Datadog Pricing Explained: What You Actually Pay
Prices checked on vendor pages on Nov 8, 2026.
Prices below are Datadog's public list prices for the US sites (US1, US3 and US5), read on its pricing page on November 8, 2026. Datadog changes packaging often, so confirm on its list page before you budget.
Datadog does not have one price. It has dozens of meters, and each meter has an annual rate, a month-to-month rate and an on-demand rate. This guide shows how the main meters work, where bills tend to grow, and what a realistic month looks like. Logs get the most space because that is the line item that surprises people.
The Short Version
- Infrastructure Pro lists at $15 per host per month on annual billing.
- APM lists at $31 per host per month on annual billing.
- Logs have two meters: $0.10 per GB ingested, and $2.50 per million events indexed (30-day retention, annual billing).
- Usage over a commitment is billed on demand. Datadog's docs describe that as a 50% premium.
- Most bill variation comes from how many logs you index and how long you keep them.
Three Rates for the Same Product
Datadog's list page has three columns: billed annually, billed month-to-month, and billed on-demand. The same product costs more as the commitment gets shorter.
Infrastructure Basic is listed as "Contact Sales" in all three columns.
Datadog's usage docs say infrastructure hosts and APM hosts are counted as the 99th percentile of distinct hosts over all hours in the month. Containers use the high watermark of distinct containers instead. Short autoscaling spikes can therefore count differently under each meter.
How Datadog Charges for Logs
Logs are billed in two steps, and the gap between them is where most bills grow.
Ingestion is $0.10 per GB of log data Datadog receives. It costs the same in every column.
Indexing is the meter that matters. Datadog charges per million log events indexed, and the price depends on retention. On annual billing the list is $1.06 for 3 days, $1.27 for 7 days, $1.70 for 15 days and $2.50 for 30 days. The usage docs define indexed logs as the sum of all log events indexed over the month.
Indexing is priced per event, so event size does not change the indexing bill. Only event count does. For the examples below we assume 1 KB per event, so 1 GB is roughly 1 million events. Your logs may be larger or smaller, so check your real average first.
What Happens When You Go Over
Datadog's log billing docs say you set a monthly commitment on indexed events. If you stay below it, the bill stays the same. If you go over, the committed amount is subtracted and the rest is charged on demand with a 50% premium. That matches the list page, where $2.50 becomes $3.75.
Commitments are monthly, so one noisy day may not cause overuse if your daily average stays near plan. A small illustration: commit to 400 million events and index 500 million, all at 30-day retention. The first 400 million cost $1,000 at $2.50. The extra 100 million cost $375 at $3.75. The total is $1,375 instead of the $1,250 you would pay with a 500 million commitment.
Controls That Cap the Bill
Datadog documents three levers on its indexes page:
- Multiple indexes. Split logs by value so each group gets its own retention and daily quota. A new account starts with one index, and the default maximum is 100.
- Exclusion filters. Decide which events reach the index, including sampling a share of a noisy source. Excluded logs are discarded from the index but still show in Live Tail, can be archived, and can generate metrics.
- Daily quotas. A hard limit on events stored per day. Once it is reached, logs stop being indexed. The default reset time is 2 UTC, and you can change it.
These controls work, but someone has to set them up and keep them current.
Flex Logs
For long retention, Datadog lists Flex Logs. Flex Logs Storage is $0.05 per million events stored per month on annual billing. Flex Logs Starter is $0.60 per million events stored per month, for 6, 12 or 15 months of retention. The Starter rate bundles storage and compute, and Datadog's pricing page ties that bundle to volumes below 2 billion events per month (10 billion stored).
Above that, the docs say scalable compute tiers (XS, XS+, S, M and L) are billed at a flat rate. The pricing page shows "Contact Us for Pricing" for Flex compute, so we cannot give you a number.
A Realistic Monthly Example
Take a mid-size team with 20 hosts on Infrastructure Pro, 10 hosts with APM, 1,000 custom metrics, and 500 GB of logs a month, all indexed with 30-day retention. We assume 1 KB per event and list prices only.
Datadog's custom metrics docs list an allotment of 100 indexed custom metrics per host on Pro, so 20 Pro hosts cover 2,000. The 1,000 custom metrics here fall inside that, and anything above it is billed at the rate in your contract. The example leaves out seats, synthetics, RUM and security products.
Logs are 68% of the annual total, 68% of the month-to-month total and 73% of the on-demand total.
Line Items Teams Forget
These meters sit on the same list page and are easy to miss in a first estimate (annual billing):
- Custom metrics above your allotment: $5 per 100 per month.
- Container Monitoring: $1 per container per month.
- Sensitive Data Scanner: $0.30 per scanned GB.
- Forwarding logs to a custom destination: $0.25 per GB, per destination.
- Observability Pipelines: $0.095 per ingested GB.
- On-Call: $20 per seat. Incident Management: $30 per seat.
- Database Monitoring: $70 per database host.
None of these is unreasonable alone. The cost comes from stacking several.
How to See What You Are Paying
Datadog's Usage page has an "All" view and a "Billable" view. All includes non-billable usage such as trials. Billable shows only usage that reaches your bill, split into commitments, allotments and on-demand. Start there. The Log Management tab has a Logs Usage by Index table that shows indexed counts by index name and retention, which helps you find the index driving volume.
Where Sazabi Compares
Sazabi is AI-native observability and security. It covers logs, not the whole Datadog catalog, so this comparison covers logs only. Sazabi wrote this page, so we are a party to it.
Sazabi charges $0.10 per GB ingested and $0.10 per GB scanned by searches, after the allowance in each plan: 200 GB ingested and 50 GB scanned per 30-day cycle. The Startup plan is $200 per 30 days with 30-day retention. Issues are $4 each after 20 included. Full terms are on our pricing page.
Assumptions: 1 KB per event, so each GB is 1 million events. Datadog is at annual list prices with 30-day retention: $0.10 per GB ingested plus $2.50 per million indexed events, or $2.60 per indexed GB. At the on-demand rate of $3.75 per million, the all-indexed column becomes $385, $3,850 and $38,500. Sazabi is the $200 Startup plan plus $0.10 per GB ingested beyond 200 GB and $0.10 per GB scanned beyond 50 GB, with searches that scan 40% of ingested volume. At 1 TB that is $200 + $80 + $35 = $315, and at 10 TB $200 + $980 + $395 = $1,575. The 40% is our own assumption, not a published number. Sazabi issues, AI credits and automation runs beyond the allowances are extra.
The 20% column is an illustration, not a typical or published ratio. The share you index is whatever your exclusion filters leave. Excluded events are not in the index, so you cannot search them there, though they still show in Live Tail and can be archived or turned into metrics. The Sazabi figure keeps every log you send searchable. That is why, at 100 GB, Datadog with 20% indexed ($60) costs less than Sazabi's $200 plan price, while indexing everything costs $260. Sazabi's Hobby plan is $50 per 30 days with the same allowances, 7-day retention and 2 members, and Growth adds 90-day retention at $1,000 per cycle. You can also test it without leaving Datadog, because the Agent can dual-ship logs and the Datadog integration page covers what carries over.
When Datadog Is Worth the Price
Datadog is a broad platform. If you use infrastructure monitoring, APM, browser monitoring, security and logs together, one vendor and one login has value that a logs-only comparison does not capture. Its list also has products Sazabi does not sell, such as RUM, synthetics and cloud cost management.
If you mostly need logs, you may be paying for breadth you do not use. The Sazabi and Datadog comparison goes deeper, and the Datadog alternatives page lists other options.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Datadog cost per month?
It depends on the products you use. Infrastructure Pro lists at $15 per host per month on annual billing. Log management adds $0.10 per GB ingested plus $2.50 per million events indexed with 30-day retention.
Why is my Datadog log bill so high?
Indexing is the usual cause, because each indexed event is billed. Usage over your monthly commitment is charged on demand with a 50% premium, according to Datadog docs. Exclusion filters, multiple indexes and daily quotas limit it.
Does Datadog charge by host or by usage?
Both. Infrastructure and APM are billed per host, while logs, custom metrics and many other products are billed by volume or by count of items.
What is Datadog on-demand pricing?
It is the rate for usage beyond your commitment, or for products you buy without one. On the list page, indexed logs with 30-day retention go from $2.50 to $3.75 per million events.
Can I send logs to Datadog and Sazabi at the same time?
Yes. The Datadog Agent can dual-ship logs to a second endpoint, according to Sazabi docs. Only the logs pipeline is forwarded, not metrics or traces.
Sources
- List prices in the annual, month-to-month and on-demand columns for the US sites (US1, US3, US5): Infrastructure, APM, logs, Flex Logs, custom metrics, containers, seats and other meters (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Flex Logs Starter bundled compute, Flex compute sizes listed as contact for pricing (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Monthly commitment on indexed log events, 50% on-demand premium for usage over the commitment, places to see log counts (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Multiple indexes, default maximum of 100, exclusion filters, daily quotas and what still works after a quota is reached (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Flex Logs compute sizes, flat-rate billing for scalable compute, Starter billed at a bundled storage and compute rate (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Custom metrics allotments per host: 100 on Pro, 200 on Enterprise (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Usage page, All and Billable views, Logs Usage by Index table, how hosts and indexed logs are counted (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Sazabi plans, included allowances, per-unit overage rates, retention (accessed Nov 8, 2026)
- Dual-shipping logs from the Datadog Agent to Sazabi, logs-only forwarding (accessed Nov 8, 2026)