Limits for Logs
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To ensure consistent performance and reliability for all users, STACKIT Logs enforces specific limits on data ingestion, metadata, and querying.
Ingestion Limits
Section titled “Ingestion Limits”These limits define how much data you can send to STACKIT Logs instance and the constraints on the individual log lines.
| Limit | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ingestion Rate | 10 MB/s | The maximum amount of compressed log data allowed per second. The instance will return a 429 Too Many Requests error on exceeding the limit. |
| Max Line Size | 256 KB | The maximum size of a single log line. Lines exceeding this will be rejected. |
| Old Sample Rejection | 7 days | STACKIT Logs rejects logs with a timestamp older than 7 days relative to the current time. |
Metadata & Label Limits
Section titled “Metadata & Label Limits”These limits define how many labels you can attach to log lines and the constraints on them. Labels are the keys and values used to index your logs. Efficient use of labels is critical for query performance.
| Limit | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Max Labels | 15 | The maximum number of unique label names allowed per log stream. |
| Label Name Length | 1024 chars | The maximum length allowed for a label name (key). |
| Label Value Length | 2048 chars | The maximum length allowed for a label value. |
Why limit labels?
Section titled “Why limit labels?”STACKIT Logs is based on Loki which is designed to be “metadata light.” Unlike traditional databases, STACKIT Logs does not index the full text of logs, but only the labels. Having too many labels (high cardinality) significantly slows down the index and increases memory usage.
See the documentation for more details about labels.
Structured Metadata Limits
Section titled “Structured Metadata Limits”Structured metadata allows you to attach additional context to log lines without the performance penalty of traditional labels.
| Limit | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Max Metadata Size | 64 KB | The total size limit for all structured metadata fields combined. |
| Max Metadata Count | 128 keys | The maximum number of structured metadata fields per log line. |
What is Structured Metadata?
Section titled “What is Structured Metadata?”Structured metadata is ideal for high-cardinality data (like request_id or user_id) that you want to attach to a log line for filtering,
but which shouldn’t be part of the main index labels.
See the documentation for more details about strutured metadata.
Query Limits
Section titled “Query Limits”These limits apply when you are retrieving log data via the STACKIT Logs API e.g. inside the Grafana dashboard.
| Limit | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Max Query Range | 7 days | The maximum time window allowed for a single query (e.g., searching from now-7d to now). |