Orphan Tables

Identify tables and views with no pipeline connections and zero query activity so you can safely drop them to reclaim storage.

Overview

Orphan Tables are tables or views in your Snowflake environment that have no upstream or downstream pipeline connections and have received zero queries over the configured analysis window. They represent storage cost with no business value — dropping them frees space and reduces clutter.

---

How It Works

Detection Logic

Seemore evaluates every table and view across your connected Snowflake accounts by checking two conditions:

1. No pipeline connections — the table does not appear as a source or destination in any tracked pipeline (dbt, Airflow, Fivetran, Rivery, etc.).

2. Zero usage — no SELECT, INSERT, MERGE, or other DML has been executed against the table within the analysis window.

Tables that satisfy both conditions are flagged as orphans.

---

Analysis Window

The default analysis window is 21 days. Seemore looks at the most recent 21-day period of query history to determine whether a table has been accessed.

---

Cost Estimation

Each orphan table insight includes:

• Estimated annual storage savings based on the table's current size and your Snowflake storage rate.

• Row count and storage size to help you assess impact.

---

Remediation

Once you confirm a table is no longer needed:

DROP TABLE <database>.<schema>.<table>;

You can also mark the insight as Done in Seemore after remediation. If the table reappears in query history, the insight will not be regenerated.

---

Configuration

Parameter	Default	Description
Analysis window	21 days	How far back Seemore looks for query activity.

If you have configured Exclude Users from Usage, excluded users' queries are ignored when determining whether a table has usage. This means tables accessed only by service accounts or bots will still be flagged as orphans.