Chronosphere
Chronosphere helps high-scale tech teams slash observability costs while improving reliability.
Chronosphere is a cloud-native observability platform that ingests and analyzes metrics, events, logs, and traces at scale. Built by former Uber engineers on technology powering Uber's M3 metrics system, it solves the cost explosion problem that plagues observability at massive scale by moving data-shaping decisions to the point of ingestion. Unlike traditional platforms that charge for all telemetry data collected, Chronosphere lets customers control what data to retain, reducing volumes and costs by 84% on average while cutting critical incidents by up to 75%. It's purpose-built for high-scale tech companies like Robinhood, DoorDash, and Snap where observability bills become prohibitively expensive.
Problem solved
Engineering teams at scale face exploding observability costs because traditional platforms charge for all telemetry data collected, not just what's valuable; Chronosphere lets them control retention and dramatically reduce spend.
Target customer
Large, mature technology companies (Series C+ or unicorn-stage) with massive metrics volumes where observability costs are a major operational expense; ideal for companies ingesting billions of active time series.
Founders
M
Martin Mao
CEO & Co-Founder
Former Uber engineer who led M3 development and SRE teams; previously at AWS in engineering management; B.E. in Software Engineering from UNSW (2006-2010).
R
Rob Skillington
CTO & Co-Founder
Former Uber engineer who worked on M3 project; technical co-founder of Chronosphere.
Funding history
Seed
$600K
January 2019
Led by Unknown
· Unknown
Series A
$11M
November 2019
Led by Unknown
· Unknown
Series B
$43.4M
January 2021
Led by Unknown
· Unknown
Series C
$200M
October 2021
Led by Unknown
· General Atlantic, Greylock Partners, Lux Capital, Addition, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Glynn Capital
Series C (Extended)
$115M
January 2023
Led by Unknown
· General Atlantic, Greylock Partners, Lux Capital, Addition, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Glynn Capital
Total raised:
$343M (prior to acquisition)
Pricing
Usage-based pricing model where customers pay only for the volume of observability data they retain (not all data collected). Customers can aggregate, roll-up, and set retention by environment. Pricing varies based on metrics, data ingestion rates, data retention, and service features across different tiers. No free plan; custom plans available.
Notable customers
Snap, Robinhood, DoorDash, Zillow, Astronomer, Affirm
Integrations
Open-source M3 metrics system compatibility; cloud-native platforms and Kubernetes environments
Tech stack
jQuery Migrate (JavaScript libraries)
jQuery (JavaScript libraries)
LazySizes (JavaScript libraries)
core-js (JavaScript libraries)
Zendesk (Documentation)
webpack
PWA
Open Graph
DocuSign
WordPress (Blogs)
Google Analytics (Analytics)
Google Font API (Font scripts)
Nginx (Reverse proxies)
WP Rocket (Caching)
PHP (Programming languages)
Google Workspace (Email)
jQuery CDN (CDN)
Google Hosted Libraries (CDN)
MySQL (Databases)
Google Tag Manager (Tag managers)
Yoast SEO (SEO)
WP Engine (PaaS)
Google Optimize (A/B Testing)
Sendgrid (Email)
Priority Hints (Performance)
Website
Competitors
Datadog
Datadog uses pre-ingest filtering and charges for all collected data; Chronosphere shapes data at ingestion point and charges only for retained data, making it significantly cheaper at massive scale.
New Relic
General-purpose observability platform; Chronosphere is specialized for high-scale metrics management and cost optimization.
Dynatrace
Broader application performance monitoring focus; Chronosphere is more specialized in metrics cost optimization at extreme scale.
LightStep
Focuses on distributed tracing; Chronosphere is more comprehensive with metrics, traces, logs, and events with stronger cost controls.
Why this matters: Chronosphere represents a paradigm shift in observability economics for massive-scale companies, solving a real trillion-dollar problem (observability bill bloat at scale). Its $3.35B acquisition by Palo Alto Networks in 2025 validates that this niche—high-scale metrics cost optimization—is strategically valuable, and the company's growth from founders of Uber's internal M3 system shows how internal infrastructure tools can become major enterprise products.
Best for: Enterprise-scale technology companies (unicorns and Series C+) ingesting billions of metrics that need to dramatically reduce observability costs while maintaining or improving reliability and incident detection.
Use cases
Cost Reduction at Massive Scale
Robinhood reduced observability data volumes by 80% and saved millions annually while improving reliability 5x and MTTR 4x. Teams at massive scale can use Chronosphere's control plane to aggregate low-value metrics, set intelligent retention policies, and pay only for data that matters, turning observability from a cost center into a controllable expense.
Standardizing Monitoring Across Complex Infrastructure
DoorDash used Chronosphere to improve governance and standardize monitoring practices across their platform. Large organizations with disparate monitoring approaches can implement company-wide data retention and aggregation policies, ensuring consistency while reducing sprawl and costs.
Handling Extreme Traffic Spikes Reliably
Affirm scaled their load 10x during Black Friday with no issues using Chronosphere. High-growth companies experiencing explosive traffic surges can rely on Chronosphere's architecture built for billions of active time series to maintain observability and reliability without catastrophic cost increases.
Alternatives
Datadog
Pick Datadog if you need a general-purpose, easier-to-implement observability platform; pick Chronosphere if cost control at massive scale is your primary concern.
New Relic
New Relic is more accessible to mid-market companies; Chronosphere is optimized for unicorn-scale organizations with billions of metrics.
Dynatrace
Dynatrace excels at application performance monitoring; Chronosphere is best for companies whose primary pain point is observability data cost management.
FAQ
What does Chronosphere do? +
Chronosphere is a cloud-native observability platform that ingests metrics, events, logs, and traces and helps teams detect and resolve issues while controlling costs. Unlike traditional platforms that charge for all data collected, Chronosphere lets customers decide what data to retain and pay only for that, typically reducing volumes by 84% and costs proportionally while improving reliability.
How much does Chronosphere cost? +
Chronosphere uses a usage-based pricing model where you pay for the volume of observability data you retain. Pricing varies by metrics, ingestion rates, retention periods, and service features across different tiers. There is no free plan; contact Chronosphere for custom enterprise pricing based on your scale.
What are alternatives to Chronosphere? +
Top alternatives include Datadog (broader observability platform), New Relic (general-purpose APM and observability), Dynatrace (application performance monitoring), and LightStep (distributed tracing focus). Chronosphere is most specialized for cost optimization at extreme metrics scale.
Who uses Chronosphere? +
Chronosphere is trusted by high-scale technology companies including Robinhood, DoorDash, Snap, Zillow, Astronomer, and Affirm. It's designed for mature tech companies (Series C+, unicorns) with billions of active time series where observability costs become a major operational concern.
How does Chronosphere compare to Datadog? +
Chronosphere shapes observability data at the point of ingestion and charges only for retained data; Datadog requires filtering before ingestion and charges for all collected data. For companies at Uber-scale with massive metrics volumes, Chronosphere is dramatically cheaper (84% cost reduction on average) and built specifically for high-scale reliability. Datadog is better for general-purpose observability at smaller scales.
Tags
observability
metrics
cloud-native
cost optimization
DevOps
incident detection
monitoring