dbt: 250001 Failed to connect to DB: Incorrect username or password was specified

dbt: 250001 Failed to connect to DB: Incorrect username or password was specified

TL;DR: Snowflake rejected the username/password in your profile. First rule out typos in profiles.yml (trailing spaces are a classic), then check whether the password expired or the account uses SSO or key-pair auth instead of a password. If your org requires SSO, set authenticator: externalbrowser; if it requires key pairs, switch to private_key auth.

250001 (08001): Failed to connect to DB: [account].snowflakecomputing.com:443. Incorrect username or password was specified.

Steps

1. Open profiles.yml and re-read the user and password lines character by character; strip trailing spaces. Rerun dbt debug. Expected: either it connects or the error persists with clean input.

1. Log into Snowflake in a browser with the same username and password. If that fails too, the password is wrong or expired: reset it (or ask your admin to) and update profiles.yml.

1. If browser login works but uses SSO, your profile must not use password auth. Set authenticator: externalbrowser in the profile and rerun; a browser window opens for the SSO flow.

1. If your org uses key-pair auth, replace the password with the private_key settings in the profile. Expected: dbt debug shows Connection test: OK.

When this applies

• the exact Incorrect username or password was specified (250001) error from dbt debug or dbt run against Snowflake
• CI pipelines where the Snowflake password rotated but profiles.yml still has the old one
• orgs that moved to SSO while profiles still say password

When it doesn't

• Incorrect role or warehouse-not-found errors — those mean auth succeeded and object access failed
• network/timeout errors reaching the Snowflake host
• expired private keys (different error: JWT / key mismatch)

Compatibility

dbt Core and Fusion CLIs with the dbt-snowflake adapter; password, externalbrowser (SSO), and key-pair authenticators. Verified against the dbt-action issue thread.

Variant phrasings

• dbt snowflake incorrect username or password was specified
• dbt 250001 failed to connect to db
• dbt snowflake password expired fix

Root cause

Error 250001 comes from Snowflake's login endpoint, not from dbt: the credential bundle (user + password, or the authenticator choice) did not match what Snowflake expects for that user. dbt just surfaces it.

Edge cases

• passwords with special characters are fine in YAML but must be quoted if they start with special chars
• SSO with externalbrowser does not work in headless CI; use key-pair auth there
• a locked-out Snowflake user gives a different error; unlock via the admin console