--- title: "Snowflake's CoCo agent passed 9,100 accounts and its CFO says counting it in guidance would be reckless" description: "Snowflake's CFO refuses to extrapolate CoCo, its AI coding agent, into guidance, calling the math reckless. The same agent ships a top-ten skill whose job is to shrink the consumption bills Snowflake is paid on." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Platforms" published: 2026-10-15T16:15:52.943Z modified: 2026-10-15T16:15:52.943Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/snowflake-s-coco-agent-passed-9-100-accounts-and-its-cfo-says-counting-it-in-guidance-would-be-reckless language: en keywords: "Snowflake, Earnings, AI Agents, Guidance, Enterprise Software" --- # Snowflake's CoCo agent passed 9,100 accounts and its CFO says counting it in guidance would be reckless > Snowflake's CFO refuses to extrapolate CoCo, its AI coding agent, into guidance, calling the math reckless. The same agent ships a top-ten skill whose job is to shrink the consumption bills Snowflake is paid on. [Snowflake](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/snowflake) (NYSE: SNOW) chief financial officer Brian Robins [told broker Piper Sandler's Growth Frontiers conference on September 15](https://www.tikr.com/blog/snowflake-stock-jumped-7-in-a-day-heres-why-its-cfo-haircuts-the-coco-forecast) that machine-learning models forecast the data platform's core consumption business every night, "with a very small standard deviation" [1]. Its AI coding agent, Cortex Code or CoCo, gets different treatment. "I think it would somewhat be reckless to extract that out and just apply that to guidance," he said, so Snowflake applies "a haircut" [1]. Analysts are less careful. They have raised revenue estimates after each of the last two reports, lifting fiscal 2028 consensus about 10% since March 31 and fiscal 2027 about 7% [1]. The product the Street keeps upgrading is the one management refuses to count. The market noticed anyway. Snowflake closed October 9 at $368.89, up 7.42% [1], after [an Agentic Marketplace Discovery preview](https://everyticker.com/quote/SNOW/news/snowflake-launches-agentic-marketplace-discovery-to-democratize-ai-tool-search) put CoCo inside Snowsight, the platform's web interface, where users can search its marketplace in plain language [2]. Shares trade at 146 times next-twelve-month normalized earnings [1]. ## The agent that shrinks the bill CoCo passed 9,100 accounts in the quarter ended July 31, adding more than 2,000 in three months, while CoWork, Snowflake's autonomous AI platform for enterprise workflows, expanded to 5,800 [3]. Robins said CoCo skills cut customer migrations from 10 or 11 months to about 6, pulling billable consumption forward, and that Snowflake canceled its own analytics contracts in favor of CoCo dashboards [1]. The catch sits in the usage table. A cost-optimization skill ranks among CoCo's 10 most used, and consumption customers who optimize pay Snowflake less [1]. [The company's own second-quarter release](https://markets.financialcontent.com/streetinsider/article/bizwire-2026-9-2-snowflake-reports-financial-results-for-the-second-quarter-of-fiscal-2027) lists "the extent to which customers continue to optimize consumption, including with respect to AI features" among its risks [3]. No filing totals the two sides of that ledger. ## Cash still sawtooths July-quarter free cash flow was $83.8 million on $1.55 billion of revenue, a 5.4% margin [3]. TIKR, a stock-research platform, counts a $107.27 million consensus for that line: a 21.87% miss, and the third in five quarters [1]. On September 29 the company [announced it had priced $3.75 billion of zero-coupon convertible notes](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260928854921/en/Snowflake-Prices-Upsized-Private-Placement-of-%243.75-Billion-of-0.00-Convertible-Senior-Notes), debt that pays no interest and can turn into shares, upsized from a proposed $3.5 billion [4]. Twelve quarters of filings show the shape underneath: revenue doubles while the cash line sawtooths [5]. *Chart: **Revenue doubled in 12 quarters; free cash flow still sawtooths** Snowflake quarterly revenue versus free cash flow, fiscal Q3 2024 through fiscal Q2 2027, showing revenue rising from $0.73B to $1.55B while free cash flow sawtooths between $0.06B and $0.77B.* *Snowflake fiscal quarters; the fiscal year ends January 31, so Q2 FY27 ended July 31, 2026. Free cash flow is operating cash flow minus capital spending, in USD billions. The miss count is against analyst consensus. [1][5]* ## The flywheel case Chief executive [Sridhar Ramaswamy](https://theinference.org/markets/people/sridhar-ramaswamy)'s answer is that CoCo and CoWork are "fueling rapid adoption, user growth, new workloads, and overall platform consumption" [3]. The quarter marked "our third consecutive quarter of product revenue growth acceleration," by the CFO's count, and full-year product revenue guidance rose to $6.07 billion, 36% growth, from $5.84 billion [3]. [Shares jumped 22% in extended trading on the September 2 report](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/snowflake-snow-q2-earnings-report-2027.html) [6]. October partnerships point the same way: [Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic), the AI lab, [runs its models where corporate data already sits](https://www.ciomonitor.com/articles/snowflake-and-anthropic-expand-partnership-for-governed-enterprise-ai-709cdd18), and [Palantir](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/palantir)'s operational software [wires decisions into production](https://www.ciomonitor.com/articles/snowflake-and-palantir-strike-enterprise-ai-and-analytics-partnership-461f1865), both feeding the same consumption meter [7][8]. July is always the cash trough, and management guides a 23% adjusted free cash flow margin for the year [3]. What none of that prices is the optimizer. ## December 2 decides the haircut Expedition, Snowflake's customer conference, streams November 3 to 5, opening with Ramaswamy and [Microsoft](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/microsoft) chairman and chief executive [Satya Nadella](https://theinference.org/markets/people/satya-nadella) [1]. October-quarter results, expected about December 2 and unconfirmed, carry analyst models near 36% revenue growth [1]. If CoCo adds another 2,000-plus accounts and growth clears that line, the haircut was too deep; a smaller gain says the CFO trimmed it right. ## Takeaway Snowflake's management refuses to extrapolate CoCo's account growth into guidance while analysts keep raising estimates on it, and the tension resolves on December 2, when October-quarter results show whether 2,000-plus new accounts a quarter validates or strands the Street's math. ## Sources 1. [TIKR, "Snowflake Stock Jumped 7% in a Day. Here's Why Its CFO Haircuts the CoCo Forecast", 10 October 2026](https://www.tikr.com/blog/snowflake-stock-jumped-7-in-a-day-heres-why-its-cfo-haircuts-the-coco-forecast) 2. [EveryTicker, "Snowflake Launches Agentic Marketplace Discovery to Democratize AI Tool Search", 10 October 2026](https://everyticker.com/quote/SNOW/news/snowflake-launches-agentic-marketplace-discovery-to-democratize-ai-tool-search) 3. [Snowflake Inc. via Business Wire, "Snowflake Reports Financial Results for the Second Quarter of Fiscal 2027", 2 September 2026](https://markets.financialcontent.com/streetinsider/article/bizwire-2026-9-2-snowflake-reports-financial-results-for-the-second-quarter-of-fiscal-2027) 4. [Snowflake Inc. via Business Wire, "Snowflake Prices Upsized Private Placement of $3.75 Billion of 0.00% Convertible Senior Notes", 29 September 2026](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260928854921/en/Snowflake-Prices-Upsized-Private-Placement-of-%243.75-Billion-of-0.00-Convertible-Senior-Notes) 5. [Snowflake, quarterly revenue and free cash flow from its SEC filings, retrieved 15 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001640147) 6. [CNBC, "Snowflake spikes 22% on healthy results and AI coding momentum", 2 September 2026](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/snowflake-snow-q2-earnings-report-2027.html) 7. [CIO Monitor, "Snowflake and Anthropic Expand Partnership for Governed Enterprise AI", 10 October 2026](https://www.ciomonitor.com/articles/snowflake-and-anthropic-expand-partnership-for-governed-enterprise-ai-709cdd18) 8. [CIO Monitor, "Snowflake and Palantir Strike Enterprise AI and Analytics Partnership", 10 October 2026](https://www.ciomonitor.com/articles/snowflake-and-palantir-strike-enterprise-ai-and-analytics-partnership-461f1865) --- Snowflake's CoCo agent passed 9,100 accounts and its CFO says counting it in guidance would be reckless — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/snowflake-s-coco-agent-passed-9-100-accounts-and-its-cfo-says-counting-it-in-guidance-would-be-reckless