# Questions about efficiency, costs and usage of Spice vs. Direct Query in Quick Sight

**URL:** <https://community.amazonquick.com/t/questions-about-efficiency-costs-and-usage-of-spice-vs-direct-query-in-quicksight/34325>\
**Category:** Q&A\
**Tags:** qls-spice-schedule-api, billing, direct-query, admin, quick-sight\
**Created:** [August 27, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/questions-about-efficiency-costs-and-usage-of-spice-vs-direct-query-in-quicksight/34325 "2024-08-27T00:00:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

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**Author:** ![Xclipse](https://d2orw1595917va.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.amazonquick.com/xclipse/32/20455_2.png) [@Xclipse](https://community.amazonquick.com/u/Xclipse)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://community.amazonquick.com/t/questions-about-efficiency-costs-and-usage-of-spice-vs-direct-query-in-quicksight/34325/2 "2024-08-27T03:59:52Z")

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Hi @ArthurMendes

**SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine)** is Amazon Quick Sight’s in-memory engine designed for faster performance by preloading data.

**SPICE** is more efficient for performance because it stores data in memory, resulting in low-latency queries and better scalability for large datasets. It’s cost-effective if your queries are run frequently and you want to avoid paying for every query separately.

**Direct Query** connects to your data source in real-time, allowing up-to-date access without loading data into SPICE. However, this method can be slower, especially with complex datasets or if the source is under heavy load. Costs can accumulate due to both query execution and potential data transfer charges.

SPICE supports incremental updates, which allow you to append or refresh parts of your dataset without reloading the entire dataset.

- If you need to remove data or handle deletes, you may have to re-import the dataset (full refresh) or apply logic in the dataset transformation stage to exclude unwanted records.
- SPICE does not have an automatic mechanism like a crawler to map schema changes. You need to manually update the schema in Quick Sight dataset.

**SPICE** is suitable when you have large datasets that are frequently accessed in analysis and dashboards, benefiting from pre-aggregation and faster reporting.

**Direct Query** is suitable when you have smaller datasets and require real-time reporting where data freshness is critical.

Please refer the below documentation this might be helpful for you.

> **[Best practices for Amazon QuickSight SPICE and direct query mode | Amazon Web...](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-intelligence/best-practices-for-amazon-quicksight-spice-and-direct-query-mode/)**
>
> In QuickSight, data is queried from datasets when visuals load within analyses, dashboards, reports, exports, in responses to questions asked in natural language to Amazon Q, or when threshold alerts are being evaluated. Direct queries are sent to...

> **[Need help understanding Quicksight direct query to timestream with filters](https://repost.aws/questions/QUjhkWNxogRkyILRLGPcK4qA/need-help-understanding-quicksight-direct-query-to-timestream-with-filters)**
>
> Do filters in direct mode mean that the raw underlying SQL query is adding or modifying a where clause? OR does it sorta scan everything then filter it after the underlying data has been scanned?
> 
> ...

Quick Sight pricing - [Business Intelligence Service – Amazon QuickSight Pricing – AWS](https://aws.amazon.com/quicksight/pricing/)

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