- Home
- Distributed Tracing Tools
- Grafana Cloud Traces
Grafana Cloud Traces
What it is
Grafana Cloud Traces is a managed backend for storing, searching, and querying distributed traces. Powered by Grafana Tempo, it uses object storage and a columnar format based on Apache Parquet. It accepts OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger data, and applications can send spans through Grafana Alloy or the OpenTelemetry Collector. TraceQL lets users select spans and locate spans matching specified conditions. The service can derive request-rate, error-rate, and duration metrics from spans, and Grafana describes linking traces with logs and metrics 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 is charged per gigabyte for each additional 30-day increment. Pro includes a $19 per month platform fee covering 50 GB of ingestion, after which usage-based charges apply, and includes 8×5 email support. The stated default maximum trace size is 3,000,000 bytes, and oversized traces can be discarded.
For and against
For
- Accepts OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger data.
- TraceQL can locate spans by conditions.
- Derives request, error, and duration metrics.
- Free plan includes 50 GB monthly ingestion.
Against
- Free retention is limited to 14 days.
- Oversized traces can be discarded.
- Pro charges usage beyond its included 50 GB.
The verdict
Grafana Cloud Traces provides managed trace storage, querying, and metric derivation, with a free tier and paid usage options. Check the retention periods and trace-size limit against your workload.
Who it suits
Grafana Cloud Traces suits teams that need to follow request flows and investigate performance issues using distributed traces. It may also fit teams that want to connect trace data with logs and metrics.
Plans and prices
Free
50 GB ingested per month · 14 day retention · Community support
Read 29 Sep 2026 · grafana.com
Enterprise
Custom retention · Premium support · Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, or Bring Your Own Cloud deployment flexibility
Read 29 Sep 2026 · grafana.com
Pro
30 days retention · 8×5 email support · automatic volume discounts
Read 29 Sep 2026 · grafana.com
On the record
- Automatic metrics
- Grafana Cloud Traces can automatically derive request rate, error rate, and duration metrics for services.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Data pipelines
- Grafana says users can send spans from applications through Grafana Alloy or the OpenTelemetry Collector.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Free retention
- The minimum retention period for free accounts is 14 days.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Intended users
- Grafana describes Cloud Traces as helping teams understand request flows and troubleshoot performance issues at scale.grafana.com · read 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.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Powered by Tempo
- The service is powered by Grafana Tempo and provides trace storage and a query engine.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Protocols
- The service supports open source tracing protocols including OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger.grafana.com · read 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.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Related signals
- Grafana describes correlating logs with traces and pivoting among metrics, logs, and traces in its integrated stack.grafana.com · read 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.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Storage
- It uses object storage and a columnar trace storage format based on Apache Parquet.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- Support
- The Free tier includes community support, Pro includes 8×5 email support, and Enterprise offers premium support.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
- TraceQL
- TraceQL lets users select spans and jump to spans that match specified conditions.grafana.com · read 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.grafana.com · read 29 Sep 2026
