DPS license management

A new version of the Dynatrace Platform Subscription model (DPS) was released on April 26, 2023. If your Dynatrace licensing agreement started before April 2023, please refer to the earlier version of DPS documentation.

Dynatrace Platform Subscription (DPS) is your licensing model for all Dynatrace capabilities. It allows you the flexibility to use any Dynatrace capability at any volume, anytime. With DPS, your organization can quickly adapt to ever-changing technical and business requirements while avoiding cumbersome licensing bureaucracy. Hourly reporting on usage and daily updates on your current budget provide you with all the transparency you expect.

A Dynatrace Platform Subscription agreement is typically signed for 1-3 years, with a minimum annual commitment. Each platform capability has a price point defined in the rate card that's included with your agreement.

Your organization's consumption of each Dynatrace capability accrues costs towards your annual commitment as defined in the rate card. Your Dynatrace Platform Subscription provides daily updates about accrued usage and related costs. You can access these details anytime via Account Management or the Dynatrace Platform Subscription API.

Once your annual commitment is reached, you can continue to use Dynatrace while incurring on-demand usage. Dynatrace applies the same rate card for on-demand usage without additional fees or premium pricing. You receive monthly invoices for on-demand costs until the next annual commitment period begins.

Your DPS Billing report is available in the Dynatrace web UI at Subscription > Accounting view. Your billing report provides details about accrued costs per booking date. Use this view to determine which Dynatrace monitoring costs were recognized and booked on which day.

The Dynatrace Platform Subscription model tracks usage at the capability level (unlike previous Dynatrace licenses, which were SKU-based and relied on host, DEM, and DDU consumption units).

Track DPS usage

Track your DPS cost and usage in Account Management or through the Dynatrace Platform Subscription API.

The Account Management Overview page (select Subscription > Overview from the menu) provides three key analyses of your DPS subscription:

  • Budget summary – provides a summary of total subscription period costs and forecast, with a breakdown by environment
  • Cost and usage breakdown – detailed cost and usage breakdown for the last 30 days
  • Cost and usage analysis – drill-down view with flexible filtering to view and compare costs and usage

Account Management

Budget summary

The Budget summary displays details about annual costs and a forecast, with a breakdown of costs by environment:

  • The Annual commitment period indicates the current subscription period (if you have a multi-year subscription, this shows the current period of your subscription).
  • The Annual commitment amount indicates your committed budget for the current subscription period. Costs are displayed in the currency stated in your subscription agreement. For example, USD, GBP, or EUR.
  • Days remaining shows how many days are left in the current period.

The Total used budget donut chart provides a snapshot of the percentage of your annual commitment amount that has already been consumed, along with the actual amount and your accrued usage. Hover over the chart to display the exact breakdown for each environment. (The chart lists only the first four environments; all other environments are summarized as other ).

The Budget forecast line chart shows your cumulative accrued costs from the start of the subscription period and a forecast of costs through the end of the period. Hover over the chart to display the actual and forecast costs.

Select the legend labels beneath the chart to hide/show each chart element. For example, to hide/show the annual budget line, select Annual budget in the chart legend.

The Forecast events panel displays any projected on-demand usage increase (percentage and cost) that you are forecast to incur at the end of the annual commitment period. When the forecast usage exceeds the annual commitment, the date when the forecast exceeds the annual commitment is shown.

The Environment table beneath the chart displays cost details for each environment.

  • Annual budget to-date cost is the cumulative cost for the environment, from the start of the commitment period.
  • Last 0-30 days cost and Last 0-30 days change show cumulative cost and percentage change by environment for the last 30 days. Environment usage may fluctuate during the commitment period; these columns help you identify the environments that are currently incurring the highest cost.

To view the cost breakdown for an environment by capability, select View details in the Actions column.

DPS budget summary

Account Management uses advanced forecasting to predict future costs. Forecast data is an estimate only and not a guarantee of future costs. Accounts with fewer than 15 days of cost data don't show forecast data.

Cost and usage

The Cost summary | Usage summary page provides a detailed analysis of the last 30 days of subscription usage. The two tabs on this page show fixed-time views that show which capabilities your organization used on a certain day or within a custom timeframe.

Cost summary

The Cost Summary tab shows the last 30 days of costs incurred across all environments and all capabilities. Hover over a value on the chart to show a cost breakdown by environment.

  • Only the top four environments (based on accrued costs) are displayed on the chart; all other environments are summarized as other.
  • Select the legend labels beneath the chart to hide/show an environment in the chart.

The tabular data beneath the chart shows a breakdown of costs by capability.

  • The Annual budget to date cost column displays the cumulative costs for the specified capability from the start of the subscription period.
  • The Last 0-30 days cost column displays cumulative costs for the specified capability over the last 30 days. Use these values to determine which capabilities are currently consuming the most cost.
  • Select View details in the Actions column of a capability to view the cost and usage associated with that capability.

To filter cost data for a specific environment or capability, select values from the Environment and Capability filters above the chart.

cost summary

Usage summary

Select the Usage summary tab and select a capability from the Capability filter above the chart. The chart can only display a single capability at a time due to differences in the units of measure. The chart and table show subscription usage for the selected capability for the last 30 days.

  • The total usage for each capability is displayed using that capability's unit of measure.
  • Use the filter above the chart to view usage for different environments and capabilities.

usage summary

Select View details in the Actions column to view Capability cost and usage analysis for any capability.

Capability cost and usage analysis

The Capability cost and usage analysis page allows you to look at subscription costs and usage side-by-side and provides additional timeframe filtering capabilities. The page is filtered automatically to the selected environments or capabilities.

  • The Environment cost chart displays the daily costs in the subscription currency. The Environment usage chart displays daily usage using the appropriate unit of measure. (The vertical axis of the charts are therefore different.)
  • The default timeframe displayed is the Last 30 days and can be changed in the filter.
  • The table displays the total cost and total usage based on the selected filters.

capability cost and usage

Select View details in the Actions column to view Environment cost and usage analysis for any environment.

Environment cost and usage analysis

The Environment cost and usage analysis page allows you to view capability costs and usage for a specific environment.

  • This view is a variant of the Capability cost and usage analysis page, and the tabular data shows cumulative cost and usage by capability.
  • Select a capability from the filter above the chart to display usage for the selected timeframe.

environment cost and analysis

Frequently asked questions

Daily usage and costs are based on UTC and run from 00:00:00 on the start date of your agreement to 23:59:59 on the end date.

Multi-year subscriptions are broken down into annual (12-month) subscription periods. Dynatrace might adjust the subscription period for your agreement to accommodate your needs. For example, year one of a multi-year agreement might only be a 6-month period, which is followed by two 12-month subscription periods.

Your subscription agreement determines the currency used. The currency code is shown on all Account Management cost views as a 3-digit abbreviation (USD, GBP, EUR). The applied currency code might not be displayed until after the first cost metrics are calculated.

A future release of Account Management will display a list of your past licenses and subscriptions, allowing you to view your past Dynatrace usage.