Cost Management
Grafana LabsOfficialPublished by Grafana Labs
- Skill
- Tool integration
- Cloud and DevOps
- Apache-2.0
- Low risk
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
This skill provides a structured approach to managing and reducing Grafana Cloud expenses. It focuses on three primary levers: attributing costs to specific teams using external labels, reducing telemetry volume through Adaptive signals (Metrics, Logs, and Traces), and proactive monitoring via usage alerts. The guide includes configuration snippets for Alloy, API-based recommendations for cardinality reduction, and specific strategies for filtering noisy logs and sampling trace data.
What it does
- Configures cost-attribution labels in Alloy to track spend by team or project.
- Implements Adaptive Metrics to reduce high-cardinality series.
- Filters out noisy or unnecessary logs using drop stages in Alloy.
- Configures tail-sampling for traces to reduce ingestion volume while keeping critical data.
- Sets up proactive usage alerts to monitor quota consumption.
- Provides a checklist for ongoing observability cost optimization.
When to use it
- When you need to investigate or explain a high Grafana Cloud bill.
- When you need to identify which teams or services are consuming the most observability resources.
- When you need to reduce active series, log ingestion bytes, or trace span volume.
- When you want to set up automated alerts before hitting billing quotas.
Advantages
- Directly reduces cloud spend by optimizing telemetry ingestion.
- Improves cost transparency through team-based attribution.
- Provides actionable, data-driven recommendations for cardinality reduction.
- Offers clear, copy-pasteable configuration patterns for Alloy.
Usage examples
- “How can I see which team is responsible for our high Grafana Cloud metrics bill?”
- The agent will guide you to add 'team' and 'project' external labels in your Alloy configuration and then use the Cost Management dashboard to group usage by those labels.
- “Our log ingestion is too high; how do I drop debug logs in Grafana Cloud?”
- The agent will provide an Alloy configuration snippet using a loki.process stage with a drop rule to filter out logs where the level is set to debug.
- “How do I reduce the number of active series in our metrics?”
- The agent will explain how to pull recommendations from the Adaptive Metrics API and apply rules to keep only meaningful labels for high-cardinality metrics.
- “Can you help me set up an alert for when we reach 80% of our metrics quota?”
- The agent will provide a Prometheus alert rule using the grafana_cloud_metrics_active_series and grafana_cloud_metrics_limit metrics to trigger a warning.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/grafana/cost-management/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip cost-management.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Grafana Labs
Grafana Cloud Cost Management
Docs: https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/
Reduce metric / log / trace spend with Adaptive signals + cost-attribution labels.
Prerequisites
A Grafana Cloud stack with Adaptive Metrics / Logs / Traces enabled (visible under Cost Management)
Alloy (or Grafana Agent) ingesting telemetry, with API key in scope
metrics:write+logs:write(+traces:write)Admin access to the stack to apply Adaptive recommendations
Common Workflows
1. Attribute cost to a team / service
# 1. Add external labels in Alloy (metrics + logs configs)
prometheus.remote_write "cloud" {
endpoint { url = sys.env("PROMETHEUS_URL") /* ... */ }
external_labels = { team = "platform", project = "checkout-service" }
}# 2. Reload Alloy
curl -X POST http://localhost:12345/-/reload
# 3. Verify labels arrived in Grafana Cloud
# In Explore, run: count by (team, project) ({__name__=~".+"})
# Then visit Cost Management → group by `team` / `project`See references/adaptive-signals.md for the full Alloy snippet.
2. Cut metric cardinality with Adaptive Metrics
# 1. Pull recommendations
curl https://<stack>.grafana.net/api/plugins/grafana-adaptive-metrics-app/resources/v1/recommendations \
-H "Authorization: Bearer <token>" | jq '.recommendations | length'
# 2. In the UI: Grafana Cloud → Adaptive Metrics → review rules sorted by series-reduction impact
# 3. Test in "Preview" mode before applying
# 4. Apply (takes effect within 5 min)
# 5. Verify — series count should drop on the affected metrics
# Before applying, capture baseline:
# count({__name__="http_request_duration_seconds_bucket"})
# Wait 10 min after apply, run again — expect 10x+ reduction for high-card metrics.
# Rollback if needed: open the rule in the UI → Disable, or DELETE /v1/rules/<id>.3. Drop noisy logs in Alloy
# 1. Add a filter stage (see references/adaptive-signals.md for the full block)
loki.process "filter_logs" {
forward_to = [loki.write.cloud.receiver]
stage.drop { expression = ".*GET /health.*" }
}# 2. Reload Alloy
curl -X POST http://localhost:12345/-/reload
# 3. Verify the filter — health logs should NOT appear in Logs Drilldown
# LogQL check (should return 0):
# sum(rate({app="my-app"} |= "GET /health" [5m]))
# Bytes-ingested should also drop. Compare 24h before/after:
# sum(increase(loki_ingester_chunk_size_bytes_sum[24h])) by (namespace)4. Set a usage alert before you hit quota
See references/alerts-and-queries.md for ready-to-paste rules (MetricsUsageHigh, LogsIngestionHigh).
Optimization checklist
[ ] Apply Adaptive Metrics recommendations — typically reduces series 40-60%
[ ] Drop health/readiness probe logs in Alloy
[ ] Tail-sample traces to 5-10% + keep errors / slow spans
[ ] Add
team+projectexternal labels to every Alloy config[ ] Set usage alerts at 80% of quota
[ ] Replace expensive ad-hoc queries with recording rules
References
references/adaptive-signals.md— Adaptive Metrics / Logs / Traces config; cost-attribution labelsreferences/alerts-and-queries.md— usage alert rules, cost-finding PromQL, billing-unit table
Resources
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer851 B
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.1 KiB
- SKILL.md4.5 KiB
- references/adaptive-signals.md2.1 KiB
- references/alerts-and-queries.md1.3 KiB
LICENSE
Apache License
Version 2.0, January 2004
http://www.apache.org/licenses/
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION
1. Definitions.
"License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.
"Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by
the copyright owner that is granting the License.
"Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
"control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
exercising permissions granted by this License.
"Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
including but not limited to software source code, documentation
source, and configuration files.
"Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
and conversions to other media types.
"Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
(an example is provided in the Appendix below).
"Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes
of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain
separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of,
the Work and Derivative Works thereof.
"Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."
"Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and
subsequently incorporated within the Work.
2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,
publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the
Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.
3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
(except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
as of the date such litigation is filed.
4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
meet the following conditions:
(a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
Derivative Works a copy of this License; and
(b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that You changed the files; and
(c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and
attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
the Derivative Works; and
(d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
as modifying the License.
You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
the conditions stated in this License.
5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.
7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.
8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing
the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity,
or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this
License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only
on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf
of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify,
defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability
incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason
of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.
To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
the brackets!) The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier
identification within third-party archives.
Copyright 2026 Grafana Labs
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
Requirements and compatibility
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Needs network access, Needs an API key
Security
What our scanner noticed· Low risk
- Instructions that use the network
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Published by
- Grafana Labs
- Publisher
- Grafana Labs (Official)
- Source
- grafana/skills · skills/grafana-cloud/cost-management · commit 8fb72a5
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Grafana Labs.
Download ZIP
The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download cost-management.zip