Grafana Cloud Traces
Grafana Cloud Traces is a managed backend for searching distributed traces, deriving metrics from spans, and connecting trace data with logs and metrics.
What Grafana Cloud Traces is
Grafana Cloud Traces is a managed backend for searching distributed traces, deriving metrics from spans, and connecting trace data with logs and metrics. Powered by Grafana Tempo, it provides trace storage and a query engine, using object storage and a columnar format based on Apache Parquet. It accepts OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger data; applications can send spans through Grafana Alloy or the OpenTelemetry Collector. TraceQL lets users select spans and find those matching conditions. The service can derive request-rate, error-rate, and duration metrics. Grafana also describes moving among metrics, logs, and traces in its integrated stack. The Free plan includes 50 GB of ingestion per month and 14-day retention, with community support. Paid accounts have a 30-day minimum retention period; extra retention costs per gigabyte for each additional 30-day increment. Pro has a $19 monthly platform fee that includes 50 GB, followed by usage-based charges, and includes 8×5 email support. Enterprise has a $25,000 yearly minimum commit.
Good
- Accepts OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger.
- TraceQL filters spans by specified conditions.
- Derives request-rate, error-rate, and duration metrics.
- Free tier includes 50 GB monthly ingestion.
- Service map and tail-based sampling are supported.
Watch out
- Free accounts retain data for 14 days.
- Oversized traces can be discarded above the default limit.
- Pro charges usage after its included 50 GB.
- Enterprise minimum commit is $25,000 per year.
Who it suits
Grafana Cloud Traces suits teams that need to search distributed traces, derive service metrics, and relate traces to logs and metrics. Its Free tier fits users who can work within 50 GB of monthly ingestion and 14-day retention.
Verdict
Grafana Cloud Traces combines trace search, span-derived metrics, and links to related signals, with a free tier for limited ingestion and retention. Check the trace-size limit and paid retention terms against your workload.
Plans and prices
From Grafana Cloud Traces's own pricing page, checked 29 Sep 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 50 GB ingested per month · 14 day retention · Community support · Always free |
| Enterprise | Priced on request | Custom retention · Premium support · Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, or Bring Your Own Cloud deployment flexibility · Minimum commit of $25,000 per year |
| Pro | — | 30 days retention · 8×5 email support · automatic volume discounts · Platform fee of $19 per month includes 50 GB ingested per month; then pay as you go |
The facts
Each one read from Grafana Cloud Traces's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Automatic metrics
- Grafana Cloud Traces can automatically derive request rate, error rate, and duration metrics for services.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Data pipelines
- Grafana says users can send spans from applications through Grafana Alloy or the OpenTelemetry Collector.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Intended users
- Grafana describes Cloud Traces as helping teams understand request flows and troubleshoot performance issues at scale.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Paid retention
- The minimum retention period for paid accounts is 30 days; additional retention is charged per gigabyte for each additional 30-day increment.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Powered by Tempo
- The service is powered by Grafana Tempo and provides trace storage and a query engine.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Protocols
- The service supports open source tracing protocols including OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Purpose
- Grafana Cloud Traces is a fully managed distributed tracing backend for searching traces, generating metrics from spans, and linking tracing data with logs and metrics.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Related signals
- Grafana describes correlating logs with traces and pivoting among metrics, logs, and traces in its integrated stack.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Security and compliance
- Grafana Labs states that it is certified to ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 and maintains PCI compliance for its corporate environment.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Storage
- It uses object storage and a columnar trace storage format based on Apache Parquet.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Support
- The Free tier includes community support, Pro includes 8×5 email support, and Enterprise offers premium support.checked 29 Sep 2026
- TraceQL
- TraceQL lets users select spans and jump to spans that match specified conditions.checked 29 Sep 2026
- Trace size limit
- The usage limits page gives a default maximum trace size of 3,000,000 bytes and says oversized traces can be discarded.checked 29 Sep 2026
Money
- Free retention
- The minimum retention period for free accounts is 14 days.checked 29 Sep 2026
Alternatives to Grafana Cloud Traces
- 1
Grafana Cloud Application Observability
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.4From $0.03 a month - 2
Uptrace
Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinuxmacOS8.4From $39 a month - 3
SigNoz
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI7.6From $19 a month - 4
Honeycomb
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI7.5From $150 a month - 5
Tencent Cloud Application Performance Management
WebAPILinuxSelf-hosted7.2 - 6
AWS X-Ray
Free planWebAPILinuxmacOS7.1Free plan