---
title: "One dbt model dominating warehouse scans | Metacenta"
description: "When one table accounts for a tenth of everything your warehouse scans, it usually sets a visible part of the bill. How we find it, without seeing the bill."
url: "https://metacenta.com/rules/warehouse-scan-hotspot"
updated: "2026-10-14"
tokens: 582
---

Consumption & cost · rule warehouse-scan-hotspot

# One dbt model dominating warehouse scans

A Metacenta review checks this under the rule **No single model dominates warehouse scan volume**. Everything below applies whether or not you ever commission one.

## What this rule checks

This rule flags any dbt model whose queries scanned at least 10% of all the bytes your warehouse scanned in the collection window. At three times that share, the finding is high severity.

## Why it matters

On a usage-priced warehouse, one relation at that share sets a visible fraction of the bill. It is usually the one nobody has looked at, because it has always worked.

## How to fix it

**Cut the scan volume of the model dominating the warehouse.** Check whether the table is partitioned or clustered on the column its readers filter by. Then check whether the readers need the full history, or only a recent window.

Before:

```sql
{{ config(materialized='table') }}
select * from {{ ref('stg_shop__events') }}
```

After:

```sql
{{ config(
    materialized='incremental',
    partition_by={'field': 'event_date', 'data_type': 'date'},
    cluster_by=['customer_id']
) }}
select * from {{ ref('stg_shop__events') }}
```

## When it is fine to leave

The model at the centre of the business is often the most scanned, and rightly. The finding is a prompt to check it's stored for how it's read, not a sign that something is wrong.

## What we need to check it

Warehouse query history with scanned bytes. We report the share, not the cost, because the price per byte depends on a contract we can't see. Some warehouses don't report bytes, and then the rule declines.

[Ask about a review](https://metacenta.com/enquire?src=rule-warehouse-scan-hotspot&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)
- [Snowflake warehouses that never suspend](https://metacenta.com/rules/tf-warehouse-never-suspends)
- [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)