Vercel Log Retention (2026): How Long Vercel Keeps Your Logs
Short answer: between 1 hour (Hobby) and 3 days (Enterprise) — and 30 days only with the paid Observability Plus add-on. After that, runtime logs are gone for good. Here are the exact limits, what they mean in practice, and every way to keep your logs longer.
Verified against Vercel's official docs · last checked September 2026
Vercel log retention by plan
| Plan | Runtime log retention | To keep logs longer |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby (free) | 1 hour | Nothing. Older logs are gone permanently. |
| Pro ($20/mo per seat) | 1 day | Log Drains (forward to an external store) or Observability Plus. |
| Pro + Observability Plus | 30 days | View up to 14 consecutive days within a 30-day window. |
| Enterprise | 3 days | Log Drains or Observability Plus. |
| Enterprise + Observability Plus | 30 days | Same 14-consecutive-day view limit. |
// Per-request caps also apply: max 256 log lines per request, 256 KB per line, 1 MB total per request. // Cached static requests are not logged at all.
What "1 hour of logs" means in practice
- ▸A user reports a bug from this morning. On Hobby, the runtime logs are already deleted — you're debugging from memory and vibes.
- ▸An incident starts at 2am. If you're not watching the Live mode stream at that exact moment, the evidence expires before you wake up.
- ▸You can't search history. Retention isn't just about storage — there's nothing to query for patterns, error rates, or regressions.
- ▸Error-rate trending is impossible. With an hour of visibility, you can't compare this week's error volume to last week's.
Your 3 options to keep Vercel logs longer
1. Observability Plus (official add-on)
Extends dashboard retention to 30 days on Pro or Enterprise. Caveats: it's a per-user paid add-on on top of seat costs, and you can only view 14 consecutive days within the 30-day window. Not available on Hobby at any price.
2. Log Drains (Pro / Enterprise)
Forward every log to an external destination you control — Datadog, Axiom, S3, FlareLog. Retention becomes your storage provider's problem. Requires Pro minimum, plus the destination's cost.
3. An external logger in your code (works on every plan)
The FlareLog SDK ships logs out in real time as your functions run, so retention is independent of your Vercel plan: 10,000 logs/month and 7-day retention free, 90 days on Pro, with search, error alerts, and an MCP server so Cursor or Claude can query your production logs. One npm install + one environment variable.
Vercel vs FlareLog retention, side by side
| Vercel (native) | FlareLog | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier retention | 1 hour | 7 days |
| Paid retention | 1 day (Pro) / 30 days with add-on | 90 days (Pro, $19/mo flat) |
| Searchable history | within retention window | full-text + field search, 90 days |
| Error alerts | none built in | email / Slack / Discord on error spikes |
| AI debugging (MCP) | — | Cursor & Claude query your logs |
| Works on Hobby | 1 hour only | full free tier, no seat pricing |
Stop losing logs to the clock
FlareLog captures your Vercel Functions' logs and errors in real time — structured, searchable, and retained 90 days on Pro. Setup takes about 5 minutes, and it also watches cost burn so a runaway integration doesn't surprise your invoice.
FAQ
How long does Vercel keep logs?
Vercel keeps runtime logs for 1 hour on Hobby, 1 day on Pro, and 3 days on Enterprise. With the Observability Plus add-on, both Pro and Enterprise see 30 days of logs, though you can only view up to 14 consecutive days within that window. After retention expires, logs are deleted permanently — Vercel does not keep an archive.
Can I extend Vercel's log retention?
Two ways: (1) Observability Plus, a paid add-on that extends dashboard retention to 30 days, or (2) Log Drains, available on Pro and Enterprise, which forward logs to an external destination (Datadog, Axiom, FlareLog, S3, etc.) where you control retention. On Hobby, neither is available — your only option is an external logger that ships logs out in real time.
Does Vercel keep build logs as long as runtime logs?
Build logs have separate, longer retention than runtime logs and are available on all plans — but they only cover the deployment process, not your app's runtime behavior. A crash in production at 3am is a runtime log, and on Hobby that disappears after an hour.
What are Vercel's per-request log limits?
Each request can produce at most 256 log lines, each line up to 256 KB, and 1 MB of total log data per request. Exceed these and only the most recent logs remain queryable for that request. Static requests that hit the cache are also not logged at all.
Is there a free way to keep Vercel logs longer than an hour?
Yes — ship them out in real time with an external logger. The FlareLog SDK captures console.log, console.error, and uncaught exceptions from Vercel Functions and stores them independently of your Vercel plan: 7 days of retention free (10,000 logs/month) and 90 days on Pro. Setup is one npm install plus an environment variable, and it works on Hobby, Pro, and Enterprise alike.