# 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.

```text
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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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