About committed capacity and Snowflake Marketplace Capacity Drawdown¶
Capacity commitment is part of a contract that lets customers prepay for expected use of Snowflake resources. With the Snowflake Marketplace Capacity Drawdown (MCD) program, a portion of your committed capacity is reserved for Snowflake Marketplace purchases. This makes it easier to access data products and services from Snowflake Marketplace providers using your committed resources, with centralized billing through the Snowflake Marketplace.
Using MCD for a Snowflake Marketplace listing draws directly from your reserved capacity. This helps keep Snowflake services and Snowflake Marketplace costs distinct, giving you a clearer view of your usage.
Consumption and committed capacity in Snowflake Marketplace¶
The MCD program lets customers use their committed capacity to cover the initial access of data products in Snowflake Marketplace. With MCD, customers can use part of their pre-committed Snowflake capacity for accessing a Snowflake Marketplace provider’s data product. This is separate from ongoing usage costs that occur over time.
When you make a capacity commitment with Snowflake, you agree to use a certain amount of compute and storage resources over time. These committed resources can be used for any consumption of Snowflake-managed services. If you purchase a listing from Snowflake Marketplace, the compute and storage resources needed for that usage are covered by your committed capacity.
This applies whether you’re analyzing data, running complex queries, or storing data. If the workload uses Snowflake resources, it’s covered by your committed capacity even if that usage comes from a listing you bought.
For usage-based listings, it’s important to distinguish between:
Consumption of Snowflake resources: This includes compute, storage, and other Snowflake-managed resources. Your capacity commitment covers these costs, even if the resources are used because of a purchased listing.
Payments to the provider: You may also need to pay the provider directly for their data or services, such as subscription fees or per-query charges. These costs are separate from your committed capacity and must be managed according to the provider’s billing terms.
Enrolling in MCD (where available)¶
To enroll in the Snowflake Marketplace Capacity Drawdown (MCD) program, your organization must have or create a committed capacity contract with Snowflake.
To qualify, your business (based on billing and shipping addresses) must be in an area where MCD is available. For a list of supported locations, see Limitations.
By default, your organization can allocate up to 5% of its total capacity commitment, capped at $50,000 USD, to MCD. For example, if your capacity commitment is $1 million, you can allocate up to $50,000 for Snowflake Marketplace purchases. Exceptions can be made for large purchases.
Consumers must be enrolled in the MCD program to use MCD resources for purchases. However, the provider of the listing doesn’t need to be enrolled.
To enroll in the MCD program:
Confirm your business is in a supported region (see Limitations).
Contact your Snowflake Account Executive to start the enrollment process.
Managing billing and consumption costs in Snowflake Marketplace¶
To manage your capacity commitment effectively, it helps to understand how billing and consumption work in Snowflake Marketplace. This section explains how to monitor usage, handle billing for Snowflake Marketplace listings, and update payment methods for ongoing costs.
Monitoring your capacity and consumption¶
To track your consumption and capacity commitment across Snowflake services and listings, use the built-in usage dashboards. Understanding your usage helps you anticipate billing needs and track where costs originate, which is critical as you navigate billing for different types of services. These dashboards provide real-time visibility into your capacity usage, showing both current consumption and remaining balance. This helps you manage your capacity effectively. Some services are billed using different methods (e.g., based on compute-hours), but the final costs are accurately reflected in your billing statement. For more information, see the Snowflake Service Consumption Table.
Billing for Snowflake Marketplace vs. Snowflake services¶
Snowflake Marketplace operates separately from the main Snowflake service. For listings billed on-platform, you can track consumption in the dashboards. Snowflake Marketplace invoices are generated by Snowflake Marketplace on behalf of providers. If a listing is billed off-platform, the provider bills you directly, outside of Snowflake’s ecosystem.
Using MCD simplifies payment for Snowflake Marketplace listings, as all invoices are managed centrally through Snowflake Marketplace. You will receive separate invoices for each provider, keeping Snowflake Marketplace purchases organized in one place.
For more information about Snowflake Marketplace billing, see the billing guide for Snowflake Marketplace.
Trial options for paid listings¶
Some paid listings offer a limited trial, while others may require you to request access via a contact form. For more details on accessing listings, refer to the Related Topics sidebar.
Billing for listings¶
Fixed-price listings (e.g., subscriptions): Charges are applied as soon as you use the data product.
Flexibly priced listings: Consumption charges apply when you use Snowflake resources, such as compute or storage, while interacting with the product.
Updating your payment method¶
You can update the payment method to stop using capacity resources for ongoing consumption. Credits from your capacity commitment will apply until the end of the current billing cycle. The new payment method will take effect at the start of the next cycle.
For detailed cost tracking and usage trends, refer to Snowflake’s documentation on Exploring Overall Cost.
Considerations for MCD usage¶
Several considerations can impact your eligibility, usage, and how MCD resources are applied:
Financial transaction laws and geographic restrictions¶
Geographic restrictions on MCD are governed by financial transaction laws. If your organization is in a region where MCD is not supported, you need to use an alternative payment method. Both consumers and providers must have their principal place of business in a region where MCD is available, as indicated by billing and shipping addresses in Snowflake records.
For a list of supported geographic regions, see Limitations.
MCD available balance¶
Your MCD balance is available for the duration of your Snowflake contract, but you are not obligated to use it. When you renew a capacity commitment, any unused capacity, including MCD resources, rolls over into the new contract.
If you fully use your MCD resources, Snowflake credits cannot be converted into other resources for listing purchases.
If your capacity is fully consumed, further usage will be charged at On|~|Demand rates.
Commercial resellers¶
Snowflake supports commercial resellers through the Snowflake Partner Network (SPN) Reseller Program. However, the MCD program is not available to resellers. If this restriction applies to you, you can still purchase listings using other payment methods. Committed capacity will still cover the applicable consumption of data products.
Get support for MCD¶
If you want to enroll in MCD or have questions about using MCD, contact your Snowflake Account Executive.
If your organization is not in an eligible location, contact your Snowflake Account Executive to let them know that you are interested. Although they cannot make exceptions to these restrictions, Snowflake Marketplace Operations maintains a list of requests for future areas of development.
Limitations¶
These limitations define the criteria for MCD eligibility and listing compatibility.
About listings compatible with the Snowflake Marketplace Capacity Drawdown (MCD) program:
Listings paid off-platform are not MCD-compatible.
Listings that accept MCD payments are MCD-compatible. If MCD is available for a listing, the MCD payment method displays on the purchasing page.
To accept MCD payment, the provider must be in a geographic area where MCD is available:
United States (excluding Florida and Michigan)
United Kingdom (by Private Preview only)
About enrollment in the Snowflake Marketplace Capacity Drawdown (MCD) program:
Not available to international customers outside of the United Kingdom, where it’s in private preview.
Not available to customers in Florida or Michigan.
Not available to commercial resellers or customers who purchase Snowflake Capacity via a commercial reseller.
Not supported in Snowflake Government Regions.
Not available if purchased through Azure or Google Cloud Platform Marketplace.
Not compatible with multiple capacity pools.
Not compatible with Snowflake Priority Support.
Not available for customers with monthly billing frequency.
Not available to customers using On Demand accounts