The Snowsight Query Profile is a powerful diagnostic tool that provides a visual breakdown of how Snowflake executed a query. Its primary purpose is to help users visualize and analyze query performance. It displays execution steps, including scan operations, join strategies, pruning results, aggregation methods, and data movement between processing nodes.
The profile shows metrics such as execution time per step, partition pruning effectiveness, bytes scanned, and operator relationships. This allows developers, analysts, and DBAs to identify bottlenecks—such as unnecessary full-table scans, non-selective filters, or inefficient joins—and tune SQL accordingly.
Query Profile does not execute queries; execution happens in worksheets or programmatic interfaces. It does not create objects or manage data loading; those tasks involve separate SQL commands and UI interfaces.
Overall, Query Profile is essential for performance tuning, helping teams reduce compute costs, optimize warehouse sizing, and improve query efficiency.
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