--- title: "Learn how your cost is calculated | Grafana Labs" description: "Understand how Grafana Cloud calculates billing for metrics, logs, traces, and other services using product-specific methodologies." --- > For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). # Learn how your cost is calculated Grafana Cloud uses different billing methodologies depending on the product or feature to offer predictable pricing. ## Ninety-fifth percentile billing for metrics Grafana Cloud Metric ingestion is billed on the ninety-fifth percentile of activity each month, based on: - **Active series**: Unique time series receiving new data points within 30 minutes - **Data points per minute (DPM)**: How frequently data is sent to Grafana Cloud Your billable metrics usage is calculated as the maximum of either active series or total DPM: `usage = max(active_series, total_dpm / included_dpm)` ### Ninety-fifth percentile billing advantage Grafana Cloud uses ninety-fifth percentile billing for metrics, which provides significant advantages: - Forgives temporary usage spikes during incidents or deployments - Provides predictable monthly costs based on typical usage patterns - Eliminates billing for the top 5% of usage time each calendar month (approximately 36 hours) This means if you normally send 6,000 active series but spike to 30,000 for 24 hours in a month, you’re still billed at the 6,000 series rate. ### Scrape interval impact on costs Your scrape interval directly affects DPM and costs: - **15-second interval**: 4 data points per minute (higher cost) - **30-second interval**: 2 data points per minute (medium cost) - **60-second interval**: 1 data point per minute (lower cost, recommended default) A recommended approach is to use a 1-minute scrape interval as the global default and only increase frequency for jobs that need higher resolution. For optimization strategies, refer to [Reduce metrics costs by adjusting your data points per minute (DPM)](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/reduce-costs/metrics-costs/adjust-data-points-per-minute/). ## Volume-based billing for logs and traces Grafana Cloud Logs, Traces, and Profiles are based on the amount of bytes received and retained each month. **Log usage billing factors:** - Gigabytes ingested per month - Retention period in 30-day increments (minimum 30 days) - Gigabytes queried per month: the fair use query policy allows querying up to 100X your ingested volume monthly without additional cost For complete logs billing details, refer to [Understand your Grafana Cloud Logs invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/logs-invoice/). **Traces usage billing factors:** - Gigabytes ingested per month - Retention period in 30-day increments (minimum 30 days) For complete traces billing details, refer to [Understand your Grafana Cloud Traces invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/traces-invoice/). **Profiles usage billing factors:** - Gigabytes ingested per month - Retention period in 30-day increments (minimum 30 days) For complete profiles billing details, refer to [Understand your Grafana Cloud Profiles invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/profiles-invoice/). ## Specialized product billing Each specialized product has tailored billing models: - **Application Observability**: Billed by host hours with automatic host detection. For details, refer to [Understand your Application Observability invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/application-observability-invoice/). - **Frontend Observability**: Billed by session count with included traces and logs credits. For details, refer to [Understand your Frontend Observability invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/frontend-observability-invoice/). - **Incident Response & Management (IRM)**: Billed by the number of users that are part of an OnCall configuration or declaring or updating an Incident. For details, refer to [Understand your Grafana Cloud IRM invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/irm-invoice/). - **Kubernetes Monitoring**: Billed by active host and container hours for your Kubernetes environment. For details, refer to [Understand your Kubernetes Monitoring invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/kubernetes-monitoring-invoice/). - **Synthetic Monitoring**: Billed by test execution count with included metrics and logs credits. For details, refer to [Understand your Synthetic Monitoring invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/synthetic-monitoring-invoice/). - **Performance Testing**: Billed by Virtual User Hours (VUH) consumed per test, optional static IP addresses, and data retention. For details, refer to [Understand your Performance Testing invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/performance-testing-invoice/). ## Optimization strategies Understanding billing calculations helps you optimize costs: - Apply Adaptive Telemetry recommendations - Use cardinality management dashboards to identify high-cost metrics - Adjust scrape intervals based on actual monitoring needs - Monitor unused metrics for potential removal For comprehensive cost management, refer to [Adaptive Telemetry](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/adaptive-telemetry/). In the next milestone, you’ll create a billing alert to proactively monitor your Grafana Cloud usage costs. * * * ### More to explore (optional) At this point in your journey, you can explore the following paths: - [Reduce metrics costs by adjusting your data points per minute (DPM)](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/reduce-costs/metrics-costs/adjust-data-points-per-minute/) - [Analyze metrics usage with cardinality management dashboards](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/analyze-costs/metrics-costs/prometheus-metrics-costs/cardinality-management/) - [Understand your Grafana Cloud Metrics invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/metrics-invoice/) - [Understand your Grafana Cloud Logs invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/logs-invoice/) - [Understand your Grafana Cloud Traces invoice](/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/traces-invoice/)