Customizing Metric Unit

Each metric value is associated with a unit that defines how the value should be interpreted—whether it's in seconds, bytes, percentages, CPU cores, or other measurements. Correctly assigning a unit ensures that your data is accurately visualized and easy to understand. The relevant unit appears on hover for charts such as Timeseries, Pie, or Tree, and is displayed directly within the value for charts like Table and Query Value.

Customizing Metric Unit For Query Value
Customizing Metric Unit For Table Chart
Customizing Metric Unit For Timeseries Chart

Examples:

  • system.cpu.time: Represents the total time the CPU spends on tasks, measured in seconds.
  • system.cpu.utilization: Indicates the percentage of CPU used by all processes, measured in percent.

Many metrics have a default unit already configured. When visualized in charts or dashboards, the UI automatically uses this default to format and label the data appropriately. For instance, the system.cpu.utilization metric is rendered using a percent sign (%) to indicate percentage usage.

Customizing the Unit

In some cases, you may want to override the default unit, especially if you know the data's context better or need to align it with a specific reporting format.

Note: The examples provided here showcase only a few widget types, but the unit can be customized to support any widget type.

To set a custom unit:

  1. Click on "Show Advanced Options" in your query panel.
  2. In the expanded section, locate the "Unit" field.
  3. Select the appropriate unit from the dropdown.
Open Unit Dropdown
Unit Tooltip

The metric values will now be interpreted and displayed using the selected unit.

Auto Scaling

The system will automatically scale the value depending on its magnitude for better readability. For example, if the unit is KB,

The value is 32343454534; it will display as 32.34 TB instead of the large 32343454534 KB value.

The value is 0.0035, it will display as 3.5 B instead of the small 0.0035 KB value.

Adding a Rate Unit

If your metric represents a rate, such as a value over time (e.g., requests per second), you can specify this as well:

  1. Click the "+" icon next to the unit dropdown.
Unit Dropdown
  1. A secondary dropdown will appear where you can choose a rate unit (e.g., per second (/s), per dollar (/$), etc.).
Rate Unit

This ensures that rate-based metrics are accurately labeled and rendered, making your dashboards more informative and easier to interpret.

Tip: If you're unsure of the correct unit, simply leave the Default option selected. The system will apply the most suitable unit automatically based on the metric.

Unit List

TypeUnit
BitsBit / Byte / Kilobit (kb) / Megabit (mb) / Gigabit (gb)
Bytes (Binary)Bit / Byte / Kibibyte (KiB) / Mebibyte (MiB) / Gibibyte (GiB)
Bytes (Decimal)Bit / Byte / Kilobyte (KB) / Megabyte (MB) / Gigabyte (GB)
Cpunanocores (ncores) / microcores (μcores) / millicores (mcores) / cores / kilocores (Kcores) / megacores (Mcores) / gigacores (Gcores)
TimeNanoseconds / Microseconds / Milliseconds / Seconds / Minutes / Hours / Days
PercentagePercentage
MoneyDollars
FrequencyHertz / Kilo Hertz / Mega Hertz / Giga Hertz
GeneralDate Format / Time Ago / Ago / Bytes Rate / Count / Age / Seconds / Percentage Rate / Percentage Without Bar / Badge / Text Style / Cost / Icon / OS Icon / Bit Rate / Time Utilization / Count Rate / Status / Rate / Nanosecond / Milliseconds

Examples

UnitFamilyRaw ValueFormatted
BitBits33 b
ByteBits500234.3454500.23 kb
KilobitBits0.5500 B
MegabitBits55 mb
GigabitBits5050 gb
BitBytes (Binary)101.2 B
ByteBytes (Binary)5050 B
Kibibyte (KiB)Bytes (Binary)2309022.54 MiB
Mebibyte (MiB)Bytes (Binary)0.2048209.71 KiB
Gibibyte (GiB)Bytes (Binary)4040 GiB
BitBytes (Decimal)55 b
ByteBytes (Decimal)0.21.6 b
Kilobyte (KB)Bytes (Decimal)2020 KB
Megabyte (MB)Bytes (Decimal)10001 GB
Gigabyte (GB)Bytes (Decimal)5000050000 GB
Nanocores (ncores)Cpu11 ncores
Microcores (μcores)Cpu10001 mcores
Millicores (mcores)Cpu0.5500 μcores
CoresCpu1010 cores
Kilocores (Kcores)Cpu30003 Mcores
Megacores (Mcores)Cpu0.6600 Kcores
Gigacores (Gcores)Cpu5050 Gcores
NanosecondsTime10000000001 s
MicrosecondsTime1010 μs
MillisecondsTime0.0000011 ns
SecondsTime601 min
MinutesTime1202 hr
HoursTime0.530 min
DaysTime3030 days
PercentagePercentage50.2343250.23 %
DollarsMoney100.23409234100.23409 $
HertzFrequency2020 Hz
Kilo HertzFrequency12341.23 MHz
Mega HertzFrequency340340 MHz
Giga HertzFrequency3434 GHz
Date FormatGeneral17513540830002025-07-01 12:44:43
Time AgoGeneral175135408300010 minutes ago
AgoGeneral17198181090001 year ago
Bytes RateGeneral100100 B/s
CountGeneral34203.42 K
AgeGeneral17198181090001 year ago
SecondsGeneral4040 s
Percentage RateGeneral50.2343250.23 %/s
CostGeneral50$ 50
Bit RateGeneral81 B/s
Time UtilizationGeneral9360.2446500869862 hrs 36 m 1 s
Count RateGeneral34203.42 K/s
RateGeneral34203.42 K
NanosecondGeneral30000.003 s
MillisecondsGeneral34523.45 s