Metrics Time Series Cost Calculator

Metrics platforms often charge based on the number of active time series. This calculator estimates monthly cost from your active series count and per-series pricing, and compares baseline vs peak scenarios.

Inputs

Active time series
Cost per 1k series: $0.50
Price ($ / series-month)
Providers define "active series" differently; use the definition in your billing docs.
Scenario presets

Results

Estimated monthly metrics cost
$25.00
Active series
50,000

How to get your inputs

  • Counts: start from inventory (custom metrics, alarms, dashboards) per account/environment.
  • Cardinality: model multiplicative dimensions (service x env x cluster x pod).
  • API polling: add dashboard refresh and automation polling scenarios.

Result interpretation

  • If series count dominates, reduce high-cardinality labels or aggregate metrics.
  • Spikes often come from new labels in deploys; audit new series creation.

Common mistakes

  • Using a single average and ignoring peak/high-cardinality scenarios.
  • Forgetting API polling and dashboard refresh costs.

Input checklist

  • List top namespaces or services that generate the most series.
  • Count high-cardinality labels (pod, container, user, request id).
  • Identify temporary series churn from autoscaling and batch jobs.

Scenario planning

Scenario Active series Cardinality Notes
Baseline Expected Current Normal deploys
Peak High High New labels

Validate after changes

  • Measure actual custom metric/series counts and alarm/dashboards after rollout.
  • Watch API request volume trends (dashboards + automation).

Next steps

Guides All calculators Log ingestion cost Log scan cost
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Example scenario

  • 50,000 active series at $0.0005 per series-month = ~$25/month.
  • Compare baseline vs peak series counts to understand cardinality spikes.

Included

  • Monthly cost estimate from active time series count and per-series pricing.
  • Helpful for comparing metric-label cardinality tradeoffs.
  • Baseline vs peak comparison for series growth spikes.

Not included

  • Ingestion bytes, retention, and query fees if your provider bills those separately.
  • Different series definitions across vendors-use your vendor's definition for inputs.

How we calculate

  • Monthly cost = active series x price per series-month.
  • Active series definitions vary by provider (labels, churn window, etc.).
  • Use a peak multiplier to model incident spikes or onboarding bursts.
  • Use this tool for planning and comparisons, then validate in billing docs.

FAQ

What counts as a time series?
Typically a metric name + a unique set of labels/tags. The exact definition depends on the platform.
How do I reduce series count?
Reduce high-cardinality labels, drop noisy metrics, and aggregate where possible.

Related tools

Log ingestion cost Log scan cost

Related guides

Estimate CloudWatch custom metrics (time series count)
How to estimate CloudWatch custom metric volume for cost models: count unique time series (metric name * dimension combinations), model high-cardinality dimensions, and validate with inventory methods.
AWS CloudWatch Metrics Pricing & Cost Guide
CloudWatch metrics cost model: custom metrics, API requests, dashboards, and retention.
CloudWatch metrics cost optimization: reduce custom metric sprawl
A practical playbook to reduce CloudWatch metrics costs: control custom metric cardinality, right-size resolution, reduce API polling, and validate observability coverage.
Estimate API requests per month (RPS, logs, and metrics)
How to estimate monthly API request volume for cost models: from CloudWatch metrics, from access logs, and from RPS charts (with common pitfalls like retries and health checks).
Estimate CloudWatch metrics API requests (dashboards and polling)
How to estimate CloudWatch metrics API request volume for cost models: derive requests from dashboards and tooling polling, include refresh rates, and validate with measured usage.
Observability costs explained: logs, metrics, traces, and query behavior
A practical observability cost model: log ingestion + retention, metrics series cardinality, traces volume, and the query patterns that create scan/search charges.
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Disclaimer

Educational use only. Not legal, financial, or professional advice. Results are estimates based on the inputs and assumptions shown on this page. Verify pricing and limits with your providers and documentation.

Last updated: 2026-01-28