> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.ionos.com/cloud/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.ionos.com/cloud/observability/tracing-service/overview/tracing-limitations.md). # Limitations Tracing Service is a managed distributed tracing solution that allows you to ingest, store, and analyze traces generated by your applications. However, there are some limitations to be aware of when using the service. The following limits follow the Grafana Tempo defaults that back the platform. ## Data retention The Tracing Service retains trace data for a limited period. The default retention period is 30 days. After this period, trace data is automatically deleted and is no longer available for analysis. ## Maximum trace size A single trace cannot exceed 5 MB of combined span data. If the spans that share one trace ID add up to more than this limit, the trace is rejected at ingestion and does not appear in Grafana. This usually affects very long-running requests or traces with many spans or attributes. To stay within the limit, reduce the number or size of spans and attributes, or split very large operations into separate traces. ## Ingestion rate limits Trace ingestion is rate-limited to protect platform stability. The default sustained limit is 15 MB/s, with a burst allowance of 20 MB. When an exporter exceeds this rate, the platform returns a rate-limit response: HTTP 429 for `OTLP/HTTP` and `RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED` for `OTLP/gRPC`. Your OpenTelemetry SDK or Collector retries with backoff. Sustained traffic above the limit results in discarded spans. ## Live traces The platform holds a bounded number of concurrent in-progress traces, with a default of 10,000. If your applications produce more simultaneously open traces than this, new traces are refused until in-flight traces are completed and flushed. ## Late-arriving spans Tempo groups spans into a trace by trace ID as they arrive. There is no fixed maximum trace duration, but spans that arrive after a trace has already been flushed to storage are stored as a separate, partial trace rather than merged into the original. Keep clock skew across services small and export spans promptly to avoid fragmented traces. ## Search availability delay Newly ingested traces are not instantly searchable. Traces are briefly buffered before they are flushed and indexed, so a short delay of a few seconds can occur between sending a trace and finding it through `TraceQL` search in Grafana. Lookups by exact trace ID become available sooner. ## Query and search limits `TraceQL` searches are bounded by a maximum query time range and a maximum number of returned results. Very broad searches across large time windows may be truncated or rejected. Narrow the time range or add more selective filters to return complete results. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter, and the optional `goal` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.ionos.com/cloud/observability/tracing-service/overview/tracing-limitations.md?ask=&goal= ``` `ask` is the immediate question: it should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. `goal` is optional and describes the broader end goal you are ultimately trying to accomplish on behalf of the user. GitBook uses it to tailor the answer towards what is most useful for that goal. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.