How long does Amazon CloudWatch keep metric data?

Amazon CloudWatch retains metric data for different periods based on the granularity of the data. For standard metrics, the data is stored for 15 months, which includes:

• Data points with a granularity of 1 minute are available for 15 days.

• Data points with a granularity of 5 minutes are available for 63 days.

• Data points with a granularity of 1 hour are retained for 15 months.

This retention policy allows users to analyze historical metrics and understand trends over the last year and beyond. This capability is essential for monitoring application performance and maintaining compliance, as users can access both recent and older metrics to make informed decisions.

The other duration options, such as 1 month, 6 months, and 2 years, do not accurately reflect the retention schedule set by Amazon CloudWatch for standard metrics. This structure enables efficient data management and accessibility for various monitoring and alerting purposes within the AWS ecosystem.