What it does
Observe by Snowflake combines logs, application performance monitoring, and infrastructure monitoring in a telemetry analysis service. The official getting-started guide describes collecting data with the Observe Agent, optionally instrumenting application code with OpenTelemetry, and then using search and analytics to build dashboards and monitors. The same workspace is used to investigate telemetry after an alert. It is a fit for teams that want to connect application and infrastructure signals rather than treat logs, traces, and metrics as separate incident records.
Route telemetry into an evaluation instance
The official guide recommends installing the Observe Agent on the relevant infrastructure, then instrumenting applications as needed and sending their telemetry to that agent. Existing OpenTelemetry collection can also be used for data ingestion. Once signals arrive, use an Explorer to confirm collection, shape views into dashboards, and create Monitors for the conditions that should raise an alert. Dashboards, monitors, and the service's investigation features then provide the workflow for examining an incident.
The free evaluation is a useful way to bring sample telemetry through that path: it lasts 14 days, does not require a credit card, and allows sign-up with an email address or Google account. The trial is not a persistent free plan. If the team does not upgrade, the instance is disabled and deleted with its data. Trial monitors are limited to 20, and a monitor that generates more than 10 alerts in an hour is automatically disabled.
The official pricing page describes a subscription based on committed telemetry volume, with starting rates of $0.49/GiB for logs, $0.008/DPM for metrics, and $0.59/GiB for traces. A workload-specific total cannot be inferred without its data mix and committed volume. This is a documentation-based walkthrough, not an account or service test.
Strengths
- Unifies logs, metrics, traces, and infrastructure monitoring in a single investigation workflow.
- Supports an Observe Agent and OpenTelemetry-based collection, with search, dashboards, and monitor configuration after ingestion.
- Provides a no-credit-card 14-day evaluation with an immediately provisioned instance.
Watch out for
- The trial lasts 14 days; when it is not upgraded, the instance and its data are disabled and deleted.
- Trial users can create at most 20 monitors, and a monitor generating more than 10 alerts per hour is automatically disabled.
Best for
- Teams evaluating a unified logs, metrics, traces, and infrastructure monitoring workflow
- Engineers who want to create dashboards and alert monitors from OpenTelemetry or agent-collected data
Sources
- Welcome to Observe by Snowflake (Oct 26, 2026)
- Free trial - Observe by Snowflake (Oct 26, 2026)
- Snowflake for Observability | AI-Powered Monitoring & Troubleshooting (Oct 26, 2026)
- Observe Pricing (Oct 26, 2026)