Understand Grafana Cloud usage limits

Grafana Cloud continuously provides your account limits in the following metrics:

grafanacloud_instance_metrics_limits
grafanacloud_logs_instance_limits
grafanacloud_traces_instance_limits

To find these limits in your Grafana Cloud instance:

Click Explore (compass icon).
Select grafanacloud-usage from the drop-down menu.
In the Metrics browser query field, enter the metric, for example grafanacloud_instance_metrics_limits.
Click Run query.

The label limit_name provides the specific limit. See below for a complete reference.

Metric usage limits

To increase metrics usage limits, contact Grafana Support.

Ingestion limits

Limit name	Limit description	Default limit
`ingestion_rate`	The maximum number of ingested samples per second for a series.	10,000
`ingestion_burst_size`	The maximum allowed ingestion burst size in number of samples.	200,000
`max_global_series_per_metric`	The total maximum series for each metric across the entire instance.	20,000
`max_global_series_per_user`	The total maximum series for each user in an instance.	150,000
`max_global_exemplars_per_user`	The total maximum exemplars for each user in an instance.	100,000

Query limits

Limit name	Limit description	Default limit
`max_partial_query_length`	The maximum time range for partial queries at the querier level.	768h
`max_series_per_query`	The maximum number of unique series for which a query can fetch samples	100,000

Rules limits

Limit name	Limit description	Default limit
`ruler_max_rule_groups_per_tenant`	The maximum number of rule groups for an instance.	35
`ruler_max_rules_per_rule_group`	The maximum number of rules per rule group for an instance.	20

Logs usage limits

Ingestion limits

Limit name	Limit description	Default limit
`ingestion_rate_mb`	Per-user ingestion rate in MB.	5
`max_global_streams_per_user`	The maximum number of active streams per user, across ingesters.	5,000
`retention_period`	Compactor retention for storage, in hours.	744
`max_line_size`	The maximum size of a log line. This limit can’t be modified.	256kb
`max_label_names_per_series`	The maximum number of labels per stream.	15
`max_label_name_length`	The maximum size label name.	1024
`max_label_value_length`	The maximum size label value.	2048

Query limits

Limit name	Limit description	Default limit
`max_query_length`	The maximum time range for partial queries at the querier level.	721h
`max_query_lookback`	Querier limit on how far back data can be queried.	0 (disabled)
`max_query_series`	The maximum unique series that can be returned by a metric query.	500

Traces usage limits

Limit name	Limit description	Default limit
`max_bytes_per_trace`	The maximum size of a trace in bytes.	3,000,000
`ingestion_rate_limit_bytes`	Per-user ingestion rate limit in bytes.	500,000
`ingestion_burst_size_bytes`	Per ingestion burst size in bytes.	500,000
`block_retention`	The duration to keep blocks/traces in seconds.	2,592,000

Discarded Spans panel in the Billing dashboard

In the Billing dashboard, there is a panel that shows Discarded Spans and a color-coded legend with a reason why the spans were discarded. The table that follows defines each of those reasons.

Reason for discarded span	Description
`internal error`	A general error that should be further explained in the logs.
`live_traces_exceeded`	Exceeded the max number of traces allowed in the ingester per tenant.
`rate limited`	Exceeded the `ingestion_rate_limit_bytes` limit.
`trace_too_large`	Exceeded the `max_bytes_per_trace` limit.

You can use grafanacloud_traces_instance_percentage_complete_traces_flushed metric. This metric has a value between 0 and 1, indicating the percentage of traces without any orphaned spans when the trace is flushed to storage.

In addition, you can use the grafanacloud_traces_instance_discarded_spans_total:rate5m metric to review the number of discarded spans, including the reasons for discarding, in 5 minute periods.

Grafana Cloud usage

Grafana Cloud continuously provides your account usage in the following metrics:

grafanacloud_instance_metrics_*
grafanacloud_logs_instance_*
grafanacloud_traces_instance_*

For example, to monitor log stream count, you can use grafanacloud_logs_instance_active_streams.

Cloud Traces usage

If you need to have a limit raised, then contact Grafana Support for assistance.

Metric	Description
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_bytes_received_per_second`	Number of bytes received by each Grafana Cloud Traces stack for the organization.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_created_date`	Date (milliseconds since epoch) when the instance was created.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_discarded_spans_total:rate5m`	Number of discarded spans, including the reasons for discarding, in 5 minute periods.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_percentage_complete_traces_flushed`	A value between 0 and 1 indicating the percentage of traces without any orphaned spans when the trace is flushed to storage.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_info`	Information about the instance such as org ID and customer ID.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_limits`	Span volume limits for the organization, on a per-stack basis.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_queries_per_second`	Number of queries that are carried out on a per-second rate basis.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_spans_received_total:rate5m`	Per second rate of spans received by each Grafana Cloud Traces stack for the organization, over a 5 minute period.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_usage`	Billable trace usage over the last month for stacks in the organization.
`grafanacloud_traces_instance_metrics_generator_active_series`	Number of active series being generated via ingested spans.