Many organizations keep Datadog’s default log retention settings without evaluating business requirements. Defaults may extend retention far beyond what is useful for troubleshooting, performance monitoring, or compliance. This leads to unnecessary storage and indexing costs, particularly in non-production environments or for logs with limited value after a short period. By adjusting retention per project, environment, or service, organizations can reduce spend while still meeting compliance and operational needs.
Datadog bills based on the volume of ingested logs, traces, and metrics, as well as the length of their retention. Longer retention periods increase storage costs proportionally, regardless of whether historical data provides business value.
