Try it free

Capabilities and units of measure

  • Latest Dynatrace
  • Explanation
  • 5-min read
  • Published May 26, 2026

Different Dynatrace capabilities are metered in different units. Understanding these units is essential for interpreting your consumption data. You can see all your measurement units on your rate card.

Overview

Every Dynatrace capability has a defined unit of measurement that determines how its consumption is metered. This page lists each rate-card capability with its unit (GiB-hours, GiB, host-hours, etc.) and notes any units included in the base rate.

Use cases

  • Look up the metering unit for a specific capability before budgeting or forecasting.
  • Understand which capabilities include bundled units and which are billed end-to-end.
  • Reconcile DQL billing event types (event.type) to their rate-card capability.

Consumption units by capability

Capability areaConsumption unitWhat it measures

Full-Stack Monitoring

GiB-hours

Memory GiB per monitored host per hour

Infrastructure Monitoring

host-hours

Monitored host-hours

Foundation & Discovery

host-hours

Monitored host-hours (lightweight tier)

Mainframe Monitoring

MSU-hours

Million Service Units per hour

Code Monitoring

container-hours

0.25 per container per 15-min interval

Kubernetes Platform Monitoring

pod-hours

K8s pod-hours

Log – Ingest & Process

GiB ingested

Compressed bytes ingested

Log – Query

GiB scanned

Data scanned per DQL query execution

Log – Retain

GiB-days

Bytes stored × retention days

Log – Retain with Included Queries

GiB-days

As above, with bundled query allowance

Traces – Ingest & Process

GiB ingested

Ingested span bytes

Traces – Query

GiB scanned

Data scanned per query execution

Traces – Retain

GiB-days

Bytes stored × retention days (first 10 days free)

Metrics – Ingest & Process

data points

Individual metric data points ingested

Metrics – Retain

GiB-days

Bytes stored × retention days (first 15 months free)

Events – Ingest & Process

GiB ingested

Business, Davis, K8s, custom, security events

Events – Query

GiB scanned

Data scanned per query execution

Events – Retain

GiB-days

Bytes stored × retention days

Files – Ingest & Process

GiB ingested

Billed at Events – Ingest rate

Files – Query

GiB scanned

Billed at Events – Query rate

Files – Retain

GiB-days

Billed at Events – Retain rate

Real User Monitoring

sessions

Browser/mobile sessions captured

RUM with Session Replay

replay captures

Sessions with full replay recorded

RUM Property

properties/session

User action & session properties per app

Browser Monitor / Clickpath

synthetic actions

Actions executed per synthetic test run

HTTP Monitor

synthetic requests

HTTP requests executed per check

Third-Party Synthetic API Ingestion

synthetic results

Test results ingested from external providers

Runtime Application Protection

GiB-hours

Protected process memory GiB per hour

Runtime Vulnerability Analytics

GiB-hours

Analyzed process memory GiB per hour

Security Posture Management

host-hours

Distinct K8s nodes scanned per hour

Automation Workflow

workflow-hours

Distinct workflow IDs active per hour

AppEngine Functions – Small

invocations

Function executions

Data Egress

GiB egressed

Bytes forwarded via OpenPipeline (preview, no public price)

DEM – Query

GiB scanned

Querying user event / RUM data (preview, no public price)

DEM – Retain

GiB-days

Retaining user event / RUM data (preview, no public price)

To get a detailed overview of included usage, make sure you check the desired capability page. Capability billing details

Included units by capability

Some capabilities include a volume of free units that is deducted before billable consumption is calculated. The following table summarizes those allowances.

CapabilityIncluded volumeAlways billed (no deduction)

Metrics Ingest – Full-Stack hosts

3,600 data points per GiB-hour (900 per 15-min interval × 4)

None

Metrics Ingest – Infrastructure hosts

6,000 data points per GiB-hour (1,500 per 15-min interval × 4)

None

Metrics Ingest – Discovery / other

None

Always fully billed

Traces Ingest – Full-Stack (Adaptive)

Included volume limit from Adaptive Traffic Management configuration

Only excess above limit

Traces Ingest – Full-Stack (Fixed-rate)

Residual included volume after adaptive consumption

Only excess above limit

Traces Ingest – OTLP (non-Full-Stack)

None

Always fully billed

Traces Ingest – Serverless

None

Always fully billed

Traces Retain

First 10 days of retention free

Day 11 and beyond billed

Metrics Retain

First 15 months of retention free

Month 16 and beyond billed

Related tags
Dynatrace Platform