What causes STATEMENT_TIMED_OUT?

The task's SQL logic grew more expensive over time as the underlying table size grew, but the timeout was not adjusted to match. The task warehouse was suspended or undersized at execution time, causing the query to queue and then timeout before execution even began. A blocking lock from a concurrent DML operation prevented the task from running within the timeout window

How do I fix STATEMENT_TIMED_OUT?

Step 1: Check the task's execution history in INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TASK_HISTORY or ACCOUNT_USAGE.TASK_HISTORY to confirm the timeout and view the last successful runtime.. Step 2: Optimize the task's SQL — add clustering keys, reduce the result set size, or partition the work across multiple tasks using a predecessor chain.. Step 3: Increase USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS via ALTER TASK ... SET USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS = if the work is legitimately larger.. Step 4: Scale up the warehouse used by the task, or switch to a larger warehouse size for compute-intensive tasks.

High severitytimeout

Power BI Refresh Error:
STATEMENT_TIMED_OUT

What does this error mean?

A Snowflake scheduled task's SQL statement exceeded its configured USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS limit and was automatically cancelled, marking the task run as failed.

Common causes

1The task's SQL logic grew more expensive over time as the underlying table size grew, but the timeout was not adjusted to match
2The task warehouse was suspended or undersized at execution time, causing the query to queue and then timeout before execution even began
3A blocking lock from a concurrent DML operation prevented the task from running within the timeout window

How to fix it

1Step 1: Check the task's execution history in INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TASK_HISTORY or ACCOUNT_USAGE.TASK_HISTORY to confirm the timeout and view the last successful runtime.
2Step 2: Optimize the task's SQL — add clustering keys, reduce the result set size, or partition the work across multiple tasks using a predecessor chain.
3Step 3: Increase USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS via ALTER TASK ... SET USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS = <new_value_ms> if the work is legitimately larger.
4Step 4: Scale up the warehouse used by the task, or switch to a larger warehouse size for compute-intensive tasks.

Frequently asked questions

What is the default USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS value?

The default is 3,600,000 ms (one hour). You can increase it up to 86,400,000 ms (24 hours) for long-running tasks.

Does STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS on the warehouse also apply to tasks?

Yes. If the warehouse has STATEMENT_TIMEOUT_IN_SECONDS set lower than USER_TASK_TIMEOUT_MS, the warehouse-level timeout will take precedence and cancel the query earlier.