Grafana Cloud Traces review
A managed Tempo backend with strong TraceQL, protocol support, and a usage-based upgrade path.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Grafana Cloud Traces is a fully managed distributed tracing backend powered by Grafana Tempo. It stores and queries application traces, with TraceQL search, service map visualization, metrics generated from spans, and links between traces, logs, and metrics. The service is aimed at engineering and observability teams that want distributed request tracing without operating the tracing backend themselves. It is available through web and API access, with Grafana Cloud providing the surrounding observability environment.
Pricing starts with the Free plan, which is always free, requires no credit card, includes 50 GB ingested per month, and provides 14-day retention with community support. The Pro plan costs $19 per month and includes 50 GB ingested per month before usage-based pricing applies. Pro adds 8×5 email support and 30 days of retention; traces are charged by GB processed, written, and retained. Enterprise uses custom pricing and adds custom retention, premium support, and deployment flexibility across Public Cloud, Federal Cloud, or Bring Your Own Cloud. Teams should account for the separate usage components when estimating Pro costs.
Protocol support makes the service suitable for environments using OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, or Jaeger. Its Grafana ecosystem fit is a central strength: tracing data can connect with Grafana Logs and Grafana Metrics, while Grafana Tempo provides the storage and query foundation. Adaptive Traces tail-based sampling and columnar Apache Parquet object storage add depth for teams managing trace volume. Grafana Cloud Traces is a strong fit for teams prioritizing managed operations and integrated observability. Teams seeking self-hosted deployment, fully predictable Pro costs, or published Enterprise pricing should evaluate alternatives.
Grafana Cloud Traces pros and cons
- Where it wins
- TraceQL search with service maps and span-derived metrics
- Supports OpenTelemetry, Zipkin, and Jaeger ingestion
- Connects traces with Grafana Logs and Grafana Metrics
- Where it doesn't
- Pro pricing adds usage charges beyond the included 50 GB
- Enterprise pricing is custom rather than published
- Cloud deployment may not suit teams requiring self-hosted tracing
Grafana Cloud Traces fact sheet, pricing and score →
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