Prometheus Free Plan 2026: What's Included & What's Not
Honest breakdown of the free tier limits and features
Prometheus costs Free to $800 per month as of March 2026. Pricing depends on your chosen tier, contract length, and negotiated discounts.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: No free tier available
Yes, Prometheus offers a forever free plan as of March 2026. The free tier includes 7 features with limits on infrastructure and support. Paid plans start at $19/month + usage (Grafana Cloud Pro). Pricing verified from 5 sources by CostBench.
Prometheus's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit.
What's Included in the Free Plan
- Open source (Apache 2.0)
- Full PromQL query language
- Pull-based metrics collection
- Alert manager included
- Unlimited metrics retention (storage-bound)
- No vendor lock-in
- Active CNCF community
What's NOT Included (Paid Only)
- 10,000 active series included (then $8/1,000 series)
- Longer retention periods
- Unlimited users
- Priority support
- Usage-based overage billing
- Grafana dashboards + alerting
Free Plan Limits
| Limit | Free Plan | Paid Plans |
|---|---|---|
| infrastructure | Self-managed servers required | Unlimited/Higher |
| support | Community only | Unlimited/Higher |
You'll Need to Upgrade When...
- You exceed the user limit
- You need features like 10,000 active series included (then $8/1,000 series) or Longer retention periods
- You require premium support or SLA guarantees
- You need to remove branding or watermarks
- You need advanced integrations or API access
Hidden Restrictions on Free Plan
- Prometheus branding may appear on your content or communications
- Support is limited to community forums or email with longer response times
- Export options may be restricted or include watermarks
- API access is typically limited or not available
- Advanced reporting and analytics require paid plans
Free vs Paid: Which Do You Need?
Free Plan is Enough If...
- You're an individual or very small team
- You need only basic features
- You don't mind usage limits
- Branding on output is acceptable
- Community support is sufficient
You Need Paid If...
- Your team is growing beyond limits
- You need advanced features
- Professional branding is required
- You need priority support
- Integrations/API access is critical
Free vs Grafana Cloud Pro Plan Comparison
| Self-Hosted (Open Source) $0 | Grafana Cloud Pro $19/month + usage | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | 7 included | 6+ included |
| Support | Community/Email | Priority Support |
| Branding | Prometheus branding | Your branding |
| Best For | Teams with DevOps/SRE expertise who want full control and can manage infrastructure overhead | Growing teams that want a managed Prometheus-compatible backend with predictable base cost and pay-as-you-grow overage |
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is Prometheus free?
Yes, Prometheus offers a forever free plan with 7 core features included. However, there are limits on infrastructure, support that may require upgrading.
02 What's included in Prometheus's free plan?
Prometheus's free plan includes: Open source (Apache 2.0), Full PromQL query language, Pull-based metrics collection, Alert manager included, Unlimited metrics retention (storage-bound), and 2 more features. Key limits include infrastructure: Self-managed servers required, support: Community only.
03 What's NOT included in Prometheus's free plan?
The free plan excludes: 10,000 active series included (then $8/1,000 series), Longer retention periods, Unlimited users, Priority support, Usage-based overage billing. You'll also have Prometheus branding and limited support options.
04 When should I upgrade from Prometheus's free plan?
Consider upgrading when: you hit user or storage limits, need features like 10,000 active series included (then $8/1,000 series) or Longer retention periods, require premium support, or want to remove branding. The cheapest paid plan starts at $19/month + usage.
05 Is Prometheus's free plan really free forever?
Yes, Prometheus's free plan is available indefinitely with no time limit. However, feature and usage limits may restrict what you can do without upgrading to a paid plan.