InfluxDB Cloud Serverless
Fully managed serverless time-series database (InfluxDB 3, Apache Arrow + Parquet) with a free tier for low-volume metrics and IoT workloads.
- Card required
- No
InfluxDB Cloud Serverless scores 3.1/10 for free value in DB. The main constraint: Free Plan with no credit card: up to 2 buckets, write rate of 5 MB per 5 minutes, read rate of 300 MB per 5 minutes, and 30-day data retention.
Free value score
3.1 / 10Show the math
Key metrics
What you get
No credit card required for the Free Plan
Fully managed serverless InfluxDB 3 engine built on Apache Arrow and Parquet
SQL and InfluxQL query support over Flight and HTTP APIs
Available on AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure regions
Gotchas
- 2 buckets
Free Plan is limited to 2 buckets (databases), excluding the internal _monitoring and _tasks buckets. More buckets require the Usage-Based Plan.
- 30-day data retention
Data is retained for only 30 days and is then deleted; you also cannot write historical data older than 30 days. Longer retention requires upgrading to the Usage-Based Plan.
- Write rate 5 MB / 5 min
Data-in is capped at 5 MB of uncompressed normalized line protocol per fixed 5-minute window (about 17 KB/s); exceeding it returns HTTP 429 until the window resets.
- Read rate 300 MB / 5 min
Query/read HTTP response payload is capped at 300 MB per 5-minute window (about 1000 KB/s); exceeding it returns HTTP 429 until the window resets.
- Query scan limits
Each query may process at most 500 partitions and 1000 Parquet files; larger queries return a ResourceExhausted error and must be split by time boundaries.
- No high availability
Cloud Serverless is multi-tenant shared infrastructure with no high availability or performance isolation; HA and single-tenancy require Cloud Dedicated.
- Storage-engine schema limits
The InfluxDB 3 storage engine caps each database at 500 tables (measurements) and each table at 200 columns; these apply to all accounts including the Free Plan.
- Query processing time cap
Global non-adjustable limit of 90 seconds query processing time per query, plus 1500 seconds of total query time per 30-second window.
- Single organization
The Free Plan does not allow creating additional organizations; multiple organizations require the Usage-Based Plan.
Sources
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"Free Plan · Data-in: Rate of 5 MB per 5 minutes (average of 17 kb/s) ... Read: HTTP response payload rate: 300 MB data per 5 minutes (average of 1000 kb/s) ... Partitions per query: 500 ... Parquet files per query: 1000 ... 2 buckets (excluding _monitoring and _tasks buckets) ... 30 days of data retention"
https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/admin/billing/limits/ -
"To write historical data older than 30 days, retain data for more than 30 days, increase rate limits, or create additional organizations, upgrade to the Cloud Usage-Based Plan."
https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb3/cloud-serverless/admin/billing/limits/ -
"$250 free credit to start ... No credit card required"
https://www.influxdata.com/influxdb-pricing/ -
"InfluxData has amassed a significant user base with more than 1,900 customers, indicators of its market leadership and strong product execution"
https://www.dbta.com/Editorial/News-Flashes/51M-in-Series-E-Funding-Supercharges-InfluxData-and-its-Time-Series-Database-Technology-157135.aspx
