Checkly vs Datadog Synthetic Monitoring vs Grafana Cloud Synthetic Monitoring: Real Synthetic Monitoring Cost per 10 Million Checks in 2026
Prices checked: October 2, 2026.
DIRECT ANSWER
Short answer
10 million check runs a month is, for example, 77 endpoints checked every minute from 3 locations (about 231 runs per minute).
| Platform | All API checks | 90% API + 10% browser |
|---|---|---|
| Checkly Team | $2,539 | $8,464 |
| Grafana Cloud Pro | ≤ $4,969 | ≤ $9,419 |
| Datadog (annual commit) | $5,000 | $16,500 |
| Datadog (on-demand) | $7,200 | $24,480 |
All figures are ILLUSTRATIVE from OFFICIAL list rates. Grafana's figures are upper bounds, because its rates are "starts at" prices with automatic volume discounts.
Checkly is cheapest for both mixes. Browser checks drive the bill everywhere. Moving just 10% of runs to browser checks roughly doubles to triples the cost on every platform, because a browser run costs about 10–25× an API run.
Native billing units
| Platform | API checks | Browser checks | Base / included | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkly Hobby | 10,000/month | 1,000/month | $0; hard cap (extra checks don't run) | OFFICIAL |
| Checkly Starter | $2.60 per 10,000 over 25,000 | $6.50 per 1,000 over 3,000 | $24/month; 50 uptime monitors | OFFICIAL |
| Checkly Team | $2.50 per 10,000 over 100,000 | $6.25 per 1,000 over 12,000 | $64/month; 75 uptime monitors | OFFICIAL |
| Checkly Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | QUOTE-ONLY |
| Datadog | $5 per 10,000 runs (annual); $7.20 (on-demand) | $12 per 1,000 runs (annual); $18 (on-demand) | No platform fee for Synthetics | OFFICIAL |
| Datadog mobile app tests | — | $50 per 100 runs (annual); $72 (on-demand) | — | OFFICIAL |
| Grafana Cloud Free | 100,000 executions/month | 10,000 executions/month | $0 | OFFICIAL |
| Grafana Cloud Pro | From $5 per 10,000 executions | From $50 per 10,000 executions ($5 per 1,000) | $19/month platform fee; free allowances apply first | OFFICIAL (starting rates) |
Scenario A: 10M API checks (ILLUSTRATIVE)
| Platform | Calculation | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Checkly Team | $64 + (10,000,000 − 100,000) ÷ 10,000 × $2.50 | $2,539 |
| Grafana Cloud Pro | $19 + (10,000,000 − 100,000) ÷ 10,000 × $5 | ≤ $4,969 |
| Datadog annual | 1,000 × $5 | $5,000 |
| Datadog on-demand | 1,000 × $7.20 | $7,200 |
Scenario B: 9M API + 1M browser checks (ILLUSTRATIVE)
| Platform | API part | Browser part | Base | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkly Team | (9M − 100K) ÷ 10K × $2.50 = $2,225 | (1M − 12K) ÷ 1K × $6.25 = $6,175 | $64 | $8,464 |
| Grafana Cloud Pro | (9M − 100K) ÷ 10K × $5 = $4,450 | (1M − 10K) ÷ 10K × $50 = $4,950 | $19 | ≤ $9,419 |
| Datadog annual | 900 × $5 = $4,500 | 1,000 × $12 = $12,000 | — | $16,500 |
| Datadog on-demand | 900 × $7.20 = $6,480 | 1,000 × $18 = $18,000 | — | $24,480 |
Price per run
| Platform | API run | Browser run | Browser ÷ API |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkly Team | $0.00025 | $0.00625 | 25× |
| Grafana Cloud Pro (starting) | $0.0005 | $0.005 | 10× |
| Datadog annual | $0.0005 | $0.012 | 24× |
| Datadog on-demand | $0.00072 | $0.018 | 25× |
Grafana's browser runs are the cheapest per run ($0.005), cheaper than Checkly's $0.00625. A browser-heavy program can therefore favor Grafana. At 50% browser checks (5M API + 5M browser), Checkly Team costs about $32,464 and Grafana Pro at most about $27,419.
Where the cost catches you
- Frequency × locations × endpoints. Each endpoint checked every minute from 3 locations is 129,600 runs a month. Halving the frequency or the locations halves the bill.
- Browser checks in CI. Running full browser suites on every deploy as synthetic runs can quietly add hundreds of thousands of browser runs.
- Datadog's on-demand premium. On-demand costs 44% more for API tests and 50% more for browser tests than an annual commitment. Overrunning a commitment bills at on-demand rates.
- Checkly Hobby stops at the cap. Checks beyond 10,000 API or 1,000 browser runs don't execute, so you'd have gaps in coverage, not surprise charges.
- Grafana discounts apply only at volume. The "starts at" rates fall as usage grows. Your real per-run price at 10M runs may be lower than shown, but the exact tier breakpoints aren't on the pricing page.
- Private locations. Running checks from inside your network can carry separate fees or infrastructure costs on each platform. They aren't included here.
Which one fits
- API-heavy monitoring at volume: Checkly Team, the lowest list price per API run.
- Browser-heavy monitoring: Grafana Cloud Pro, with the lowest starting browser rate.
- Already standardized on Datadog: Datadog Synthetics, on an annual commitment. The integration with APM and RUM has value, but it costs about 2× Checkly for API checks.
- Small teams: Checkly Starter ($24) or Grafana Free (100K API + 10K browser runs) cover small programs at little or no cost.
Assumptions
- 10,000,000 check runs/month; scenario mixes as stated
- List prices; Grafana volume discounts not modeled
- Excludes private-location infrastructure, alerting integrations and taxes
Pricing sources
- Checkly pricing: https://www.checklyhq.com/pricing/
- Datadog pricing list: https://www.datadoghq.com/pricing/list/
- Grafana Cloud pricing: https://grafana.com/pricing/