Is Deepgram or Grafana Cloud better?

Neither clearly leads. Deepgram starts at Free and Grafana Cloud at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Deepgram or Grafana Cloud?

Deepgram starts at Free and Grafana Cloud at Free.

Does Deepgram or Grafana Cloud run on more platforms?

Deepgram runs on web, api. Grafana Cloud runs on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API.

Can I use Deepgram for free?

Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.

What is Deepgram best used for?

Deepgram is most often used for building real-time voice agents for customer support, transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch stt, adding conversational text-to-speech to voice applications, self-hosting speech models for data residency requirements. Of those, building real-time voice agents for customer support and transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch stt are not what Grafana Cloud is typically brought in for.

What can Deepgram do that Grafana Cloud cannot?

Deepgram covers Flux speech-to-text, Flux text-to-speech, Voice Agent API, Real-time and batch processing. Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus Metrics, Loki Logs, Tempo Traces.

AI Tools · head to head

Deepgram vs Grafana Cloud

Deepgram

AI Tools

Voice AI API platform for speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and voice agents

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Grafana Cloud

Cloud & Infrastructure

Composable observability platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Deepgram pricing is entirely usage-based, so total cost can be harder to predict than flat subscription tools.; Grafana Cloud active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills
They diverge on capability: Deepgram covers Flux speech-to-text, Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Deepgram and Grafana Cloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Deepgram and Grafana Cloud differ
Attribute	Deepgram	Grafana Cloud
Pricing model	usage-based	Unknown
Platforms	web, api	Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API
Category	AI Tools	Cloud & Infrastructure
Founded	Unknown	2014

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Deepgram

Flux speech-to-text
Flux text-to-speech
Voice Agent API
Real-time and batch processing
Self-hosted deployment
Audio intelligence

Only in Grafana Cloud

Grafana Dashboards
Prometheus Metrics
Loki Logs
Tempo Traces
Alerting
OnCall
Synthetic Monitoring
Incident Management

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Deepgram

Building real-time voice agents for customer supportnot Grafana Cloud
Transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch STTnot Grafana Cloud
Adding conversational text-to-speech to voice applicationsnot Grafana Cloud
Self-hosting speech models for data residency requirementsnot Grafana Cloud

Grafana Cloud

Infrastructure monitoringnot Deepgram
Application monitoringnot Deepgram
Log aggregationnot Deepgram
Distributed tracingnot Deepgram

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Deepgram

Pricing is entirely usage-based, so total cost can be harder to predict than flat subscription tools.
The Growth plan requires a minimum $4K/year commitment to unlock discounted rates.
Enterprise features and custom SLAs require a direct sales conversation rather than self-serve signup.
Some promotional per-minute rates are time-limited, meaning long-term pricing may differ from current promotional rates.

Grafana Cloud

Active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills
Reduced control and customization compared to self-hosted Grafana instances
Data sovereignty concerns for organizations requiring on-premises data retention
Limited reporting types compared to traditional BI tools for compliance and audit requirements

Pricing, plan by plan

Deepgram

Free

Pay As You Go$undefined/mo
- $200 free credit to start
- No minimums or expiration
- No credit card required to start
Growth$undefined/mo
- Save up to 20% with annual pre-paid credits
- Minimum $4K/year commitment
- Credits applied against actual usage
Enterprise$undefined/mo
- Custom pricing for large-scale deployments
- Dedicated support and contracts

Grafana Cloud

Free

FreeFree
- 10k active series (metrics)
- 50GB logs/traces per month
- 3 active users
Pro$19/month
- Usage-based pricing beyond free tier
- 8 USD per active visualization user
- Included Grafana Alerting
Enterprise$25000/year
- Minimum annual commitment
- Full-service deployment options
- Premium support

Which should you pick?

Choose Deepgram if

You need flux speech-to-text.
You want to start without paying.
You work on web, api.
You also want flux text-to-speech.

Deepgram review

Choose Grafana Cloud if

You need grafana dashboards.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API.
You also want prometheus metrics.

Grafana Cloud review

Questions people ask

Is Deepgram or Grafana Cloud better?: Neither clearly leads. Deepgram starts at Free and Grafana Cloud at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Deepgram or Grafana Cloud?: Deepgram starts at Free and Grafana Cloud at Free.
Does Deepgram or Grafana Cloud run on more platforms?: Deepgram runs on web, api. Grafana Cloud runs on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API.
Can I use Deepgram for free?: Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Deepgram best used for?: Deepgram is most often used for building real-time voice agents for customer support, transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch stt, adding conversational text-to-speech to voice applications, self-hosting speech models for data residency requirements. Of those, building real-time voice agents for customer support and transcribing recorded audio at scale via batch stt are not what Grafana Cloud is typically brought in for.
What can Deepgram do that Grafana Cloud cannot?: Deepgram covers Flux speech-to-text, Flux text-to-speech, Voice Agent API, Real-time and batch processing. Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus Metrics, Loki Logs, Tempo Traces.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Deepgram: What does Deepgram cost?

Deepgram uses usage-based pricing starting with $200 in free credit, pay-as-you-go rates per minute or per character, a Growth plan with annual pre-paid credits requiring a $4K/year minimum, and custom Enterprise pricing.

Source

Grafana Cloud: What are the exact limits of Grafana Cloud's free tier?

Grafana Cloud free tier includes 10,000 active series for metrics, 50GB logs and traces per month, 3 active visualization users, and 14-day retention with community support. No credit card required.

Source

Deepgram: Is there a free plan, and what are its limits?

New users get $200 of free credit with no credit card required, which can be applied to speech-to-text, text-to-speech, or voice agent usage before any payment is needed.

Source

Grafana Cloud: How is Grafana Cloud billed, and what are the per-unit costs?

Grafana Cloud Pro tier starts at $19/month platform fee plus usage-based charges. Metrics cost $6.50 per 1,000 active series above free limits, logs and traces are charged per GB ingested, and visualization users are $8 per active user.

Source

Deepgram: How is usage metered?

Usage is metered per minute of audio for speech-to-text and voice agent calls, and per 1,000 characters for text-to-speech, with add-ons like redaction and entity detection billed separately per minute.

Source

Grafana Cloud: Can I use Grafana Cloud for open-source Grafana deployments?

Grafana Cloud is the managed cloud service version. Open-source Grafana is free and can be self-hosted indefinitely on your own infrastructure.

Source

Grafana Cloud: What observability signals does Grafana Cloud include?

Grafana Cloud includes metrics (via Mimir), logs (via Loki), traces (via Tempo), profiles, and synthetics, with unified querying and visualization across all signals.

Source

Grafana Cloud: Does Grafana Cloud include alerting and how is it priced?

Yes, Grafana Alerting is included at no additional charge across all tiers. Rule storage, evaluation, and notification delivery are covered by the platform fee with no per-alert or per-notification fees.

Source

Deepgram vs Grafana Cloud

Deepgram

Grafana Cloud

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Deepgram

Only in Grafana Cloud

What people use each for

Deepgram

Grafana Cloud

Where each one falls short

Deepgram

Grafana Cloud

Pricing, plan by plan

Deepgram

Grafana Cloud

Which should you pick?

Choose Deepgram if

Choose Grafana Cloud if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Deepgram

More on Grafana Cloud

Keep looking

Other head to heads