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

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.

Account name examples by region

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
US East (Commercial Gov - N. Virginia)

xy12345.us-east-1-gov.aws
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:

  1. 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:

    Snowflake web interface login page

  2. 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

The SnowSQL installer is available for download from the Snowflake Client Repository. No authentication is required. This version of the SnowSQL installer enables auto-upgrade for patches.

For more detailed instructions, see Installing SnowSQL.

To install SnowSQL:

  1. Open a terminal window.

  2. Run curl to download the SnowSQL installer.

    For increased flexibility, Snowflake provides both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure endpoints for downloading the SnowSQL installer. Accounts hosted on any supported cloud platform can download the installer from either endpoint.

    Linux

    macOS

    AWS endpoint
    $ curl -O https://sfc-repo.snowflakecomputing.com/snowsql/bootstrap/<bootstrap_version>/darwin_x86_64/snowsql-<version>-darwin_x86_64.pkg
    Microsoft Azure endpoint
    $ curl -O https://sfc-repo.azure.snowflakecomputing.com/snowsql/bootstrap/<bootstrap_version>/darwin_x86_64/snowsql-<version>-darwin_x86_64.pkg

    Windows

  3. Run the installer:

    Linux

    1. Open a terminal window.

    2. Run the Bash script installer from the download location:

      $ bash snowsql-linux_x86_64.bash

    3. Follow the instructions provided by the installer.

    macOS

    1. Double-click snowsql-darwin_x86_64.pkg in the download location to run the installer PKG file.

    2. Follow the instructions provided by the installer.

    Windows

    1. Double-click snowsql-windows_x86_64.msi in the download location to run the installer MSI file.

    2. Follow the instructions provided by the installer.

Configuring the Z Shell Alias (macOS Only)

If Z shell (also known as zsh) is your default terminal shell, set an alias to the SnowSQL executable so that you can run SnowSQL on the command line in Terminal. The SnowSQL installer installs the executable in /Applications/SnowSQL.app/Contents/MacOS/snowsql and appends this path to the PATH or alias entry in ~/.profile. Because zsh does not normally read this file, add an alias to this path in ~/.zshrc, which zsh does read.

To add an alias to the SnowSQL executable:

  1. Open (or create, if missing) the ~/.zshrc file.

  2. Add the following line:

    alias snowsql=/Applications/SnowSQL.app/Contents/MacOS/snowsql

  3. Save the file.

Step 2: Connect to Snowflake and Initiate a Session

  1. 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>

  2. 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.