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Pricing and comparisons

Three Ways to Buy Datadog - Direct, Marketplace, or Partner

You can contract for Datadog through three channels: paying Datadog directly, paying a cloud provider through the AWS or Azure marketplace, or paying a partner (reseller). This article organizes, using only official statements, how the payment method, where charges are consolidated, where usage and contract prices are visible, and the point of contact change by channel, and adds which channel suits which situation.

About 12 min read

Conclusion - The Three Channels Differ by Whom You Pay

How you buy Datadog splits into three channels by whom you pay: direct sales, where you pay Datadog; the cloud marketplace route, where you pay the cloud provider through AWS Marketplace or Azure Marketplace; and the partner route, where you pay a Datadog partner. The official pricing page states, regarding partners, that Datadog seeks partnerships with technology and service providers and resellers (as of September 2026, Source: Datadog Pricing). Because how unit prices are counted does not change by channel, how to choose the contract form (annual contract or on-demand) is covered in the article on annual contracts versus on-demand, and how each SKU is counted is covered in How to Decode the Pricing Structure. What this article covers are the four points of purchasing practice: payment method, how charges appear on the invoice, where contract prices are visible, and the point of contact. The free plan and trial are left to a separate article. This article explains how billing works. For current unit prices and plans, refer to Datadog's official pricing page.

Comparison of the three purchase channels (as of September 2026)
AspectDirectCloud marketplacePartner
PayeeDatadogCloud provider (AWS, Microsoft)Partner company
Payment methodCredit card, or invoice (ACH, wire transfer, check)Consolidated into the cloud billPer the contract with the partner
Checking usage and contract pricesSubscription Details on the in-app Plan pageUsage in Datadog, billing in the cloud provider's billing consoleUsage in Datadog, Subscription Details not supported
Contact for contract and billingDatadog's billing contact (email) and salesCloud provider's billing contact and DatadogPartner
Source: Billing, Paying for products in AWS Marketplace, Azure Native Integration for Datadog (Microsoft Learn), Multi-Tenant Usage Metering and Billing

Direct Sales - Card or Invoice, with Contract Prices Shown in Subscription Details

The practicalities of direct sales are consolidated on the Billing page of the official documentation. The billing cycle begins on the 1st of every month (UTC) regardless of the contract date, and the first month is prorated. The payment method is a choice of two, credit card or invoice (ACH, wire transfer, check), and a change from card to invoice, or the reverse, is requested from Payment Method in the app. The quantity, contract price, and on-demand price for each contracted product are listed in Subscription Details on the Plan page (as of September 2026, Source: Billing). The permission needed to view Subscription Details, when invoices arrive, the four email contacts by type of request, and the differences between Pro and Enterprise are covered in the plan comparison article, and how to view monthly usage is covered in How to Check Your Costs.

  • 1. Contract: decide between an annual contract and on-demand, and the quantities and unit prices (confirm the contract's currency and tax treatment here)
  • 2. Payment method: choose card or invoice in Payment Method
  • 3. Billing address: register the address and the email address to receive invoices in Billing Contact Details (an address that is not a Datadog user is also allowed)
  • 4. Monthly: the cycle starts on the 1st (UTC); with invoice payment, the invoice arrives around 10 business days later
  • 5. Verification: reconcile the contract price in Subscription Details against actual usage in Usage
The five steps of direct purchasing practice (Source: Billing, as stated as of September 2026)

Through AWS Marketplace, Charges Are Consolidated into the Monthly AWS Bill

Datadog's AWS solutions page has an "Available on AWS Marketplace" link, and you can contract through AWS Marketplace (as of September 2026, Source: Datadog for AWS). According to the AWS buyer guide, Marketplace charges arrive as a bill from AWS at the start of the month, and if the account is located in Japan, the biller is Amazon Web Services Japan G.K. Contract-type purchases are billed at the time of the contract, and the usage-based portion appears on the monthly consolidated bill. There is also the Private Offer, which presents prices and terms negotiated with the seller to designated accounts (Source: Paying for products in AWS Marketplace, Private offers). In this article's assessment, the advantage for procurement is that you can put Datadog on your existing AWS payment route without registering Datadog as a new vendor.

Azure Contracts Through a Datadog Resource and Appears on the Azure Bill

In Azure, you contract and configure through a "Datadog resource" in the portal. The official documentation states that changing the billing plan is limited to contracts made through Azure Marketplace, and that the flow of creating a new Datadog organization from Azure starts on a paid plan with no trial option (the trial must be created first on the US3 site) (as of September 2026, Source: Azure Native Integration). In Microsoft's explanation, Datadog charges appear on the monthly Azure bill, count toward the Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), and plan changes can also be made from the Azure portal (Source: Microsoft Learn). For Azure-centered organizations, being able to include the Datadog contract in the Azure consumption commitment is the biggest difference from direct sales.

Differences between AWS Marketplace and Azure Native Integration (as of September 2026)
AspectAWS MarketplaceAzure (Datadog resource)
Entry point for the contractDatadog listing on AWS Marketplace (linked from the official site)Create a Datadog resource in the Azure portal (requires an Azure Marketplace contract)
How charges appearConsolidated into the monthly AWS bill. For accounts located in Japan, AWS Japan G.K. is the billerConsolidated into the monthly Azure bill. Counted toward MACC
Individual price negotiationPrivate Offer (non-public prices and terms for designated accounts)Not described in the official documentation
Trial"Start Free" link on the official siteNot available in the flow of creating from Azure (trial first on the US3 site)
Changing the billing planFollows the contract on the AWS sideChange from the Datadog resource (Azure Marketplace contracts only)
Source: Datadog for AWS, Paying for products in AWS Marketplace, Private offers, Azure Native Integration, Microsoft Learn. For other cloud marketplaces, check each marketplace for whether a listing exists

Through a Partner - The Contract Is with the Partner

The official documentation explains that a Datadog Solution Provider can view usage and costs across customer organizations from a "Partner Admin Organization", issue trial organizations, and manage contracts, invoices, and renewals. A customer's organization is connected automatically if the contract includes a partner affiliation (as of September 2026, Source: Multi-Tenant Usage Metering and Billing). There are two differences on the customer side: the counterparty for the contract and billing becomes the partner, and Subscription Details is explicitly noted as "not supported when billing is managed directly by a partner". The contract price is confirmed in the contract with the partner (Source: Billing). In arrangements where operations are also outsourced, a multi-organization account that manages child organizations from a parent organization is used (disabled by default) (Source: Managing Multiple-Organization Accounts).

Which Channel Suits Which Situation

Choose not by ranking the three channels but by their fit with your organization's procurement pattern. Direct sales suit organizations that want to negotiate terms directly with Datadog and reconcile contract prices and usage on the same screen. Because it adds one more payee, it takes time in organizations where vendor registration procedures are heavy. Cloud marketplaces suit organizations that want to consolidate billing with the cloud provider, include Datadog charges in a cloud consumption commitment such as MACC, and use an existing procurement route. In exchange, contract changes and trial handling follow the marketplace's mechanisms. The partner route suits organizations that want to outsource everything through monitoring design and operations, have multiple organizations looked after in one place, and set payment terms with the partner. In exchange, Subscription Details is unavailable and unit prices are set by the partner.

Conditions each channel suits and what you give up
ChannelConditions it suitsWhat you give up
DirectDirect negotiation, checking contract prices and usage on the same screen, fastest startOne more payee, vendor registration procedures
Cloud marketplaceConsolidated billing, counting toward a cloud consumption commitment, existing procurement routeContract change and trial procedures follow the marketplace's mechanisms
PartnerOutsourcing design and operations, managing multiple organizations in one place, setting payment terms with the partnerSubscription Details not supported, unit prices set by the partner
This article's assessment. Grounds are the sources in each section (Billing, Microsoft Learn, Multi-Tenant Usage Metering and Billing)

Confirm Currency, Consumption Tax, and Invoice Language in the Contract

The unit prices on the official pricing page are in US dollars, and the Billing page of the official documentation contains no statements about billing currency or tax treatment (as of September 2026, Source: Datadog Pricing, Billing). Whether billing is in yen, how consumption tax is handled, and what language the invoice is in are not asserted in this article. These are items to confirm in the contract and with Datadog's billing contact for direct sales, in the cloud provider's billing terms for the marketplace route, and in the contract with the partner for the partner route. The order of confirmation is four points: (1) the currency and tax clauses of the contract, (2) the invoice recipient and language, (3) the means of checking usage (Subscription Details for direct and marketplace, the contract for partners), and (4) the timing and contact for contract renewal; writing these out before deciding on a channel makes the comparison concrete. The full set of items to decide before contracting is in the Adoption Checklist, and if your monitoring targets are mainly cloud integrations, also confirm the billing boundaries of Integrations.

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IntegrationsIntegrations are the bundle of entry points that pour data from external systems such as AWS and MySQL into Datadog. Where you configure them splits into two families, the Agent side and the cloud account side, and which one you choose changes both what you can see and how billing is counted.

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