New Relic vs Grafana Cloud: true cost
One usage pool priced by data ingested, plus a per-seat charge for full users.
Pay-as-you-go on top of a small platform fee, with a per-active-user charge to view dashboards.
Cost across three workloads
| Workload | New Relic | Grafana Cloud | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
Startup 5 hosts, 50 GB/mo, 3 users | $198 | $71 | Grafana Cloud |
Growth 25 hosts, 300 GB/mo, 10 users | $971 | $264 | Grafana Cloud |
Scale 100 hosts, 2 TB/mo, 25 users | $3,136 | $1,319 | Grafana Cloud |
The 100 GB free tier feels generous until a couple of chatty services blow past it, and the real cost is usually the $99-per-full-user charge, not the data. Standard caps you at 5 full users, so growing teams get pushed to a quote.
The generous free tier hides that Pro adds a $19 platform fee, splits each GB into process plus write plus retain, and charges $8 per user just to view dashboards. Most teams report the real bill lands two to five times over their first estimate.
Totals use list rates on hosts, data, and seats; tune them in the calculator. Sources: New Relic 2026-06-25, Grafana Cloud 2026-06-25.