Metrics Units

Overview

Metric units are displayed in places such as on timeseries graphs, query value widgets, and top lists.

Redis dash metric units

On timeseries graphs, you can hover your cursor over any graph to see the relevant units. Units must be specified manually, but if no unit is set, order-of-magnitude notation (for example: K, M, and G for thousands, millions, and billions, respectively) is used. If a unit is set, the raw data is automatically converted to readable display units using their relevant orders of magnitude.

For example, if you have a data point that is 3,000,000,000:

  • If you haven’t specified a unit for this data point, “3G” is displayed.
  • If you specified this data point is in bytes, “3GB” is displayed.

Units are also displayed at the bottom of timeboard graphs, and metric descriptions are available by selecting Metrics Info from the gear dropdown:

Annotated ops

To change a metric unit, navigate to the metric summary page and select a metric. Click Edit under Metadata and select a unit, such as bit or byte from the dropdown menu.

Unit list

The following units may be associated with metrics submitted to Datadog:

typeunit(s)
BYTESbit / byte (b) / kibibyte(KiB) / mebibyte (MiB) / gibibyte (GB) / tebibyte (TiB) / pebibyte (PiB) / exbibyte (EiB)
TIMEnanosecond (ns) / microsecond (μs) / millisecond (ms) / second (s) / minute (min) / hour (hr) / day / week (wk)
PERCENTAGEpercent_nano (n%) / percent (%) / apdex / fraction
NETWORKconnection (conn) / request (req) / packet (pkt) / segment (seg) / response (rsp) / message (msg) / payload / timeout / datagram / route / session / hop
SYSTEMprocess (proc) / thread / host / node / fault / service (svc) / instance / cpu
DISKfile / inode / sector / block (blk)
GENERALbuffer / error (err) / read (rd) / write (wr) / occurrence / event / time / unit / operation (op) / item / task / worker / resource (res) / garbage collection (gc) / email / sample (smpl) / stage / monitor / location / check / attempt / device (dev) / update (up) / method (mthd) / job / container / execution / throttle / invocation / user / success / build / prediction / exception
DBtable / index (idx) / lock / transaction (tx) / query / row / key / command (cmd) / offset / record / object / cursor / assertion (assert) / scan / document / shard / flush / merge / refresh / fetch / column (col) / commit / wait / ticket / question
CACHEhit / miss / eviction / get / set
MONEYdollar ($) / cent (¢) / microdollar (μ$) / euro (€) / pound (£) / pence (p) / yen (¥)
MEMORYpage (pg) / split
FREQUENCYhertz (Hz) / kilohertz (kHz) / megahertz (MHz) / gigahertz (GHz)
LOGGINGentry
TEMPERATUREdecidegree celsius (d°C) / degree celsius (°C) / degree fahrenheit (°F)
CPUnanocore (ncores) / microcore (μcores) / millicore (mcores) / core / kilocore (Kcores) / megacore (Mcores) / gigacore (Gcores) / teracore (Tcores) / petacore (Pcores) / exacore (Ecores)
POWERnanowatt (nW) / microwatt (μW) / milliwatt (mW) / deciwatt (dW) / watt / kilowatt / megawatt / gigawatt / terrawatt
CURRENTmilliampere (mA) / ampere (A)
POTENTIALmillivolt (mV) / volt (V)
APMspan
SYNTHETICSrun / step

Number formatting

Unitless formatting

For unitless metrics, Datadog uses the SI prefixes K, M, G, and T. After T, numbers are converted to exponential notation, which is also used for tiny numbers. By default, Datadog rounds to two decimal places. For exponential notation, the default is zero decimal places.

Examples

Raw valueFormatted
11
2.71828182842.72
13371.34K
3153600031.54M
42949672964.29G
184467440737095520002e19
0.0011e-3
2.3283064365386963e-102e-10
invalidN/A

Unit handling

Units are automatically formatted on your graphs for readability. To customize how your units are labeled, see Customize your visualizations with unit override.

Examples

UnitFamilyRaw ValueFormatted
bytebytes11 B
kibibytebytes12342351.18 GiB
kibibytebytes4545787823674123000040374.71 EiB
hertzfrequency63452236.35 MHz
centmoney133713.37 $
nanosecondtime00s
secondtime0.0321232.12ms

Time formatting

Time units between a minute and a year are split into multiple units to be more human-readable. The following conventions apply:

  • Short times are formatted in decimal form.
  • The smallest time unit is nanoseconds.
  • Long times are formatted as days in decimal form.

Examples

Raw secondsFormatted
0.001231.23ms
0.00012345123.45μs (microseconds)
1.2345e-91.23ns
951m 35s
36711h 1m
863901d
964001d 3h
52596400608.75 days

Further Reading