Adaptive Metrics

---
name: adaptive-metrics
license: Apache-2.0
description: Cut Grafana Cloud Metrics cost by shrinking active-series count with Adaptive Metrics aggregation rules — auto-recommendations from query history, custom exact/regex rules, label-drop config, unused-metric detection, and Alloy remote_write fallback. Use when investigating a high Mimir/Grafana Cloud bill, hunting high-cardinality labels (`pod_uid`, `service_instance_id`, `version`), pre-aggregating counters/gauges, dropping unused metrics, or measuring `grafanacloud_instance_active_series` before/after — even when the user says "reduce cardinality", "too many series", "metrics spend", "active series count is exploding", or "drop the version label" without naming Adaptive Metrics.
---

# Grafana Cloud Adaptive Metrics

> **Docs**: https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/cost-management-and-billing/reduce-costs/metrics-costs/adaptive-metrics.md

Aggregation rules that pre-shrink high-cardinality metrics before storage — directly reduces active-series billing.

## Prerequisites

- Grafana Cloud Metrics plan (any paid tier)
- API key with `metrics:write` (for the Adaptive Metrics API — `adaptive-metrics.grafana.net`, Bearer auth)
- For the verification queries: the metrics query endpoint (`prometheus-prod-XX.grafana.net`) uses HTTP basic auth — `<metrics_user>` (numeric stack/instance ID) plus a token with `metrics:read` — not the Bearer key
- Access to **Home → Adaptive Metrics** in the Cloud portal

## Common Workflows

### 1. Review + apply auto-recommendations

```bash
# 1. Pull the recommendation list (sorted by series-reduction impact)