Grafana Cloud review

Grafana Cloud ranks third because it pairs a real free tier with low per host APM pricing for teams that already speak Prometheus and OpenTelemetry. Application Observability is free for up to 2,232 host hours a month, roughly three hosts running all month, and the Pro plan then charges from $0.025 per host hour, which Grafana lists as about $18 per host. Pro has a $19 monthly platform fee plus usage and includes 13 months of metric retention and 30 days for logs, traces and profiles, with 8x5 email support. Traces are stored in a managed tracing backend that includes 50 GB of ingest a month before usage charges. Adaptive Metrics and Adaptive Logs recommend which unused data to drop, and volume discounts apply automatically. The downside is complexity: a bill can combine host hours, active series and per GB process, write and retain charges, and the free tier keeps data for only 14 days.

Who it is for

Teams already using Prometheus, OpenTelemetry or Grafana dashboards

Price

Free tier; Pro from $19 per month plus usage, with Application Observability from $0.025 per host hour ($18 per host).

From $19 / month + usage
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 12, 2026.

Key features

• Application Observability with native OpenTelemetry and Prometheus support
• Free tier covers 2,232 Application Observability host hours a month
• Pro Application Observability starts at $0.025 per host hour, about $18 per host
• Traces include 50 GB of ingest a month, then from $0.40 per GB written
• Pro keeps metrics for 13 months and logs, traces and profiles for 30 days

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Permanent free tier with access to all Grafana Cloud services within limits
• Strength: Automatic volume discounts as usage grows
• Strength: Adaptive Metrics and Adaptive Logs tools to drop unused telemetry
• Weakness: Free tier keeps data for only 14 days
• Weakness: Several billing meters (host hours, GB processed, written and retained) to model
• Weakness: Enterprise requires a minimum commit of $25,000 a year

Key facts

• Free plan: Yes, 2,232 APM host hours per month
• APM price: From $0.025 per host hour on Pro
• Retention on Pro: 13 months metrics, 30 days traces

Where it ranks

Grafana Cloud is No. 3 in our Best APM Tools verdict.