [Avg Query Queue Depth per Warehouse](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/avg-query-queue-depth-per-warehouse) to tell whether the slowness is the query's own fault or the warehouse being starved, and with [Avg Cost per Query (\$)](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/snowflake/avg-cost-per-query) because the slowest queries are usually the most expensive too.

**Reconcile against the source:** in Snowsight open **Monitoring to Query History**, set the window to the last 24 hours, and sort by Total Duration descending; or query `SNOWFLAKE.ACCOUNT_USAGE.QUERY_HISTORY` ordered by `TOTAL_ELAPSED_TIME DESC LIMIT 10`. The top rows should match the card (allow for ACCOUNT\_USAGE latency of up to \~45 minutes on the most recent queries).

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### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

*Top 10 Slowest Queries* 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.