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Splunk Observability Pricing, Plans, and Availability

#5 in Observability

by Splunk · splunk.com ↗

Observability and analytics platform for logs, metrics, traces, and service monitoring.

#5ObservabilityEnterprise
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Pricing at a glance

Splunk Observability Cloud is positioned as a flexible observability platform with public entry pricing for several modules and a clear free starting point for small environments. On the official pricing pages, Splunk shows host-based pricing for Infrastructure Monitoring, APM, Database Monitoring, and Secure Application, while RUM and Synthetic Monitoring use session- and request-based pricing. The public FAQ adds an important buyer detail: Observability Cloud is free for up to 15 hosts, all features are included, and volume discounts are available by contacting sales. For teams comparing options, that means the published prices are best treated as starting points, not fixed total costs. The actual spend depends on host counts, usage averages, module mix, and whether a buyer needs extra container capacity or negotiated volume pricing. In practice, Splunk’s public model favors predictable annual billing for core infrastructure and application monitoring, with separate metering for some edge-use cases like sessions and uptime checks.

◇ Pricing model

Host-based entity pricing for Observability Cloud, with additional usage-based pricing for certain modules; quote-based volume discounts and enterprise sizing are available.

↻ Billing notes

Splunk publicly shows annual billing for the host-based observability tiers, including Infrastructure Monitoring, APM, Database Monitoring, and Secure Application. The FAQ says Observability Cloud is free for up to 15 hosts, all features are included, and that volume discounts are available for each plan by contacting sales. It also explains how hosts are counted: Infrastructure Monitoring uses the average of unique hosts reporting hourly across the billing month, while APM uses the average of unique hosts reporting per minute across the billing month. For RUM and Synthetic Monitoring, the public pricing pages show per-session and per-request starting prices, but no billing cadence is publicly disclosed.

Plans and pricing

7 tiers

Splunk Observability Cloud

Billed annually
Starts at $15 per host/month
  • Unified metrics
  • traces
  • logs
  • Free trial

Over 15 hosts starts at $15 per host, per month, billed annually. Public page also describes this as free for up to 15 hosts.

Infrastructure Monitoring

Billed annually
Starts at $15 per host/month
  • Real-time hybrid cloud monitoring
  • Streaming analytics architecture
  • 200+ out-of-the-box integrations
  • OpenTelemetry data ingestion and auto-discovery
  • Instant visualization
  • Customizable dashboards

Public pricing is host-based and billed annually; no separate public seat minimum is disclosed on the page.

Application Performance Monitoring (APM)

Billed annually
Starts at $55 per host/month
  • Simpler and faster application troubleshooting
  • NoSample full-fidelity trace ingest
  • Streaming analytics to alert within seconds
  • Dependency aware service map
  • Business Workflows
  • Correlation with infrastructure metrics, RUM, and logs

Public pricing is host-based and billed annually; no separate public seat minimum is disclosed on the page.

Real User Monitoring (RUM)

Not publicly disclosed
Starts at $14 per 10,000 sessions
  • Real-time, front-end user monitoring and troubleshooting
  • OpenTelemetry based data collections via supported integrations
  • High cardinality
  • Core web vitals and W3C standards
  • Open Telemetry Standardization
  • Visibility and correlation with Splunk APM

Pricing is publicly shown per 10,000 sessions; the billing cadence is not publicly disclosed on the page.

Synthetic Monitoring

Not publicly disclosed
Starts at $1 per 10,000 uptime requests
  • Browser tests
  • API tests
  • Uptime tests
  • Lighthouse scores
  • Core web vitals
  • 50+ modern performance metrics

Pricing is publicly shown per 10,000 uptime requests; the billing cadence is not publicly disclosed on the page.

Database Monitoring

Billed annually
Starts at $75 per database instance/month
  • Find the slowest and most resource intensive queries
  • Analyze execution plans to find costliest operations
  • Correlate DB performance with application traces
  • Seamless correlation with host CPU, memory and I/O
  • Gen AI recommendations to optimize complex SQL queries

Public pricing is per database instance and billed annually; no separate public seat minimum is disclosed on the page.

Secure Application

Billed annually
Starts at $22 per host/month
  • Real-time detection of vulnerabilities across libraries, services, and environments
  • Risk-based prioritization with CVSS and Cisco Security Risk Scores

Public pricing is host-based and billed annually; no separate public seat minimum is disclosed on the page.

Add-ons and extras

Container capacity

Per container/month

If a host-based subscription does not include enough container capacity, customers can purchase additional container capacity a la carte per container/month or buy more host-based licenses.

Additional capacity / right-sizing support

Not publicly disclosed

The FAQ says customers can purchase additional capacity or dial back usage to manage monitored hosts, containers, and metrics as they approach purchased capacity. No public overage fee schedule is disclosed, and Splunk says it does not auto-invoice for overages.

Hidden and indirect costs

Worth budgeting for
⚠  The public FAQ says monthly charges are based on average usage during the month, and overages only occur if average monthly usage exceeds your allocation. Splunk also states it does not auto-invoice for overages, so buyers should plan for usage management and potential capacity adjustments rather than a published overage tariff. The same FAQ notes that container capacity may need to be purchased separately if the pooled allocation is not sufficient.
⚠  Public pages do not disclose a separate published implementation fee, support fee, or minimum annual contract value for Observability Cloud. Support is included with product purchases, but the exact commercial terms for enterprise deals are not publicly listed.

What buyers actually pay

A small team wants to monitor up to 15 hosts and evaluate observability before committing.

Expected cost$0 for up to 15 hosts; beyond that, public pricing starts at $15 per host/month billed annually.
Number of hostsWhether usage stays within the 15-host free allowanceWhether the team needs paid tiers or additional capacity

An SRE team wants infrastructure monitoring plus APM for production systems.

Expected costInfrastructure Monitoring starts at $15 per host/month and APM starts at $55 per host/month, both billed annually.
Host countAverage monthly hosts reporting dataWhether both modules are purchased

A digital product team mainly needs session-based front-end visibility.

Expected costRUM starts at $14 per 10,000 sessions, with billing cadence not publicly disclosed.
Session volumeHow Splunk defines a sessionAny bundled or negotiated contract terms

A team primarily needs uptime and synthetic checks for websites and APIs.

Expected costSynthetic Monitoring starts at $1 per 10,000 uptime requests, with billing cadence not publicly disclosed.
Uptime request volumeBrowser test and API test usagePrivate locations and performance metric usage

Pricing FAQ

Yes. Splunk’s FAQ says Observability Cloud is available for free for up to 15 hosts, and that all features are included. The public pricing page also promotes a free trial. If your environment grows beyond that allowance, the public host-based pricing starts at $15 per host per month billed annually.

The public model is primarily host-based for infrastructure and APM, with separate usage-based pricing shown for RUM, Synthetic Monitoring, and Database Monitoring. Splunk also says volume discounts are available for each plan, but buyers must contact sales for details. That means some published entry prices are self-serve, while larger or customized purchases may be quote-based.

No. The FAQ says monthly charges are based on average usage during the month, and overages are incurred only if average monthly usage is above the allocation. Splunk specifically says it does not auto-invoice for overages. Buyers can instead purchase additional capacity or reduce usage as needed.

The FAQ says Splunk product purchases include support, and that support offerings include all major and minor software updates plus technical support. The page does not publish a separate support price for Observability Cloud. For buyers, support appears to be part of the purchase rather than an add-on line item.

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