Honeycomb

What it is for

Honeycomb is a hosted observability-query desk: you open the Query Builder, and Free is free forever (up to 20 million events/month, 2 Triggers). Use it when the job is wide-event queries you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official Honeycomb Query Builder (COUNT, WHERE app.status, GROUP BY hostname, Query Results spike) from the query-builder still — not a pricing card. The builder itself is ops of Queries. Query Assistant on the cover is a generate option of Queries, not a second desk. Honeycomb bills events (and optional Refinery GB), not seats.

Key features

• Queries — a Visualize / Where / Group By you run on events (Query Builder still; docs). One question. Cover COUNT / ORDER BY / HAVING and the results chart are ops of this. Query Assistant and saved permalinks sit here.
• Triggers — an alert on a query (pricing Triggers). An alert, not a query. Free 2; Pro 100; Enterprise starts at 300.
• SLOs — a service-level objective with a burn (pricing Service-Level Objectives). An objective, not a trigger. Pro includes 2 SLOs; Enterprise starts at 100.
• Distributed tracing — spans you send over OpenTelemetry (pricing Distributed Tracing). A trace, not a query. You still read a trace through Queries.
• BubbleUp — a compare that highlights what differs on a query (pricing BubbleUp). An explanation, not a trigger. It is not a generate option of Query Assistant.

Boards (saved query collections) are ops of Queries. Canvas / AI Copilot / MCP are generate options. Event volume is the meter. Refinery as a Service (from $0.10 / GB) is a pipeline add-on, not a sixth desk.

Who it's for

Best fit: platform teams who will stay on Free forever at 20M events and 2 Triggers while they run a first Query Builder, then buy Pro at $150/month when they need 50M events, 100 Triggers, and 2 SLOs.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) from honeycomb.io/pricing. Tiles print Free / Starting at $150 per month / Enterprise request-a-trial.

• Free — free forever. Up to 20M events/month and 100M time-series data points. 2 Triggers. Distributed tracing, BubbleUp, OpenTelemetry, team query history, permalinks.
• Pro — starting at $150/month. $150 / 50M events (up to 750M) and 250M time-series points (up to 3.75B). 100 Triggers. 2 SLOs. Everything in Free.
• Enterprise — custom. Starts with 300 Triggers and 100 SLOs. Base allowance mentioned as 10 billion events/year. Enterprise support + Refinery. Do not invent an Enterprise dollar.
• Refinery as a Service — starting at $0.10 / GB for OpenTelemetry processing / fleet management.

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Limitations / costs

• Free is 20M events and 2 Triggers. A production service usually wants Pro’s 100 Triggers / 2 SLOs.
• Pro $150 is the 50M-event starting pack, not unlimited ingest.
• Query Assistant is generate-on-Queries. Do not treat the AI Ecosystem video as a second product listing.
• A query desk, not a log host. For logs + uptime see Better Stack. For product analytics + flags see PostHog.

Alternatives

• Better Stack — logs + uptime when you want a hosted log desk, not Honeycomb’s wide-event Query Builder.
• PostHog — product analytics when the job is product events + session replay, not traces.
• Tinybird — real-time analytics APIs when you want to publish a query as an endpoint, not explore it in Honeycomb.

Official tutorial

Official Honeycomb channel video: Honeycomb AI Ecosystem - Now Generally Available. (oEmbed author: Honeycomb). First-party product announcement; the docs Query Builder still is the cover. AI Ecosystem / Query Assistant on the video is generate-on-Queries, not a second listing.

Written path: honeycomb.io/pricing plus the Query Builder still.

Website

https://www.honeycomb.io

Repository

https://github.com/honeycombio

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official Honeycomb Query Builder from the docs still. Dollars checked on honeycomb.io/pricing (Free forever, 20M events; Pro from $150/mo for 50M events; Refinery from $0.10/GB; Enterprise custom). Tutorial oEmbed author: Honeycomb.

Last verified

2026-10-23 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.