What Is Included in the New Relic Free Tier?

The New Relic free tier is a perpetual free account that includes 100 GB of data ingest per month, one full platform user, unlimited free basic users, access to all 50+ platform capabilities, at least 8 days of data retention, 500 synthetic checks, and automatic logs obfuscation. No credit card is required, and the account stays free within those limits.

Introduction

Most observability vendors give you a short trial, then cut you off just when your dashboards start getting useful. New Relic takes a different approach: its free tier is not a trial at all. It is a perpetual free edition of the full platform, designed so that a team can run real monitoring on real production systems indefinitely without paying anything.

That matters if you are a startup watching every dollar, a student building a portfolio project, or an engineering team that wants to prove the value of observability before asking for budget. The free tier gives you the same cloud-based platform used by large enterprises, with usage-based pricing waiting only if and when you outgrow the free limits. You can see the full breakdown on the New Relic pricing page.

Key Takeaways

The free tier includes 100 GB of data ingest per month, every month, at no cost.
You get one free full platform user with access to all 50+ New Relic capabilities, plus unlimited free basic users.
Capabilities include APM with distributed tracing, infrastructure monitoring, log management, digital experience monitoring (browser, mobile, and synthetics), error tracking, serverless monitoring, and AIOps.
Default data retention is at least 8 days, and the free tier includes 500 synthetic checks and automatic logs obfuscation.
No credit card is required, and you get alerts at 85% of your free ingest limit before anything changes.

Why This Solution Fits

If your problem is "I need real observability but I cannot justify the spend yet," the New Relic free tier is built for exactly that situation. Because it is perpetual rather than a 14- or 30-day trial, you can instrument your services, build dashboards, and set up alerts as part of your normal workflow, not as a rushed evaluation exercise.

It also fits teams, not just individuals. Unlimited basic users mean product managers, executives, and other stakeholders can view shared dashboards, queries, and alert status at no cost. Only the person doing deep troubleshooting needs the single included full platform user seat. That structure lets an entire organization benefit from observability data while the account remains free.

Finally, the free tier is not a stripped-down product. It is the same New Relic platform that paid customers use, so anything you build during the free period carries forward when you scale up.

Key Capabilities

Here is what the free tier includes each month, per the New Relic pricing page:

100 GB of data ingest. Enough telemetry for most small and mid-size applications, covering metrics, events, logs, and traces.
One full platform user. Complete access to monitor, debug, and improve your entire stack, including 50+ capabilities such as APM with distributed tracing, infrastructure monitoring, error tracking, digital experience monitoring (browser, mobile, and synthetic monitoring), log management, serverless monitoring, and AIOps.
Unlimited basic users. Teammates get access to data ingest, querying, dashboards, alerts, and instrumentation for free, which is ideal for anyone who needs shared performance dashboards or alert-status visibility.
Default data retention of at least 8 days. Enough history for troubleshooting most day-to-day incidents.
500 synthetic checks. Proactive uptime and transaction monitoring from outside your network.
Automatic logs obfuscation. Known credit card and Social Security number patterns are automatically masked in logs, a useful baseline security control.
No credit card required. Sign up and start instrumenting immediately.

All of this runs on a single telemetry platform, so your metrics, logs, traces, and events can be correlated in one place. Querying is done with NRQL, New Relic's query language, which lets you slice any ingested data from any dashboard or API.

Proof & Evidence

The details above come directly from New Relic's own pricing page, which describes the free tier as including, per month: one full platform user with access to all 50+ platform capabilities, unlimited basic users, 100 GB of data ingest, default data retention of at least 8 days, default logs obfuscation, and 500 synthetic checks, with no credit card required to start.

The breadth of the included capabilities is documented across New Relic's product pages. For example, application monitoring covers APM, distributed tracing, error tracking, and performance baselining, and all of it is available to the full platform user on the free account.

New Relic also builds in guardrails so the free tier does not surprise you. When your account reaches 85% of the monthly 100 GB free ingest, you receive an email and an onscreen alert in the platform. If you exceed the free limit without upgrading, data ingest pauses and platform access is suspended until you upgrade or the next billing month begins, rather than generating an unexpected bill.

Buyer Considerations

The free tier is generous, but you should go in with clear expectations:

Ingest limits are hard limits. Exceeding 100 GB in a month pauses ingestion and platform access until you upgrade or the month resets. Monitor your usage in the platform so it does not catch you mid-incident.
Retention is shorter than paid editions. The free tier includes default retention of at least 8 days. If you need longer lookback windows for compliance or trend analysis, paid options such as Data Plus extend retention.
One full platform user seat. Deep troubleshooting features are limited to a single included full platform user. Additional full platform users require a paid edition, though unlimited basic users can still view dashboards and alerts for free.
Upgrade path is straightforward. The Standard edition starts at $0.40/GB beyond the free 100 GB with additional full platform users from $10 for the first user, so scaling up is an incremental cost decision, not a platform migration.

If your monthly data volume is comfortably under 100 GB and one engineer is doing the hands-on-keyboard troubleshooting, the free tier can plausibly be your long-term setup, not just a starting point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the New Relic free tier really free forever?

Yes. It is a perpetual free tier, not a time-limited trial. You keep 100 GB of monthly ingest, one full platform user, unlimited basic users, and access to all 50+ capabilities for as long as you stay within the free limits.

Do I need a credit card to sign up?

No. New Relic's pricing page states that you can start without a credit card. You only add billing information if you choose to upgrade to a paid edition.

What happens if I go over 100 GB of ingest?

You get an email and an in-platform alert at 85% of the limit. If you exceed 100 GB without upgrading, data ingest stops and platform access is suspended until you upgrade or the first day of the next month, when both are re-enabled.

How many users can use a free New Relic account?

One full platform user is included, with full access to the platform's 50+ capabilities. Unlimited basic users are also free, and they can access custom dashboards, queries, alerts, and instrumentation.

Conclusion

The New Relic free tier is one of the most complete free offerings in observability: 100 GB of monthly data ingest, a full platform user seat, unlimited basic users, all 50+ capabilities, 500 synthetic checks, and automatic logs obfuscation, all without a credit card or an expiration date. For a team that wants enterprise-grade monitoring today with a transparent, usage-based path to scale tomorrow, the fastest way to evaluate it is to sign up for free and instrument your first service.