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Elastic Stack
Elastic Stack: Search, Observability, and Security Solutions
Loki
Like Prometheus but for Logs
As of 30 August 2026, Loki is free to use. Loki is a horizontally-scalable, highly-available log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus. Softwr lists it under Logging. Loki is made by Grafana Labs, launched in 2014, available on Web, API.
Overview
What Loki does
Loki is a horizontally-scalable, highly-available log aggregation system inspired by Prometheus.
What people use it for
- Aggregating application and infrastructure logs with label based indexing
- Querying logs alongside metrics in Grafana
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Loki.
- The Grafana Cloud free tier caps log ingestion at 50 GB a month with 14 day retention
- Paid log pricing is split across three separate meters, at $0.050 per GB processed, $0.400 per GB written and $0.100 per GB retained
- Retaining logs is billed separately from ingesting them, so keeping data costs on an ongoing basis rather than once
- The Pro plan carries a $19 a month platform fee before any usage charges
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Loki
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- LokivsDatadog Logs
Datadog Logs: Log Management and Analytics
- LokivsNew Relic
New Relic: Observability made simple
- LokivsCoralogix
Coralogix: Continuous Log Insights and Visibility
Pricing
What Loki costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free
Free
- Log aggregation
- Label-based indexing
- Real-time log streaming
Capabilities
Features
Log aggregation
Label-based indexing
Real-time log streaming
LogQL query language
API
Integration with API
Webhooks
Integration with Webhooks
REST
Integration with REST
Web support
Available on web
Api support
Available on api
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
What does it cost to use Grafana Loki?
Loki is open source and free under the AGPLv3 license for self-hosted deployments. Grafana's managed Cloud Logs service includes a free tier up to 50GB of logs at no cost.
SourceAre there paid options for Loki beyond the free tier?
Yes. Grafana Cloud Logs offers paid tiers for teams and enterprises, and Enterprise Logs provides self-managed options with expert support for organizations with data localization or privacy requirements.
SourceWhat license does open source Loki use?
Loki is released under the AGPLv3 license, which requires you to share modifications and publish your source code if you deploy modifications publicly.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Loki
- Company
- Grafana Labs
- Based in
- United States
Keep looking
Where to go from Loki
- Loki alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Loki pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Loki badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Logging softwareThe full category
- Best Logging softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Logging software for
Compare Loki with
- Datadog Logs
- Coralogix
- Elastic Stack
- New Relic
- Dynatrace Logs
- Graylog
- Loggly
- Mezmo
- Retrace
- Logz.io
- Papertrail
- Raygun
- Elastic APM
- New Relic Logs
- Mezmo
- Filebeat
- New Relic Logs
- Logstash
Other Logging software
Continuous Log Insights and Visibility
Free, then $0.42/GB (logs ingestion)10 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Loki, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Loki
Loki alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Loki pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Loki
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Loki badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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