Softwr

Cloud · head to head

Grafana Cloud vs Lambda Labs

Grafana Cloud logo

Grafana Cloud

Cloud

Composable observability platform

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lambda Labs logo

Lambda Labs

AI

GPU cloud for deep learning

From
$1.1/per-hour
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Grafana Cloud has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Grafana Cloud active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills; Lambda Labs on demand capacity is first come access rather than guaranteed, so an instance type can be unavailable when needed
  • They diverge on capability: Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Lambda Labs covers NVIDIA GPUs.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Grafana Cloud and Lambda Labs actually diverge.

Attributes where Grafana Cloud and Lambda Labs differ
AttributeGrafana CloudLambda Labs
Starting priceFree$1.1/per-hour
Pricing modelUnknownusage-based
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), APICloud
CategoryCloudAI
Founded20142012

Identical on both: 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 Grafana Cloud

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

Only in Lambda Labs

  • NVIDIA GPUs
  • Pre-installed frameworks
  • Persistent storage
  • SSH access
  • JupyterLab
  • VSCode
  • SSH
  • Cloud support

What people use each for

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

Grafana Cloud

  • Infrastructure monitoringnot Lambda Labs
  • Application monitoringnot Lambda Labs
  • Log aggregationnot Lambda Labs
  • Distributed tracingnot Lambda Labs

Lambda Labs

  • Renting GPU instances for model training and inferencenot Grafana Cloud
  • Short term access to high memory accelerators without buying hardwarenot Grafana Cloud

Where each one falls short

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

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

Lambda Labs

  • On demand capacity is first come access rather than guaranteed, so an instance type can be unavailable when needed
  • H100 pricing varies within a band, at $3.99 to $4.29 an hour per GPU, so the rate is not fixed
  • Reserved capacity is arranged by contacting the team rather than self serve
  • Prices are quoted before applicable tax

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Lambda Labs

$1.1/per-hour
  • On-Demand$1.1/per-hour
    • A10 GPU
    • Instant availability
  • ReservedFree
    • Volume discounts
    • Guaranteed capacity

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Lambda Labs if

  • You need nvidia gpus.
  • You work on Cloud.
  • You also want pre-installed frameworks.
Lambda Labs review

Questions people ask

Is Grafana Cloud or Lambda Labs better?
Neither clearly leads. Grafana Cloud starts at Free and Lambda Labs at $1.1/per-hour, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Grafana Cloud or Lambda Labs?
Grafana Cloud has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Grafana Cloud and $1.1/per-hour for Lambda Labs.
Does Grafana Cloud or Lambda Labs run on more platforms?
Grafana Cloud runs on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API. Lambda Labs runs on Cloud.
Can I use Grafana Cloud for free?
Yes. Grafana Cloud has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Lambda Labs starts at $1.1/per-hour.
What is Grafana Cloud best used for?
Grafana Cloud is most often used for infrastructure monitoring, application monitoring, log aggregation, distributed tracing. Of those, infrastructure monitoring and application monitoring are not what Lambda Labs is typically brought in for.
What can Grafana Cloud do that Lambda Labs cannot?
Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus Metrics, Loki Logs, Tempo Traces. Lambda Labs covers NVIDIA GPUs, Pre-installed frameworks, Persistent storage, SSH access.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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
Lambda Labs: What does Lambda Labs GPU pricing depend on?

Lambda Labs pricing depends on the GPU model (H100, B200, A100, V100, etc.), cluster size, and contract length. For example, a 16-GPU H100 cluster costs $6.16/GPU/hour for 2 weeks to 1 year, while A100 GPUs are $1.99-$2.79/GPU/hour.

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
Lambda Labs: Are there volume discounts for larger GPU clusters?

Yes. Pricing decreases with larger cluster orders. For example, NVIDIA H100 clusters cost $6.16/GPU/hour for 16 GPUs, $5.85/GPU/hour for 64 GPUs, and $5.54/GPU/hour for 256 GPUs (all for 2 weeks to 1 year terms).

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
Lambda Labs: Can I get custom pricing for a long-term GPU contract?

Yes. For cluster orders of 16+ GPUs with 1-year or longer contracts, Lambda Labs offers custom pricing. Contact their sales team to request a quote.

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
Lambda Labs: What additional costs should I expect beyond the hourly GPU rate?

All listed prices are plus applicable sales tax, VAT, or GST depending on your location.

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
Share

Related pages

More on Grafana Cloud

More on Lambda Labs

Keep looking

Other head to heads