Dash0 enforces fine-grained limits and quotas on the data you send and query — covering both configuration and telemetry. In practice, you should never hit these limits with OpenTelemetry automatic instrumentation or any standard observability use case.

Tracing

Tracing limits apply to the structure and content of traces, spans, span events, and span links ingested by Dash0.

Traces

Capping the number of spans per trace prevents runaway instrumentation from producing traces that are too large to store or render meaningfully.

Limit	Value
Maximum number of spans per trace	2,000

Spans

Span limits keep individual spans compact and consistent for efficient storage and fast query performance across high volumes of trace data.

Limit	Value
Maximum character length of a span name	128
Maximum number of attributes per span	32 ¹
Maximum character length for span attribute keys	128
Maximum character length for span attribute values	2,048
Maximum past timestamp for a span to be ingested	6 hours
Maximum future timestamp for a span to be ingested	3 days
Maximum span duration for a span to be queryable	1 day

¹ Resource, scope, span event and span link attributes do not count against this limit.

Span Events

Span event limits prevent individual spans from becoming bloated with event data, which would otherwise increase storage costs and slow down trace rendering.

Limit	Value
Maximum character length of a span event name	128
Maximum number of span events per span	8
Maximum number of attributes per span event	8 ¹
Maximum character length for span event attribute keys	128
Maximum character length for span event attribute values	2,048
Maximum number of span links per span	128

¹ Resource, scope and span attributes do not count against this limit.

Span Links

Span links connect a span to other spans, allowing you to express causal relationships across traces. Limits on span link attributes keep cross-trace references lightweight and avoid amplifying storage costs across linked spans.

Limit	Value
Maximum number of attributes per span link	8 ¹
Maximum character length for span link attribute keys	128
Maximum character length for span link attribute values	2,048

¹ Resource, scope and span attributes do not count against this limit.

Logging

Log record limits govern the size and attribute density of log data ingested by Dash0. These limits exist because log data is typically the highest-volume signal in an observability pipeline, so keeping individual records bounded is essential for predictable ingestion costs and query latency.

Log Records and Log Events

Limit	Value
Maximum length of a log body	4 KB
Maximum number of attributes per log record	16 ¹
Maximum character length for log record attribute keys	128
Maximum character length for log record attribute values	2,048
Maximum past timestamp for a log record to be ingested	6 hours
Maximum future timestamp for a log record to be ingested	3 days

¹ Resource and scope attributes do not count against this limit.

Metrics

Metric limits apply to the names, descriptions, and metadata of metrics, as well as the datapoints and exemplars they contain. Keeping metric definitions concise ensures that the metric catalog remains queryable and that cardinality stays manageable at scale.

Limit	Value
Maximum character length of a metric name	128
Maximum character length of a metric description	512
Maximum character length of a metric unit	64
Maximum number of datapoints per metric	Unlimited
Maximum number of metadata entries per metric	8 ¹
Maximum character length for metadata keys	128
Maximum character length for metadata values	2,048

¹ Resource and scope attributes, and metrics metadata do not count against this limit.

Datapoints

Datapoint limits apply to individual measurements within a metric, including their attributes, timestamps, exemplars, histogram buckets, and summary quantiles. Bounding these values prevents high-cardinality datapoints from disproportionately increasing storage and query costs.

Limit	Value
Maximum number of attributes per metric datapoint	16 ¹
Maximum character length for metric datapoint attribute keys	128
Maximum character length for metric datapoint attribute values	2,048
Maximum past timestamp for a metric datapoint to be ingested	6 hours
Maximum future timestamp for a metric datapoint to be ingested	3 days
Maximum count of exemplars	8
Maximum count of filtered attributes for an exemplar	8
Maximum character length for filtered attribute keys for an exemplar	128
Maximum character length for filtered attribute values for an exemplar	2,048
Maximum count of histogram buckets	32
Maximum count of quantiles for summaries	16

¹ Resource and scope attributes, and metrics metadata do not count against this limit.

Alerting

Alerting limits apply to the number of check rules you can configure per dataset. This limit ensures that rule evaluation remains performant and that alerting pipelines do not become a source of excessive query load.

Limit	Value
Maximum number of check rules per dataset	128

Dashboards

Dashboard limits apply to the number of dashboards you can create per dataset. This encourages keeping dashboards purposeful and prevents dataset workspaces from becoming cluttered with stale or redundant views.

Limit	Value
Maximum number of dashboards per dataset	512

Website Monitoring

Website monitoring limits apply to the rate at which client-side events are accepted from browser instrumentation. Rate limiting at the client side protects both the end user's browser and the ingestion pipeline from event storms caused by high-traffic pages or misbehaving instrumentation.

Client-Side Rate Limits

Limit	Value
Max events per 10 minutes	4,096
Max events per 10 seconds	128

Understand Quotas and Limits