ADA-C01 Question 384
Single answerManage organization costsAn organization administrator for a global company needs to identify which Snowflake accounts are driving the largest month-over-month increase in spend across the organization. The company uses multiple accounts in different regions and wants a repeatable way to analyze billed usage by account without logging in to each account individually. Which approach should the administrator use?
- A
Query ORGANIZATION_USAGE views from the organization account to compare account-level usage and cost trends over time
- B
Query ACCOUNT_USAGE views in one primary account, because they automatically aggregate cost and usage for all accounts in the organization
- C
Use Snowsight cost management in any member account, because organization-level billed cost is available to all ACCOUNTADMIN users by default
- D
Create a reader account for each business unit and review the consumption there, because reader accounts expose organization-wide billing details
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to use ORGANIZATION_USAGE views from the organization account. For managing organization costs, Snowflake provides organization-level visibility specifically so administrators can analyze usage and billed consumption across all accounts in one place. This is the recommended approach when the goal is to identify which accounts are increasing spend over time, compare trends centrally, and avoid account-by-account investigation. By contrast, ACCOUNT_USAGE is account-scoped, and reader accounts are unrelated to organization billing analysis. Relevant Snowflake documentation includes the sections on organization accounts, the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema, and cost and usage monitoring at the organization level.
- A. Correct.
Correct. For organization-wide cost analysis across multiple Snowflake accounts, the administrator should use the ORGANIZATION_USAGE schema from the organization account. These views are designed to provide cross-account visibility into usage and billing trends, enabling analysis such as month-over-month spend increases by account. This is the appropriate centralized method when the requirement is to avoid logging in to each account separately.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. ACCOUNT_USAGE views are scoped to a single account and do not automatically aggregate usage or cost data for all accounts in the organization. This is a common misconception because ACCOUNT_USAGE is often used for billing and governance analysis, but it cannot provide complete organization-level reporting by itself.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Cost-related visibility in Snowsight within a member account is not the same as centralized organization-wide billed cost access across all accounts. Organization-level cost analysis requires the organization account and the appropriate organization-wide usage views. Having ACCOUNTADMIN in a member account does not grant automatic access to all organization billing data.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Reader accounts are intended to allow data consumers to access shared data without managing a full Snowflake account. They are not the mechanism for exposing or reviewing organization-wide billing details. Creating reader accounts would add complexity and would not solve the requirement for centralized cost analysis.