name: Grafana API Rate Limits
specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: Grafana Labs
providerId: grafana-com
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-05-25'
reconciled: true
tags:
- Observability
- Rate Limiting
- Quotas
- Grafana Cloud
description: Reconciled rate limits and ingestion quotas for Grafana Cloud and self-managed Grafana. Grafana
  Cloud applies per-tenant ingestion rate limits and burst caps on metrics, logs, traces, and profiles.
  Self-managed Grafana exposes per-data-source rate limiting and per-API quotas configurable via grafana.ini.
sources:
- https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/understand-your-invoice/usage-limits/
- https://grafana.com/docs/grafana/latest/setup-grafana/configure-grafana/configure-rate-limit-data-source/
- https://grafana.com/docs/loki/latest/configure/
- https://grafana.com/docs/mimir/latest/references/configuration-parameters/
- https://grafana.com/docs/tempo/latest/configuration/
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  quotaExceeded: 429
  serverOverloaded: 503
algorithm: token-bucket
notes:
- Per-tenant ingestion is enforced at the distributor layer in Mimir, Loki, Tempo, and Pyroscope
- Burst limits are typically 2x the steady-state per-second limit
- Free tier quotas are hard ceilings; Pro tier quotas are soft (overage billed)
- Grafana HTTP API does not publish global rate limits — limits are per-tenant in Cloud
limits:
- api: Mimir / Cloud Metrics ingestion
  metric: active series
  scope: per-tenant
  freeTier: 10000
  proTier: unlimited-paygo
  notes: Adaptive Metrics can reduce active series by up to 80%.
  name: Mimir / Cloud Metrics ingestion
- api: Loki / Cloud Logs ingestion
  metric: GB per month
  scope: per-tenant
  freeTier: 50
  proTier: unlimited-paygo
  notes: Adaptive Logs reduces ingestion by approximately 50%.
  name: Loki / Cloud Logs ingestion
- api: Tempo / Cloud Traces ingestion
  metric: GB per month
  scope: per-tenant
  freeTier: 50
  proTier: unlimited-paygo
  name: Tempo / Cloud Traces ingestion
- api: Pyroscope / Cloud Profiles ingestion
  metric: GB per month
  scope: per-tenant
  freeTier: 50
  proTier: unlimited-paygo
  name: Pyroscope / Cloud Profiles ingestion
- api: Synthetic Monitoring
  metric: check executions per month
  scope: per-stack
  freeTier: 100000
  proTier: unlimited-paygo
  name: Synthetic Monitoring
- api: Grafana HTTP API (per data source query)
  metric: requests per second
  scope: per-data-source
  configurable: true
  notes: rate_limit_user, rate_limit_org, rate_limit_disabled in grafana.ini.
  name: Grafana HTTP API (per data source query)
- api: Grafana Cloud Access Policy tokens
  metric: requests per minute
  scope: per-token
  notes: Per-token request budgets enforced on grafana.com/api Cloud control-plane endpoints.
  name: Grafana Cloud Access Policy tokens
spendLimits:
- tier: Free
  monthlyCap: $0
  notes: Hard quotas; overage rejected with 429 / quota exceeded errors.
- tier: Pro
  monthlyCap: configurable
  notes: Account-level spend caps and alerts configurable in Grafana Cloud billing console.
- tier: Advanced / Enterprise
  monthlyCap: contractual
  notes: Committed-use volume; overages negotiated.