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How Grafana Cloud updates work

Grafana Cloud, like most fully managed SaaS products, releases and deploys software continuously. To ensure the quality of our deployments, we roll out updates gradually and in stages. This lets us fix security issues quickly and ship new features to a wide audience safely. You get those fixes and features automatically, with no manual upgrades of the kind our self-managed offering requires.

Grafana Cloud combines several components that update independently:

  • The core Grafana application, including the interface you work in every day.
  • Grafana Cloud features and plugins, such as data sources, Grafana SLO, and IRM.
  • Hosted databases, such as Grafana Cloud Metrics, Logs, Traces, and Profiles (built on Mimir, Loki, Tempo, and Pyroscope).

Each component has its own release cadence, so there is no single “Grafana Cloud version” to track.

How updates reach you

Most fixes and small improvements roll out continuously and reach all stacks on a similar schedule, whichever release channel you are on.

We roll out new features at different speeds. Smaller changes often reach everyone quickly. Larger features and higher-impact changes arrive more gradually, and your release channel (Fast, Steady, or Slow) affects how soon you see them. Stacks on Fast see them sooner. Stacks on Slow see them after more customers have already used them.

Rollout schedules can shift because of infrastructure incidents, critical fixes, or the end-of-year change freeze, so we cannot guarantee a specific date for any given change.

Frequently asked questions

  1. What happened to rolling release channels? Rolling release channels still exist, and your stack still belongs to one. This page used to describe three channels, Fast, Steady, and Slow, that updated Grafana Cloud on fixed daily, weekly, and monthly cadences. That no longer describes how Grafana Cloud updates. Channels now shape when changes switch on for you rather than setting a fixed update cadence.
  2. Which release channel is my stack on? Grafana Cloud no longer displays your release channel. The help menu and login page show only “Grafana Cloud”, with no channel name or version number. To find out which channel a stack is on, open a support ticket in the Grafana Cloud Portal.
  3. Can I change my release channel? On paid plans, yes. Open a support ticket in the Grafana Cloud Portal to request a change. Many teams put non-production stacks on Fast to preview changes, and keep business-critical stacks on Slow so that changes have more time in use elsewhere first. Free Forever accounts cannot select a different channel.
  4. Why did the interface change when I’m on the Slow channel? The Slow channel does not hold the interface at an older version. We deploy fixes and smaller improvements continuously, so those reach every stack on a similar schedule. Your channel shapes when larger features and higher-impact changes switch on for you, including in the interface.
  5. What version of Grafana does Grafana Cloud run? Grafana Cloud does not follow the release numbering of self-managed Grafana. Features and fixes ship continuously rather than in numbered releases.
  6. Do I need to upgrade anything? No. Grafana Cloud is fully managed, so we apply updates for you.
  7. Where do I see what’s new? We announce new capabilities in What’s New in Grafana Cloud.
  8. If I report an issue, will it count as a critical bug? Triage and classification belong to engineering. If they classify your issue as critical, we handle it according to our internal service level objectives.