December 8th, 2025
Grafana Pricing: Usage Costs And Managed Plans In 2025
By Zach Perkel · 19 min read
After analyzing Grafana’s pricing model, it’s clear that the open source version stays free, while Grafana Cloud bills you for the data you send in. I found that usage drives most of the cost, especially as dashboards expand or ingest increases. Here’s how pricing works and how managed plans compare in 2025.
Grafana pricing: At a glance
Grafana is free when you host it yourself, but many teams use options through Grafana Cloud or managed hosting. You can choose Grafana Cloud, use a service like AWS or Azure, or self-host if you have the resources. Here’s how Grafana pricing works in 2025:
Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud includes a range of products you can add, including metrics, logs, traces, profiles, synthetic tests, k6 performance tests, and Kubernetes monitoring. You pay usage costs for each, on top of the subscription fees below:
Plan | Base Price | Included Usage | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
Free | $0 | 10k active metrics series, 50 GB logs, 50k traces | Natural language queries with visual results |
Pro | Starts at $19 per month + usage. | Usage-based pricing across metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and synthetics | Teams that want flexible usage billing |
Enterprise | Custom (starts at a $25,000 per year commitment) | Volume discounts across all usage types | Larger teams that need higher limits and support |
Managed Grafana
Managed Grafana lets you run Grafana through AWS or Azure without handling your own servers.
AWS Managed Grafana uses role-based pricing. Editors cost $9 per month and viewers cost $5 per month. The charges stay tied to headcount instead of data use, which makes cost planning easier.
Azure Managed Grafana uses resource pricing. A standard unit on the Central US server costs $0.043 per hour, and a zone redundant unit costs $0.051 per hour, plus $6 per month per active user. This behaves more like paying for compute than paying for ingestion.
Self-hosted Grafana
Grafana OSS is free and open-source, but you cover your own infrastructure, storage, and maintenance. You manage updates and uptime on your servers. This option fits teams with the engineering capacity to run and maintain Grafana internally.
Grafana Cloud pricing plans breakdown
Grafana Cloud uses usage-based billing, and the plan you pick sets your included limits before extra charges start. Here’s what each plan includes and who it’s best for:
Grafana Cloud Free plan
Price: $0
What’s included: 10k active metrics series, 50 GB logs, 50k traces, 3 users, and 14-day retention.
Best for: Small tests, short-term projects, and early monitoring setups.
Pros: No cost, simple to start, and enough data for basic dashboards.
Cons: Hard limits on metrics, logs, users, and retention.
Grafana Cloud Pro plan
Price: Starts at $19 per month + usage.
What’s included: Usage-based billing across active series, DPM, log ingest, trace ingest, profiles, synthetics, and k6.
Best for: Teams that want more flexibility and can track usage over time.
Pros: No hard caps, more retention, and predictable base access.
Cons: Total cost rises as usage grows, which can be hard to estimate.
Grafana Cloud’s Enterprise plan
Price: Custom pricing, starting at a $25,000 annual commitment.
What’s included: Volume discounts across all Cloud products, enterprise plugins, higher retention, and stronger support.
Best for: Larger teams with steady ingest needs and higher support expectations.
Pros: Discounts on metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and tests, plus enterprise features.
Cons: Requires a contract and a larger upfront commitment.
Usage-based products in Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud gives you the same included usage on both Free and Pro, which means you get 10k active series, 50 GB of logs, 50 GB of traces, and 500 virtual user hours before any extra charges begin. The Pro plan adds a $19 monthly platform fee, longer retention, and support, and you pay for usage only when you go past those included amounts.
Every product has its own meter, so your final bill is the $19 platform fee plus the usage you exceed across metrics, logs, traces, and other products.
Here’s what you need to know:Managed Grafana pricing
Managed Grafana lets you use Grafana without running your own servers. You pay to have the platform managed for you, and the bill stays tied to users or compute instead of data ingest.
Here’s a breakdown of managed Grafana:
AWS Managed Grafana
AWS Managed Grafana uses a role-based model that charges by user type, which is best for teams that want fixed monthly costs tied to headcount. Here are the costs:
Editor: $9 per month
Viewer: $5 per month
This setup keeps your bill steady, since you’re not charged for ingestion or data spikes. Enterprise plugins add extra cost.
Azure Managed Grafana
Azure Managed Grafana uses resource pricing and works well for teams that prefer compute-style billing over usage billing. Here’s what to expect:
Standard Unit: $0.043 per hour
Zone Redundant Unit: $0.051 per hour
Active users: $6 per month each
This model behaves more like paying for a virtual machine. It’s easier to budget for, because you’re not billed for metrics or log volume.
Grafana OSS pricing
Grafana OSS is the open source version of this tool, and it’s best for teams that want full control without paying for a managed plan. The software is free to use, but you take on all of the setup, hosting, and maintenance yourself.
You cover your own infrastructure costs, which means paying for storage, compute, backups, and monitoring on whatever platform you run it on. There’s no usage billing, but there’s also no managed support or built-in scaling. This option works for teams that already have engineers who can operate and maintain a Grafana stack without help.Is Grafana worth the cost?
Grafana is worth the cost when you need steady monitoring, clear dashboards, and reliable visibility into your systems. The open source version is free, but the paid options matter once your team needs managed hosting, higher retention, or support across multiple environments.
Here’s how to decide:
Self-hosted Grafana is worth it if: You have engineers who can run the platform, manage storage, handle updates, and keep everything stable. This option gives you full control and no licensing fees, but you take on all the work of managing the stack.
Grafana Cloud is worth it if: You want a fully hosted platform with strong observability tools and don’t mind usage-based billing. You pay for the metrics, logs, and traces you send in, which works well when you can track your ingest and keep an eye on growth.
Managed Grafana (on AWS or Azure) is worth it if: You want predictable monthly costs tied to users or compute. This setup removes the need to run your own servers and fits teams that want steady pricing instead of usage-based billing.
Grafana Cloud alternatives and pricing comparison
Grafana works well for monitoring, but some teams need simpler reporting tools or faster ways to check data. I tested a few alternatives that cover different workflows, from quick insights to lightweight dashboard software.
Let’s compare the Grafana alternatives side by side:
Tool | Starting price (Billed annually) | Best for | Key advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
Business users who want flexible analysis and repeatable reporting | Natural language queries with charts, summaries, and shareable Notebooks | ||
$100/month for the first 5 users, $6/user/month after | Teams that want simple dashboards without Grafana Cloud’s ingest setup | Easy dashboards with guided questions and no-code visualizations | |
Free | Teams that want simple charts and shareable reports | Strong Google connectors with fast report creation |
Julius: Business users who want flexible analysis and repeatable reporting
We built Julius to help business users analyze data and create structured reports without managing metrics, logs, or ingest pipelines. You connect sources like Postgres, BigQuery, or Sheets and ask questions in natural language to get charts and summaries. You can turn those results into Notebooks you rerun, schedule, or share, which gives you a consistent way to review data across your team.
Julius removes the usual bottlenecks that slow down reporting. You can answer one-off questions, build repeatable analysis in a single place, and use Notebooks to keep work organized without setting up a monitoring stack. It gives you a stable workflow for analysis and scheduled reporting, so your team can review clear results without tracking usage billing.
Julius starts at $16 per month for the Plus plan.
Metabase: Best for simple dashboards without Grafana Cloud’s ingest setup
Metabase is a lightweight dashboard tool that helps you create charts and reports without configuring metrics, logs, or traces. I tested it and found it worked well for small projects that needed a clear interface, guided questions, and simple visualizations. You can explore tables, run quick queries, and build dashboards with very little setup.
Metabase starts at $100 per month for the Pro plan, which starts with 5 users. Additional users cost $6 each per month. It’s a practical alternative to Grafana Cloud when you only need dashboards and light reporting, but it doesn’t handle monitoring, alerting, or usage controls. It fits teams that want reporting without the ingest work that Grafana Cloud requires.
Looker Studio: Best for teams that want simple charts and shareable reports
Looker Studio is a free reporting tool from Google that makes it easy to build charts and share reports. I use it when I need quick visuals for marketing or analytics work, especially when the data already lives in Sheets, BigQuery, or other Google sources. You can build reports fast and share them with a link, which works well for teams that want simple dashboards without managing a monitoring system.
Looker Studio is free, so it’s a practical alternative to Grafana Cloud when you only need charts and lightweight reporting. It doesn’t support metrics, logs, traces, or deeper monitoring, so it can’t replace Grafana Cloud for observability, but it’s enough for Google data visualization, business reporting, or client-facing dashboards.Julius vs Grafana: Which one fits your team?
Julius focuses on analysis and reporting, while Grafana focuses on monitoring and observability. They solve different problems, so the right choice depends on how your team reviews and manages data each day.
Use this quick guide to see which option makes sense for you:
Julius is better for: Teams that want quick insights, visual summaries, and natural language queries without setting up a monitoring stack. Julius stays simple, and the price stays flat, so you don’t have to watch usage meters or calculate costs across products.
Grafana is better for: Teams that need system monitoring across metrics, logs, or traces. Grafana pricing depends on how you run it, whether you self-host, use Grafana Cloud with usage billing, or pick managed hosting on AWS or Azure. It fits best when you already track ingest volume and need full observability.
Use both if: You rely on Grafana for system monitoring but want Julius for questions, charts, and scheduled reports that your whole team can understand. This setup keeps observability in Grafana while Julius handles quick analysis without raising your Cloud bill.
Ready to see how Julius can help your team make better decisions? Try Julius for free today.
My bottom line on Grafana pricing
I found that Grafana is worth the cost when you need dependable monitoring across metrics, logs, or traces and don’t want gaps in visibility.
The open source version works if your team can run the servers, but once you want stable hosting and longer retention, the paid options become the more practical choice.
Grafana Cloud makes sense when you’re comfortable with usage billing and can follow how your ingest grows each month. Managed Grafana on AWS or Azure fits better when you want a steady bill tied to users or compute instead of usage. I do think both options give you strong observability, but they serve different needs depending on how your team handles infrastructure.
If your work is mostly about answering questions, reviewing data with your team, or keeping reports up to date, I recommend using Julius alongside or instead of Grafana. Julius gives you a simple way to run analysis and share results without managing ingest or watching usage costs.Frequently asked questions
How does Grafana calculate usage costs?
Grafana calculates usage costs based on the data volume and activity you send to each product, plus your base plan fee. Each feature, such as metrics, logs, traces, profiles, and synthetic tests, is metered separately, and your total usage determines your monthly bill. You can control costs by reducing noisy metrics and keeping ingest levels steady.
What’s the main reason Grafana bills increase over time?
Grafana bills usually increase over time as your usage grows, mainly from more active metrics and higher log ingestion. Expanding dashboards, adding new data sources, or raising retention all increase the usage meters that shape your monthly cost. You can slow this growth by cutting noisy metrics and lowering ingest volume.
Are there ways to simplify Grafana reporting without growing usage costs?
Yes, you can simplify Grafana reporting and control usage costs by creating charts and summaries with separate AI data visualization tools instead of sending more data into Grafana. This keeps your usage stable because reporting happens outside your monitoring stack. It works well when you only need clean visuals and want to follow basic data visualization best practices.
