Pricing
Datadog DBM pricing in 2026: a real-world calculator (and what teams actually pay)
Datadog DBM list price says $35/DB-instance. The bill you get says $9,400/month. We break down host + DB-instance + APM + Infra + retention overages so you can model your actual number — and compare it line-by-line.
Every demo we run starts with the same conversation. The prospect tells us they pay Datadog DBM somewhere between $4k and $40k a month, and the next sentence is some variant of “but I can’t actually explain how we got there.” Datadog’s per-instance number on the pricing page is $35. The bill that lands in your inbox is doing something else.
This post breaks down the six line items, builds a real calculator for three fleet sizes, and gives you the number to take to procurement.
On this page
The headline number is one of six
Datadog’s DBM page lists $35 / database instance / month, annually billed. That’s real. It also covers approximately 25% of what the bill ends up being. The rest is in five other places.
The six line items
| # | Line item | List price (annual) | Why it shows up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DBM per DB-instance | $35 / instance / mo | The published DBM number. Per database, not per host. |
| 2 | Infrastructure (Pro) | $15 / host / mo | Required. The agent that ships DBM data is the Datadog Agent. |
| 3 | APM | $31 / host / mo | Required for the trace-to-query linking that makes DBM useful. |
| 4 | Log retention | $1.27 / mil log events ingested + $1.06 / GB / mo retention | DBM emits query events into Logs. Even on the ‘DBM only’ plan they show up. |
| 5 | Custom metrics | $0.05 / metric / mo over 100 | DBM creates per-query-digest metrics. A busy fleet trips this on day one. |
| 6 | Long-term retention overage | Tiered | Default DBM retention is 15 months for queries / 1 hour for live activity. Extending it bills separately. |
Calculator: three fleet sizes
We’ll model three configurations every Series A–C team we’ve talked to falls into. Per Datadog’s public list price, annually committed. All numbers per month.
Small: 10 hosts × 20 DB instances
| Item | Math | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| DBM | 20 × $35 | $700 |
| Infra (Pro) | 10 × $15 | $150 |
| APM | 10 × $31 | $310 |
| Logs (est.) | ~50M events × $1.27/M + 80GB × $1.06 | $148 |
| Custom metrics | Negligible at this size | $0 |
| Total | $1,308 | |
| Per-DB effective | $65 |
Mid-market: 30 hosts × 50 DB instances
| Item | Math | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| DBM | 50 × $35 | $1,750 |
| Infra (Pro) | 30 × $15 | $450 |
| APM | 30 × $31 | $930 |
| Logs (est.) | ~180M events × $1.27/M + 280GB × $1.06 | $525 |
| Custom metrics | ~500 over limit × $0.05 | $25 |
| Total | $3,680 | |
| Per-DB effective | $74 |
Growth-stage: 100 hosts × 200 DB instances
| Item | Math | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| DBM | 200 × $35 | $7,000 |
| Infra (Pro) | 100 × $15 | $1,500 |
| APM | 100 × $31 | $3,100 |
| Logs (est.) | ~800M events × $1.27/M + 1.4TB × $1.06 | $2,500 |
| Custom metrics | ~3,000 over limit × $0.05 | $150 |
| LT retention 15+ mo | Tiered | ~$1,200 |
| Total | $15,450 | |
| Per-DB effective | $77 |
Three line items teams forget
- Custom metrics from DBM digests. Every distinct query digest becomes a metric. The 100-metric free tier vanishes the moment you have real traffic.
- Log events from DBM samples. Slow-query samples land in Logs. The ingest + retention bill shows up under Logs, not DBM, which is how it slips past the DBM-cost review.
- Required APM + Infra.You cannot buy DBM standalone. The Datadog Agent is APM’s agent, and the per-host APM and Infra modules are mandatory.
What the same fleet costs on Obsfly
| Fleet | Datadog DBM (real) | Obsfly (Team $39/DB) | Annual savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small (20 DBs) | $1,308 / mo | $780 / mo | ~$6,300 / yr |
| Mid (50 DBs) | $3,680 / mo | $1,950 / mo | ~$20,800 / yr |
| Growth (200 DBs) | $15,450 / mo | $7,800 / mo | ~$91,800 / yr |
Obsfly is one line item: $39 / DB / mo on Team, $89 on Business. No required APM. No per-host Infra. No log-event meter on slow queries. Same coverage of Postgres, MySQL, Mongo, Redis, ClickHouse, Oracle, SQL Server, Cassandra, Elasticsearch — plus BYOC.
How to actually negotiate
- Ask for the “DBM-effective per-instance rate” including Infra + APM. Make them write it down. That’s your apples-to-apples comparator.
- Demand a custom-metrics cap commitment. DBM’s per-digest metric explosion is the single biggest reason renewals balloon.
- If you’re in regulated industries, get the BYOC quote from us. Datadog doesn’t sell it. Walking in with that quote tends to compress Datadog’s negotiation by 20–30%.
FAQ
Does the $35 DBM price include the agent host?+
Can I buy DBM without APM?+
What's the actual per-DB number Obsfly customers pay?+
How accurate is this calculator?+
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