Logging into Snowflake¶

In the early stages of getting started with Snowflake, we recommend logging in using either the web-based user interface or SnowSQL (the command line client available for download from the interface).

Then, once you’re more familiar with Snowflake, you can explore connecting to Snowflake using other methods.

In this Topic:

Your Snowflake Account Name
Logging in Using the Web Interface
Logging in Using SnowSQL
- Step 1: Download and Install SnowSQL
- Step 2: Connect to Snowflake and Initiate a Session
Connecting Using Other Methods

Your Snowflake Account Name¶

All access to Snowflake is either through your account name (provided by Snowflake) or a URL that uses the following format:

https://account_name.snowflakecomputing.com

However, note that your full account name may include additional segments that identify the region and cloud platform where your account is hosted.

If your account name is xy12345:

Cloud Platform / Region	Full Account Name
AWS
US West (Oregon)	`xy12345`
US East (Ohio)	`xy12345.us-east-2.aws`
US East (N. Virginia)	`xy12345.us-east-1`
Canada (Central)	`xy12345.ca-central-1.aws`
EU (Ireland)	`xy12345.eu-west-1`
EU (Frankfurt)	`xy12345.eu-central-1`
Asia Pacific (Tokyo)	`xy12345.ap-northeast-1.aws`
Asia Pacific (Mumbai)	`xy12345.ap-south-1.aws`
Asia Pacific (Singapore)	`xy12345.ap-southeast-1`
Asia Pacific (Sydney)	`xy12345.ap-southeast-2`
GCP
us-central1 (Iowa)	`xy12345.us-central1.gcp`
europe-west2 (London)	`xy12345.europe-west2.gcp`
europe-west4 (Netherlands)	`xy12345.europe-west4.gcp`
Azure
West US 2 (Washington)	`xy12345.west-us-2.azure`
East US 2 (Virginia)	`xy12345.east-us-2.azure`
US Gov Virginia	`xy12345.us-gov-virginia.azure`
Canada Central (Toronto)	`xy12345.canada-central.azure`
West Europe (Netherlands)	`xy12345.west-europe.azure`
Switzerland North (Zurich)	`xy12345.switzerland-north.azure`
Southeast Asia (Singapore)	`xy12345.southeast-asia.azure`
Australia East (New South Wales)	`xy12345.australia-east.azure`

Important

If either of the following conditions is true, your account name is different than the structure described in this example:

If your Snowflake Edition is VPS, please contact Snowflake Support for details about your account name.
If AWS PrivateLink is enabled for your account, your account name requires an additional privatelink segment. For more details, see AWS PrivateLink & Snowflake.

Logging in Using the Web Interface¶

To log into the Snowflake web interface:

Point your browser at the hostname provided by Snowflake for your account (see previous section for details). Note that the URL must start with https://.

If your web browser is able to communicate with the Snowflake service, the following login screen is displayed:
Enter your credentials (user login name and password) and click Log In.

For more information about the tasks you can perform in the web interface, see Quick Tour of the Web Interface.

Logging in Using SnowSQL¶

SnowSQL is the command line client for connecting to Snowflake to execute SQL queries and perform all DDL and DML operations, including loading data into and unloading data out of database tables.

Step 1: Download and Install SnowSQL¶

SnowSQL is available for download from the web interface:

After logging into the Snowflake web interface (see above for details), go to:

Help » Download…
In the Downloads dialog, click CLI Client (snowsql):
In the dialog, click the download icon for your platform. The downloaded file is saved as:

Windows

snowsql-windows_x86_64.msi

Linux

snowsql-linux_x86_64.bash

macOS

snowsql-darwin_x86_64.pkg
Run the installer for your platform:

Windows

Double-click the snowsql-windows_x86_64.msi file.

Linux

Type the following on the terminal command line:

bash snowsql-linux_x86_64.bash

macOS

Double-click the snowsql-darwin_x86_64.pkg file.
Follow the instructions provided by the installer.

Step 2: Connect to Snowflake and Initiate a Session¶

From a terminal window, start SnowSQL from the command prompt using the following command:
$ snowsql -a <account_name>
Where <account_name> is the name assigned by Snowflake. Note that when you specify your account name, you do not include the Snowflake domain name (i.e. snowflakecomputing.com). You only include the account name (with region and cloud platform information, if necessary). For more details, see Your Snowflake Account Name (in this topic).

You can further streamline login by specifying the -u option followed by your user login name:
$ snowsql -a <account_name> -u <user_login_name>
When prompted, enter your login name (if you didn’t provide it when executing SnowSQL) and your password.

If you specified a valid account name, user login name, and password, the SnowSQL prompt appears.

Tip

For security reasons, you cannot specify your password as an option on the command line; you must wait for SnowSQL to prompt you for your password.

However, if you would like to skip entering information on the command line or you need to automate login, you can provide all the required account and user credential information, as well as additional Snowflake default usage information, as options in the SnowSQL config file.

For more detailed installation, configuration, login, and usage information, see SnowSQL (CLI Client).

Connecting Using Other Methods¶

In addition to the Snowflake web interface and SnowSQL, Snowflake supports numerous other methods for connecting, including:

Using 3rd-party client services and applications that support JDBC or ODBC.
Developing applications that connect through the Snowflake connectors/drivers for Python, Node.js, Spark, etc.

However, connecting to Snowflake using these other methods requires additional installation, configuration, and development tasks. For more information, see Connecting to Snowflake.