OpenObserve

What it is for

OpenObserve is an observability desk: you search logs on a histogram table, and you can start Cloud at $0.50/GB ingested plus $0.01/GB queried (14-day trial, no card) or self-host OSS at $0. Use it when the job is logs you start at $0.50/GB or OSS $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official OpenObserve Logs explorer (match_all query, histogram, field list, pinostream table) from the GitHub logs still — not a pricing card. The explorer itself is ops of Logs.

Key features

• Logs — the search you run (logs still; OpenObserve platform). One query. Histogram, fields, and the result table are ops of this. Metrics, traces, and RUM are other signals on the same ingest pipe, not a second desk. The SDK / OTel collector is install.
• Dashboards — a saved chart you pin (pricing unlimited dashboards). A board, not a live search. Visualization types sit on this.
• Alerts — a condition that pages you (pricing unlimited alerts). A trigger, not a query. Destinations sit on this.
• Pipelines — an ingest transform, including sensitive-data redaction (pricing Pipelines). A rewrite, not a search. Redaction is ops of this.
• Self-host / Cloud — the AGPL OSS app you run (free forever), Self-Hosted Enterprise free to 50 GB/day, or Cloud Pay-As-You-Go at $0.50/GB ingested + $0.01/GB queried (pricing FAQ). A deploy, not a log line. SSO / RBAC / audit trail are Enterprise add-ons on the self-host card, not extra Free surfaces. AI credits are a preview SKU — do not count them as a feature.

Users are unlimited on Cloud (no seat fee). That is a quota, not a product.

Who it's for

Best fit: platform / SRE teams who will self-host OSS at $0, stay on Self-Hosted Enterprise free through 50 GB/day, or start the 14-day Cloud trial and land on $0.50/GB ingest + $0.01/GB query when they want logs without a per-host Datadog card.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) from openobserve.ai/pricing. Cloud is GB ingested + GB queried. No per-seat or per-host fee. The tile asterisk says the $0.50 includes a 30% annual-commitment discount; the undiscounted GB rate was not in the static HTML — do not invent it. The $15/mo figure on the page is a 1 GB/day estimator example, not a plan tile.

• Open Source (self-host) — $0, “free forever” (pricing FAQ). AGPL-3.0 (GitHub).
• Self-Hosted Enterprise — $0 up to 50 GB/day ingestion. Includes SSO, RBAC, federated search, query management, QoS, audit trail, sensitive-data redaction. Above 50 GB/day or extra support: Talk to Sales — do not invent that dollar.
• Cloud Professional (PAYG) — $0.50/GB ingested + $0.01/GB queried, billed monthly. 14-day trial, no card. Logs, metrics, traces, RUM, session replay, error tracking. Default retention: metrics 15 months; non-metrics 30 days. Extra non-metrics retention $0.02/GB per additional 30 days. Unlimited users / dashboards / alerts.
• Cloud Enterprise — custom / Talk to Sales. Volume discounts, BYOB infinite retention, SLAs. Confirm the live quote — do not invent an Enterprise dollar.

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Limitations / costs

• $0.50/GB ingest + $0.01/GB query is the Cloud meter. A chatty debug logger is a bill, not a second card. Extra log retention is $0.02/GB per 30 days after the included 30.
• Self-Hosted Enterprise is free only through 50 GB/day. Past that, sales — no printed overage dollar.
• A log desk, not a product-analytics OS. For events plus replay in one product-analytics bill see PostHog (not listed as a near neighbor here). For a closer OSS APM/logs card see SigNoz.

Alternatives

• SigNoz — OSS traces-first observability when you will not pay OpenObserve’s $0.50/GB Cloud card.
• Umami — website analytics when you need pageviews, not a log histogram.
• OpenReplay — session replay when the job is a frontend recording, not ingest + query GB.

Official tutorial

Official OpenObserve channel video: OpenObserve: Full Stack Observability Platform for Logs, Metrics, Traces, RUM, Synthetics & LLMs (oEmbed author: OpenObserve). First-party platform walkthrough; the GitHub Logs explorer still is the cover.

Written path: openobserve.ai/pricing plus the logs still.

Website

https://openobserve.ai

Repository

https://github.com/openobserve/openobserve

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official OpenObserve Logs explorer from the project screenshots still. Dollars checked on openobserve.ai/pricing (Cloud $0.50/GB ingest + $0.01/GB query; extra retention $0.02/GB per 30 days; OSS $0; Self-Hosted Enterprise $0 to 50 GB/day). Tutorial oEmbed author: OpenObserve.

Last verified

2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.