Quick Answer
Last verified:
High confidence

Datadog APM costs Free to $41 per month as of July 2026, with 5 plans available including a free tier. Plans: Free (free), Pro at $18/month, Enterprise at $27/month, DevSecOps Pro at $27/month, and DevSecOps Enterprise at $41/month. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.

Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.

  • Free tier: Yes

Datadog APM offers 5 pricing tiers: Free, Pro, Enterprise, DevSecOps Pro, DevSecOps Enterprise. A free plan is available. Paid plans include Pro at $18/Per host, per month, Enterprise at $27/Per host, per month, DevSecOps Pro at $27/Per host, per month.

Datadog APM lists $0-$41/month, but hidden costs like implementation and support add to the total as of July 2026. Key hidden costs: required infrastructure monitoring, indexed spans and ingested traces overage, log management integration. Verified from 1 sources by CostBench.

Hidden Costs Breakdown

1

Required Infrastructure Monitoring

high addon

APM cannot be purchased standalone; every APM host requires a paired Infrastructure Monitoring plan, adding to the real per-host cost.

industry

This means the real per-host cost for APM is the sum of the Infrastructure plan (e.g., Pro at $15/host/month or Enterprise at $23/host/month annually) and the APM plan, totaling approximately $46 per host per month for Pro and Standard tiers.

2

Indexed Spans and Ingested Traces Overage

high overage

Exceeding the included allotment of 150 GB of ingested spans and 1 million indexed spans per host per month incurs additional charges.

industry

Indexed Spans and Ingested Traces: While APM includes an allotment of 150 GB of ingested spans and 1 million indexed spans per host per month, exceeding these limits incurs additional charges.

3

Log Management Integration

high overage

Integrating logs with APM for full trace context adds substantial costs, with charges for ingestion, indexing, and retention, often leading to "bill shock" from indexing.

industry

Standard indexing costs $1.70 per million log events for 15-day retention or $2.50 for 30-day retention on an annual plan.

4

Custom Metrics Overage

medium overage

Datadog charges for custom metrics beyond a per-host allotment, with high-cardinality data exponentially increasing costs.

industry

Custom Metrics: Datadog charges for custom metrics beyond a per-host allotment (100 for Pro, 200 for Enterprise).

5

High-Water Mark Billing for Hosts

critical overage

Datadog bills for the entire month based on the highest host count (excluding the top 1% of hours), meaning temporary autoscaling spikes can significantly inflate the monthly bill.

industry

For instance, a 5-day product launch scaling from 50 to 200 hosts could result in a $6,200 APM bill for the full month, compared to an expectation of ~$2,260 based on average usage.

6

Professional Services/Migration

medium implementation

The complexity of Datadog's pricing and the need for optimization suggest that professional services for implementation, migration, and cost governance can be an additional cost.

industry

Auto-Renewal: Datadog orders automatically renew for additional periods of the same duration as the expiring order term, unless a non-renewal action is taken.

Frequently Asked Questions

01 What hidden costs should I budget for with Datadog APM?

Beyond the license fee, budget for: Required Infrastructure Monitoring (e.g., Pro at $15/host/month or Enterprise at $23/host/month annually); Indexed Spans and Ingested Traces Overage ($0.10/GB for additional span ingestion; $1.27–$2.50 per million for additional indexed spans); Log Management Integration ($0.10 per GB for ingestion; $1.70 per million log events for 15-day retention or $2.50 for 30-day retention for standard indexing); Custom Metrics Overage ($1 per 100 custom metrics per month or $0.05 per metric per month after the included allotment); High-Water Mark Billing for Hosts (A 5-day product launch scaling from 50 to 200 hosts could result in a $6,200 APM bill for the full month, compared to an expectation of ~$2,260). Exact totals depend on your deployment size and negotiated terms.

02 Does Datadog APM charge for implementation?

Datadog APM implementation is not included in the license cost. The complexity of Datadog's pricing and the need for optimization suggest that professional services for implementation, migration, and cost governance can be an additional cost..

03 How much does Datadog APM support cost?

Premium support pricing for Datadog APM depends on your tier and contract terms. See the sourced cost breakdown above for any verified figures we have.

04 Are there overage or storage costs with Datadog APM?

Exceeding the included allotment of 150 GB of ingested spans and 1 million indexed spans per host per month incurs additional charges.. Estimated impact: $0.10/GB for additional span ingestion; $1.27–$2.50 per million for additional indexed spans.

05 What add-ons cost extra with Datadog APM?

Add-on pricing for Datadog APM varies by feature. The sourced cost breakdown above lists any verified add-on costs we have.

Check current Datadog APM pricing

Prices and terms change; verify against the live pricing page.

See Datadog APM Pricing