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Understand your Synthetic Monitoring invoice

Synthetic Monitoring uses the number of test executions and the type of test to calculate your invoice.

Billing calculations

A test execution is a synthetic test running in a probe location, per minute of run time.

To estimate the number of test executions per month, you’ll need the following information:

  • Number of locations (probes)
  • Number of synthetic checks (tests)
  • Duration of a test execution (rounded up to the nearest minute)
  • Frequency of testing (in minutes)

Using the preceding list, you can estimate the number of test executions per month by applying this formula (where 43,200 is the total minutes in a 30 day month):

(probes x tests x duration x (43,200 / frequency)

For example:

  • You create a check that runs every minute in three probe locations. That equals to three test executions per minute, or 129,600 test executions per month.
  • You create a check that runs every five minutes in one location, and your check takes three minutes and thirty seconds to complete. That equals to four test executions every five minutes, or 34,560 test executions per month.

There are two types of tests in Synthetic Monitoring:

  • API tests: includes HTTP, Ping, DNS, TCP, Traceroute, Multi Step, and Scripted checks.
  • Browser tests: includes Browser checks.

API and Browser test executions are billed separately in your Synthetic Monitoring invoice.

Usage calculator

When creating or editing a check, the Synthetic Monitoring UI has a built-in calculator that shows the volume of test executions per month, active series , data points per minute, and log usage to expect for the check.

The Synthetic Monitoring calculator in the Grafana Cloud “Edit check” page, showing the approximate usage for a check

Public and private probes

Synthetic Monitoring test executions are counted in both public and private probe locations, and are billed in the same way. In both cases, test execution is managed by Synthetic Monitoring, and results are sent to and managed by Grafana Cloud.

Credit for active series and logs usage

Each executed test also generates logs, metrics, and active series.

Active series credit

In Grafana Cloud, an active series is a time series that has received new data points within the last 30 minutes.

For Synthetic Monitoring users:

  • A credit of 30 active series for every 10,000 API test executions is applied to your invoice.
  • A credit of 100 active series for every 10,000 Browser test executions is applied to your invoice.

These credits offset the active series generated by Synthetic Monitoring.

For more details about active series, refer to Understand your Grafana Cloud Metrics invoice.

Logs usage credit

Grafana Cloud calculates logs usage by volume ingested and retained.

For Synthetic Monitoring users:

  • A credit of 400MB ingested and retained is applied to your invoice for every 10,000 Browser test executions.
  • No credit is applied for API test executions as they generate minimal log volumes.

For more details about active series, refer to Understand your Grafana Cloud Logs invoice.

Billing metrics variance

The aggregation of execution counts can cause the billable amount to vary +/- 0.5% from the true value. To account for this, Grafana Cloud reduces the billable amount by 0.5% to avoid any overbilling.