# In-Database Processing in Tableau Prep (Snowflake)

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2026-03-03
- **Format:** Short · 1 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Data prep, Tool strategy
- **Tools:** Snowflake (warehouses); Tableau (prep)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/in-database-processing-in-tableau-prep-snowflake
- **Watch:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSI4m37aZtU

I cover the new in-database processing capability in Tableau Prep for Snowflake, where operations can be pushed down to your Snowflake database rather than running inside Prep. I touch on the performance gains for large datasets and the cost trade-offs to watch out for.

## Key takeaways

- In-database processing lets you run Prep operations directly in your Snowflake database, dramatically speeding up flows on large datasets
- This capability already existed for other databases (such as Databricks) and now extends to Snowflake, bringing the big hyperscalers into play
- Be careful with credit consumption, as pushing operations across your entire dataset on a large warehouse can burn through Snowflake credits
- Sampling settings in Tableau Prep still matter and, if misconfigured, can cause serious problems, so pay close attention to them

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/in-database-processing-in-tableau-prep-snowflake

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena