Hosts, logs and APM — model a Datadog-style monitoring bill.
Per-host pricing punishes autoscaling and log ingestion is the silent budget-eater. Trim log volume first. Model the raw storage side on the log ingestion cost calculator and retention on the log retention calculator.
Free observability cost calculator — monitored hosts, daily log volume and APM to your monthly monitoring bill.
Two reasons: host-based billing (every node running the agent counts, so autoscaling multiplies it) and log ingestion + indexing, often $1.50–2.00 per GB. A chatty app logging tens of GB a day quietly becomes the biggest line on the invoice.
Sample or filter logs before ingestion, index only what you query, cap the agent to real hosts (not every ephemeral pod), and move cold logs to cheap archive storage. Ingestion volume is the main lever.
Cost at different volumes:
| Volume | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|