Time-series databases · InfluxData, Inc.

InfluxDB

Purpose-built time-series database for metrics, sensor and IoT data, available self-hosted or as a managed cloud service.

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InfluxDB is a database built specifically for time-stamped data such as infrastructure metrics, IoT sensor readings and application telemetry, optimized for high-volume writes and time-range queries rather than general-purpose relational workloads. The current InfluxDB 3 line is built on an Apache Arrow/Parquet-based columnar engine and is queryable with SQL as well as InfluxQL, a departure from the custom Flux language used in InfluxDB 2. It is offered as free, single-node open-source core (InfluxDB 3 Core), a self-managed Enterprise edition with high availability and enterprise security, and fully managed Cloud Dedicated and Cloud Serverless offerings billed by compute, storage, ingestion and query usage. InfluxData also maintains Telegraf, a widely used open-source agent for collecting and shipping metrics into InfluxDB or other backends. It is a common choice for observability and IoT platforms needing retention policies and downsampling built into the database itself.

At a glance

Vendor InfluxData, Inc.
Pricing model Free tier + paid plans
Free tier Yes
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted
Open source Yes (MIT)
Best for Teams building infrastructure, IoT or sensor monitoring systems that need a database purpose-built for time series.

Pricing

Core is free and self-hosted; Enterprise and the managed Cloud Dedicated tier are custom-priced, and Cloud Serverless is metered by ingestion, query and storage usage with a starting free credit.

Plan Price Notes
Core (OSS) Free Single-node, community-supported, no HA
Cloud Serverless Usage-based $0.0025/MB written, $0.012 per 100 query executions, $0.002/GB-hour storage; $250 free credit to start
Enterprise / Cloud Dedicated Custom pricing Based on CPU/RAM and storage configuration; includes HA and read replicas

Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget.

Features

  • Columnar time-series storage on Arrow/Parquet
  • SQL and InfluxQL query support
  • High-throughput write ingestion
  • Built-in retention policies and downsampling
  • Telegraf agent for metrics collection
  • High availability and read replicas (Enterprise/Cloud Dedicated)

Integrations

Profile last reviewed September 21, 2026

Head to head

Alternatives

TimescaleDB Open-source time-series extension for PostgreSQL, giving full SQL and joins alongside time-series performance. QuestDB High-throughput open-source time-series database with SQL, built for fast ingestion of market, IoT and metrics data. VictoriaMetrics Open-source, Prometheus-compatible time-series database and monitoring backend built for high cardinality at low cost. Prometheus Open-source monitoring system with a built-in time-series database, the de facto standard for Kubernetes and infrastructure metrics.

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Terms to know

Data pipeline The automated sequence of steps that moves data from source systems to a destination, transforming it along the way. Time-series database A database purpose-built for data points indexed by time, optimized for fast writes and time-range queries.

Related guides

How to choose a time-series database Pick a time-series database by whether you need relational joins, what protocol your data already speaks, and how much cardinality you actually have. Time series analysis, explained How analysts model data ordered in time — the patterns forecasting methods look for, the pitfalls, and where the data actually lives.