Host-hours pricing for Kubernetes Monitoring

Kubernetes Monitoring is now established as a core Grafana Cloud application, and its usage is billed separately. For new customers beginning September 17, 2024, Grafana Cloud calculates Kubernetes Monitoring usage based on active host and container hours in a calendar month.

Definition of active host or container

An active host or active container is any Kubernetes Node (whether it’s a virtual machine or a physical machine) or container actively sending observability signals using kube-state-metrics. Billable host hours are the total time that active hosts and active containers are monitored each month.

Diagram of a Node, Pod, and its containers

What is not a host

A Pod (a group of one or more containers) is not considered a host. Pods run within Nodes, which are the actual hosts.

How hours are tracked

Hourly pricing occurs whenever a host (a node) or a container sends kube-state-metrics to Grafana Cloud. Kubernetes Monitoring usage is billed during a calendar month by calculating:

$0.015 per active Node hour
$0.001 per active container hour

Billable hours are the sum of the time that active hosts send monitoring signals to Grafana Cloud during the month.

Windows nodes

If you are running Windows nodes within a Kubernetes Cluster, you are billed for host hours if kube-state-metrics is present within the same Cluster.

Non-Prometheus telemetry data

If you use OTel-style telemetry or other data collection methods (such as VictoriaMetrics) with Kubernetes Monitoring, these methods result in a partial or empty set of data. Without the data available from the kube-state-metrics exporter, active nodes and containers can’t be detected, and you won’t be billed for host hours.

Invoice

For more detailed information about host-hours billing and your invoice, refer to Understand your Kubernetes Monitoring invoice.

Existing customers with ingestion-based billing

If you have been using Kubernetes Monitoring in Grafana Cloud prior September 17th, 2024, Grafana won’t automatically transfer your account to host-hours billing. However, if you want to migrate to this form of billing, contact support to evaluate your situation and accommodate your request where possible.