# Axiom vs Grafana Cloud

Canonical: https://inetgeek.com/compare/axiom-vs-grafana-cloud/

Every value below is read from Axiom's and Grafana Cloud's own documentation. See https://inetgeek.com/methodology/ for how.

## At a glance

| Criterion | Axiom | Grafana Cloud |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Entry paid plan | $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored. | $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts. |
| Pricing model | A platform fee plus three separate meters — data loaded, query compute in GB-hours, and stored GB — each with an always-free allowance included on every plan and automatic volume discounts above it. | A $19 platform fee plus metered usage, with volume discounts applied automatically rather than negotiated. The enterprise tier starts at a $25,000 annual spend commitment. |
| Retention window | 30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed. | 13 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, profiles and k6 tests on Pro. The free tier is 14 days for everything. |

## Where they differ

### Entry paid plan

- Axiom: $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored. ([source](https://axiom.co/pricing))
- Grafana Cloud: $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

### Pricing model

- Axiom: A platform fee plus three separate meters — data loaded, query compute in GB-hours, and stored GB — each with an always-free allowance included on every plan and automatic volume discounts above it. ([source](https://axiom.co/pricing))
- Grafana Cloud: A $19 platform fee plus metered usage, with volume discounts applied automatically rather than negotiated. The enterprise tier starts at a $25,000 annual spend commitment. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

### Retention window

- Axiom: 30 days on the free Personal plan; configurable on Cloud rather than fixed. ([source](https://axiom.co/pricing))
- Grafana Cloud: 13 months for metrics and 30 days for logs, traces, profiles and k6 tests on Pro. The free tier is 14 days for everything. ([source](https://grafana.com/pricing/))

## Which should you choose?

Pick Axiom if Small projects that want a real telemetry platform for nothing — 500 GB a month loaded with 30-day retention, permanently, is the most generous free allowance in this category.

Pick Grafana Cloud if Metrics-heavy monitoring where 13 months of retention matters — that window is an order of magnitude beyond what the error trackers and most telemetry platforms keep.

Consider something else: Axiom — Query compute is billed as its own meter in GB-hours, so an expensive dashboard costs money even when ingest is inside the allowance.

Consider something else: Grafana Cloud — Logs and traces get 30 days rather than 13 months, so the headline retention figure does not describe most of what you send it.

## Documented by only one

- When you exceed a cap: Axiom: Billed, then paused per meter. Charges accrue past the Always Free allowance until they reach the spending limit you set, at which point Axiom stops the actions that cost money — and it stops them meter by meter: exhausting query compute halts queries and the monitors that depend on them while ingestion keeps running on an unspent data-loading allowance. Axiom says plainly that this can interrupt service.
- Regions: Axiom: Two, both on AWS: US East 1 and EU Central 1. Axiom calls them edge deployments — you pick one per organisation and event data is stored at rest there, while the console stays at app.axiom.co. Datasets in one organisation can sit in different deployments. New ones are added on request rather than published as a roadmap.
- Self-hostable: Grafana Cloud: Supported
- Ingest price per GB: Grafana Cloud: From $0.050 per GB processed, falling to $0.046 above 10,000 GB and $0.044 above 25,000 with automatic volume discounts.

## Questions this comparison answers

**Entry paid plan: Axiom or Grafana Cloud?**

Axiom: $25/month platform fee for Cloud, plus usage, with no minimum commitment. The plan carries an always-free allowance of 1 TB loaded, 100 GB-hours of query compute and 100 GB stored.
Grafana Cloud: $19/month platform fee for Pro, which includes 10,000 active series before usage billing starts.

**Should I choose Axiom or Grafana Cloud?**

Pick Axiom if Small projects that want a real telemetry platform for nothing — 500 GB a month loaded with 30-day retention, permanently, is the most generous free allowance in this category.
Pick Grafana Cloud if Metrics-heavy monitoring where 13 months of retention matters — that window is an order of magnitude beyond what the error trackers and most telemetry platforms keep.