---
title: "Snowflake warehouses that never suspend | Metacenta"
description: "A Snowflake warehouse that never suspends bills while idle. How we find auto_suspend set to zero or over an hour in Terraform, and when always-on is right."
url: "https://metacenta.com/rules/tf-warehouse-never-suspends"
updated: "2026-10-14"
tokens: 538
---

Consumption & cost · rule tf-warehouse-never-suspends

# Snowflake warehouses that never suspend

A Metacenta review checks this under the rule **Warehouses suspend when idle**. Everything below applies whether or not you ever commission one.

## What this rule checks

From your Terraform files, this rule flags Snowflake warehouses whose `auto_suspend` is zero, which never suspends, or longer than one hour.

## Why it matters

The warehouse keeps billing while nothing runs on it. An always-on warehouse is usually the largest avoidable line on a Snowflake invoice.

## How to fix it

**Let idle warehouses suspend.** Set `auto_suspend` to between 60 and 300 seconds. Keep a warehouse running only for a workload that must never wait for it to resume.

Before:

```hcl
resource "snowflake_warehouse" "transforming" {
  name           = "TRANSFORMING"
  warehouse_size = "MEDIUM"
  auto_suspend   = 0
}
```

After:

```hcl
resource "snowflake_warehouse" "transforming" {
  name           = "TRANSFORMING"
  warehouse_size = "MEDIUM"
  auto_suspend   = 120
}
```

## When it is fine to leave

A warehouse serving dashboards that must answer instantly, all day, may justify a longer suspend. Its local cache also survives while it runs. Make it a small warehouse, and a deliberate choice.

## What we need to check it

The `.tf` files that declare your Snowflake warehouses. We read resource types, names and settings. A credential-shaped value is reported by line number, never copied.

[Ask about a review](https://metacenta.com/enquire?src=rule-tf-warehouse-never-suspends&via=md)

## Related pages

- [dbt models nobody queries](https://metacenta.com/rules/warehouse-model-never-read)
- [Widely read dbt models with no tests](https://metacenta.com/rules/warehouse-hot-model-untested)
- [One dbt model dominating warehouse scans](https://metacenta.com/rules/warehouse-scan-hotspot)
- [Dashboards nobody opens](https://metacenta.com/rules/bi-dashboard-unviewed)
- [A sample review, as a client reads it](https://metacenta.com/sample)
- [All published rules](https://metacenta.com/rules)
- [How a review is assessed](https://metacenta.com/standard)