Adaptive Metrics FAQ: Managing Prometheus cardinality in Grafana Cloud

Adaptive Metrics, a new feature introduced by Grafana Cloud, addresses the challenge of managing the high cardinality of Prometheus metrics to optimize data value and reduce costs. Highlighted in a recent webinar, this feature allows users to significantly decrease their metrics' footprint and save on observability expenses by recommending and applying metric aggregations. The feature has been tested to scale efficiently with millions of metrics, and though automation of these recommendations is currently user-driven, future developments may include built-in automation. While the recommendations are not based on machine learning, they are derived from recent data usage patterns, ensuring no disruption to existing dashboards or queries. Adaptive Metrics is available across all Grafana Cloud tiers, including the free version, and does not yet support on-premises databases. Although the feature currently lacks options to bookmark or control the sensitivity of recommendations, it provides a flexible approach to metric management that can adapt to evolving data access patterns while maintaining access to essential metrics.

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