Prometheus vs Grafana Cloud Pricing (2026)
Compare / Prometheus vs Grafana Cloud
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Team size
25 seats

Prometheus vs Grafana Cloud

Observability pricing comparison · 2026

Prometheus pricing ranges from $0–$2500/month, while Grafana Cloud ranges from $0–$55/month. These products use different pricing models (Per-seat subscription vs ), so a direct price comparison isn't meaningful — costs depend on usage volume and mix.

Visit
See pricing on each vendor's site
Above-the-fold path — each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Prometheus pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Grafana pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Compare
2 products · Observability
Side-by-side · live
Prometheus
Prometheus is the leading open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit, originally
verified 27d ago
$228 $20K
View pricing →
Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud is a managed observability platform for metrics, logs, and traces, with usag
verified 27d ago
$228 $20K
View pricing →
Verdict · Vendr median · year 1
Grafana saves $20K vs Prometheus · 25 seats
Cheapest $228
Spread 99%
Estimated license cost
at 25 seats
List price × seats. Click a tier below to lock it.
AWS Managed Service for Prometheus
$27K/yr
year 1 license · $90/seat
Advanced
$17K/yr
year 1 license · $55/seat
What buyers actually pay
median, annual
Vendr deal-flow data. The real benchmark, not list price.
Median annual
$20K/yr
Vendr · n=3 · limited data
↓ Lowest median
Median annual
$228/yr
Vendr · n=7 · limited data
REF · 01

Sources & confidence

Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.

Where this data comes from
Vendr · TrustRadius · Reddit · BBB · official docs
Sources 9 sourced facts
8 hidden-cost · Vendr median
Last verified 3w ago
Confidence High confidence
Sources 5 sourced facts
4 hidden-cost · Vendr median
Last verified 3w ago
Confidence Medium confidence
REF · 02

Plans at a glance

Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.

Tier ladder
Click a tier to lock the cost row to it. Locking surfaces a tier-specific Visit CTA.
REF · 03

Hidden costs

Each cost is severity-ranked, with the dollar range quoted from its source (Vendr, Reddit, TrustRadius, BBB, official docs) — never our estimate.

Beyond the sticker
Severity-ranked, sourced
4 documented
  • Engineering Operational Overhead (Self-Hosted)
    $20,000-$60,000/year in engineering time
    2 sources
  • Managed Service Cost Shock from Scrape Interval Misconfiguration
    4-5x cost increase vs expected
    2 sources
  • Managed Prometheus Expensive at Scale
    5-10x cost vs self-hosted at scale
    3 sources
  • Horizontal Scaling Requires Additional Infrastructure
    10-30% of license costs
    1 source
4 documented
  • Metrics Scrape Interval Cost Multiplier
    50-100% of base metrics cost
    1 source
  • High Per-Timeseries Rate at Scale
    $8/1,000 active timeseries/month
    1 source
  • Opaque Enterprise Pricing Process
    5-15% of license costs
    1 source
  • Plugin Store Partner Fees Reduce Integration Quality
    5-10% of license costs
    1 source
REF · 05

What users say

Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.

User reviews
TrustRadius · Trustpilot · G2
No public ratings yet
Best for
Teams with DevOps/SRE expertise who want full control and can manage infrastructure overhead
Watch out
Significant engineering overhead required to set up and maintain self-hosted stack
No public ratings yet
Best for
Individual developers and small projects
Watch out
Metrics pricing at scale is expensive — $8 per thousand timeseries reported as high
Decide
Get a quote from each vendor
Each link opens the vendor's pricing page in a new tab.
Visit Prometheus pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
Visit Grafana pricing
Free plan limits → Discount programs →
License cost is computed from publicly listed plans (real math, list price × seats). Median annual cost is from Vendr's deal flow when available — see source badges. Hidden costs and contract terms each cite their own sources. We do not invent composite scores.
Observability

Prometheus

$0–$2500
/month
6 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
VS
Observability

Grafana Cloud

$0–$55
/month
4 plans · Free tier
Full pricing breakdown →
⚖

Different Pricing Models

Direct price comparison isn't meaningful here — Prometheus uses Per-seat subscription pricing while Grafana Cloud uses pricing. Your actual cost will depend on usage volume, team size, or both. Here's each product in its native unit.

Per-seat subscription

Prometheus

$0–$2500 / month
See full Prometheus pricing →
vs

Grafana Cloud

$0–$55 / month
See full Grafana Cloud pricing →

Prometheus and Grafana Cloud both operate in the observability category. This page compares their list pricing.

Plan-by-Plan Pricing

Plan Prometheus Grafana Cloud
Self-Hosted (Open Source) Free /month Free /month
Grafana Cloud Free Free /month $19 /active user/month
Grafana Cloud Pro $19 /month + usage $55 /active user/month
AWS Managed Service for Prometheus $90 /month (usage-based, ~1B samples) Custom
Google Cloud Managed Service for Prometheus $60 /month (usage-based, ~1B samples) —
Enterprise / Custom (Chronosphere, Sysdig, etc.) Custom —

Market Intelligence

Prometheus

Median annual cost
$20,000
Based on
3 deals

Grafana Cloud

Median annual cost
$228
Based on
7 deals

Hidden Costs

Beyond the sticker price — what catches buyers off guard.

Prometheus 4 hidden costs

high
Engineering Operational Overhead (Self-Hosted) $20,000-$60,000/year in engineering time
critical
Managed Service Cost Shock from Scrape Interval Misconfiguration 4-5x cost increase vs expected
high
Managed Prometheus Expensive at Scale 5-10x cost vs self-hosted at scale
medium
Horizontal Scaling Requires Additional Infrastructure 10-30% of license costs
See all Prometheus hidden costs →

Grafana Cloud 4 hidden costs

high
Metrics Scrape Interval Cost Multiplier 50-100% of base metrics cost
high
High Per-Timeseries Rate at Scale $8/1,000 active timeseries/month
medium
Opaque Enterprise Pricing Process 5-15% of license costs
low
Plugin Store Partner Fees Reduce Integration Quality 5-10% of license costs
See all Grafana Cloud hidden costs →

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Prometheus

Grafana Cloud

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