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Incremental model

An incremental model processes only new or changed data on each run instead of rebuilding the whole table.

Written by Reflective Data experts · updated Oct 5, 2026

It saves time and money for large event tables. It requires a reliable way to identify new rows, a unique key and handling for late-arriving data.

Test incremental models carefully, since subtle bugs show up only after many runs.

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dbtIdempotencyPartitioning and clustering

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