The Dynatrace Platform Subscription (DPS) is the licensing model for all new Dynatrace contracts.[1] A customer commits to a minimum annual spend. As its environments use Dynatrace capabilities, consumption accrues against that commitment at the price per unit set on a rate card.[1] The commitment applies to the whole platform, not to individual capabilities or months.[4] This makes DPS a prepaid capacity model rather than a licence for a counted quantity of hosts. The overview is in Dynatrace licensing. For the general model, see consumption credits and prepaid capacity.
Editions
DPS has no editions. It gives access to all platform capabilities that are generally available when the order form is signed. The capabilities are listed on the customer’s rate card.[3] Dynatrace groups capabilities into rate-card categories, for example Application and Infrastructure Observability, which contains Full-Stack Monitoring, Infrastructure Monitoring, Mainframe Monitoring and Foundation & Discovery.[2] The public rate card adds Container Observability, Log Analytics, Telemetry, Application Security, Real User and Synthetic Monitoring, Automation, Data, AppEngine Functions and Platform Extensions.[5] The Platform Extensions category still prices classic-era capabilities such as Custom Metrics Classic and Log Monitoring Classic, per 1,000 data points or records.[5] The pricing page also says the subscription includes full platform access for every team member, with no per-seat fees and no user tiers.[4]
Metrics
DPS has no single licence metric. Each capability has its own unit of measure, for example “memory-gibibyte-hours” for Full-Stack Monitoring.[2] Usage is recorded as Billing Usage Events (BUEs) in Grail, Dynatrace’s data store. They can be viewed in Account Management or queried with DQL.[2] The main units are recorded as catalog metrics: Memory-GiB-hour, Host-hour, Pod-hour, Container-hour, GiB ingested, GiB-day, GiB scanned, Metric data points, RUM session, Synthetic action, MSU hour and Database-instance-hour.
Counting / floors
Rating usage
Cost equals usage multiplied by the rate-card price of the capability.[2] Each customer’s rate card is part of its purchase order and can be seen in Account Management.[2] The public rate card lists prices in USD and invites customers to ask about discounts.[5] Dynatrace says the unit price falls as the commitment grows.[4] Catalog: Cost is usage multiplied by the rate-card price of each capability.
Time granularity
Use for part of an hour is rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes. One minute is billed as 15 minutes, and 63 minutes as 1.25 hours.[3] Usage is metered in UTC. Daily costs run from 00:00:00 UTC on the agreement start date to 23:59:59 UTC on the end date.[3] The public rate card presents hourly pricing as an alternative to high-water-mark pricing.[5] For a fleet that scales up and down, the bill therefore tracks hours actually monitored rather than peak counts. Catalog: Usage under an hour is rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes; Usage is metered in UTC.
Commitment periods
DPS agreements typically run for one to three years with a minimum annual commitment.[2] Multi-year agreements are split into annual subscription periods. Dynatrace may adjust these, for example a six-month first period followed by two 12-month periods.[3] The agreement sets the billing currency.[3] Account Management shows the current annual commitment period, the commitment amount, the days remaining and a forecast of spend to the end of the period. Forecasts need at least 15 days of cost data.[8] Catalog: Multi-year DPS agreements are split into annual subscription periods.
On-demand consumption
On-demand usage starts once the minimum annual commitment has been consumed. Dynatrace says it never charges “penalty-style overages”. Customers that go over can keep using the platform on demand, billed monthly at the same rates as pre-paid consumption.[2] Alternatively, they can raise the commitment to get a higher discount.[3] When forecast usage is expected to exceed the commitment, Account Management shows the projected on-demand increase and the date it will happen.[8] Catalog: On-demand usage is billed monthly at the same rates as pre-paid consumption; DPS draws a minimum annual commitment down at rate-card prices.
What happens to an unused commitment at the end of an annual period is not stated on the pricing or documentation pages reviewed here, so the Order Form is the reference. The classic terms say unused annual amounts expire (see Dynatrace classic licensing).
Cost control
Dynatrace recommends that new customers check their rate card against the capability billing pages and set up cost allocation in the first months. Cost allocation uses the tags dt.cost.costcenter and dt.cost.product. Budget alerts at 75%, 90% and 100% are enabled by default.[9]
Virtualization & partitioning
Not applicable at the subscription level. How hosts, VMs, containers and pods are measured is covered in Dynatrace host and Kubernetes monitoring consumption.
Cloud / BYOL
DPS for Hybrid lets one DPS licence cover any combination of Managed and SaaS accounts, as long as the same customer owns them.[6] There is one annual commitment shared across accounts, and on-demand consumption is always enabled.[6] Budgets and forecasts work only at account level and only in fixed amounts. Percentage-based budgets are deleted when a subscription switches to DPS for Hybrid.[6] DPS for Hybrid cannot combine licences bought on different cloud marketplaces (Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud), and it is not offered to Dynatrace Solution Partners. Deploying on a hyperscaler does not prevent its use.[6] Catalog: DPS for Hybrid shares one commitment across SaaS and Managed accounts.
Programs
Proof of Concept
Existing DPS customers can run a Proof of Concept (POC) on a production environment. The feature is free within an agreed budget, and the capability must already be on the rate card.[7] POC usage is booked separately and appears in the subscription history.[3] Dynatrace warns that POC consumption often misleads planning. A POC usually covers one environment at small scale with short retention, so forecasts should be scaled up to the real production footprint.[7]
Invoicing
Unless an Order Form says otherwise, fees are invoiced in advance and due within 30 days. A disputed invoice must be notified within 15 days, and undisputed amounts remain payable.[10] Catalog: Fees are invoiced in advance and payable within 30 days.
Renewal and the Uplift Cap
Order Forms cannot be terminated, cancelled or reduced during the Term. Payment obligations cannot be cancelled and fees are non-refundable.[10] Each platform and Support subscription renews automatically for the expiring term or one year, whichever is longer, unless either party gives written notice at least 60 days before expiry.[10] The renewal price increase is capped at 8% for a one-year, 9% for a two-year and 10% for a three-year Renewal Term. The cap applies to the highest annualized fee level, unit prices and minimum annual commitment of the previous term.[10] A renewal that reduces units, volume, term or minimum commitment is re-priced, and the cap does not apply.[10] A customer that plans to cut its commitment at renewal should therefore expect new unit prices, not the capped ones. Catalog: Renewal price increases are capped at 8%, 9% or 10% by renewal length; Order Forms cannot be cancelled or reduced and renew unless 60 days' notice is given.
Out of scope
- Customer-specific rate cards, discount tiers and marketplace private offers.
- Budget and cost-allocation configuration in Account Management, beyond what affects billing.
- Rules for each capability, covered in the product articles.