# Grafana MCP Server vs New Relic MCP Server

> Grafana scores 71 (BB) to New Relic's 61 (C) for metrics and monitoring. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-new-relic
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-new-relic.md (~5,700 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-04

Grafana MCP Server scores 71 (BB) on agent readiness against New Relic MCP Server's 61 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. New Relic MCP Server leads on security & auth. Both do metrics and monitoring.

- Grafana MCP Server: grade BB, 71/100, rank #154 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/grafana-mcp-server.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grafana-mcp-server.json
- New Relic MCP Server: grade C, 61/100, rank #567 of 1349. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/new-relic.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/new-relic.json
- Best observability and incident tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/observability/index.md
- All 49 observability comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/observability/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Grafana MCP Server (BB)

Good for: Teams on Grafana, self-managed or Cloud, that want an agent to read dashboards and query Prometheus, Loki, Tempo and Pyroscope, and to work with alert rules, incidents and OnCall.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 91 against 60
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 59
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 96 against 80

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Runs on your own machine
- Open source

Watch for: The default set is 79 tools, and 119 with every category on, counted from the registration code in source

### New Relic MCP Server (C)

Good for: Agents investigating incidents, errors, deployments and performance in an existing New Relic account, where reads are enough.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 76 against 67

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Grafana MCP Server loses 7 points for them

Watch for: Tool input schemas are visible only through an authenticated session; the docs give one-line descriptions and no parameters


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Grafana MCP Server +31

- Grafana MCP Server (91): Scored as local software, since the owner runs it over stdio, SSE or streamable HTTP. Official PyPI package `mcp-grafana` (a wheel that carries the Go binary, Python 3.10 or later), a Docker image, release binaries and a Helm chart, with Grafana 9.0 or later stated as the requirement (20). Unit, integration and end-to-end workflows all concluded in success on main on 8 October 2026, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November, 54 open issues, none labelled bug, and 38 closed in the 30 days before that check. Three bug reports remained open from July and August (#992 `run_panel_query` 422, #1005 `grafana_api_request` 500 on plugin resources, #1049 a dropped table row in `get_panel_image`), each with replies. A stale issue and pull request workflow was added on 27 October (19 of 25). The changelog follows Keep a Changelog and semantic versioning and labels breaking changes, and 1.6.2 announced that 2.0 came next. Patch release 1.4.1 carried a breaking parameter change on the Sift tools, 2.0.0 followed 1.0.0 by two months, and minor release 2.1.0 on 20 October changed the output of `list_users_by_org`, labelled on the day (12 of 15). Version 2.1.1, the latest release on 1 November (15).
- New Relic MCP Server (60): Scored as a hosted MCP server. status.newrelic.com is an Atlassian Statuspage with 115 components across the US, EU and JP regions and no MCP component (20). history.rss holds seven incidents in the 90 days to 3 November 2026, among them delayed queries and alerts in the US for 49 minutes on 2 November, synthetics ping delays the same day, the JP entity platform unavailable for 67 minutes on 28 October, delayed US data and alerts from 19:24 to 22:04 UTC on 25 September, intermittent UI errors for two and a half hours the same night, a Salesforce support outage on 16 September and a 10-minute EU metric issue. Two regional incidents over an hour on the query and alert paths the server depends on, so one major (10). Published numbers, 2,000 tool calls an hour per user on the MCP server and 25 concurrent NerdGraph requests per user (15). NerdGraph answers 429 on concurrency with guidance to batch or pool, but no Retry-After is documented and nothing covers retries of MCP calls; the tools are reads, so idempotency doesn't arise (8). The pricing page lists support response SLAs, and the paid terms promise commercially reasonable efforts, so no availability SLA (0). Public preview on 4 November 2025, available to all accounts on 3 November 2026 with preview tools marked separately, but no dated GA notice was found (7). 20 + 10 + 15 + 8 + 0 + 7 = 60.

### Schema & documentation: Grafana MCP Server +30

- Grafana MCP Server (81): Read from source at tag v2.0.2, without running it, and unchanged in count at v2.1.1. All 79 default tools build their JSON Schema input by reflection from a typed Go parameter struct, and `buildInputSchema` in `tools.go` sets `additionalProperties` to false. No tool sets an output schema, which issue #1278 asks for (23 of 25). grafana.com serves llms.txt and a Markdown form of every docs page, the MCP pages included (10). Descriptions state purpose and inputs. Version 2.0.2 removed model directives and references to other tools from descriptions to meet connector directory rules, so guidance on when to use a tool is thinner than it was (14 of 20). Nearly every parameter field in the source structs carries a description tag, but few declare an enum. Values such as `queryType` ('range' or 'instant') and incident `status` are named in prose, and some parameters are free-form objects (9 of 15). The docs have client configuration examples, task guides and a troubleshooting page, and empty results return hints. No catalogue of error responses was found (10 of 15). Semantic versions, tagged releases and a dated changelog (15).
- New Relic MCP Server (51): Tool input schemas are only visible through an authenticated session; the tool reference names 40 tools with one-line descriptions, so partial credit for a contract that exists but isn't public (10). docs.newrelic.com publishes llms.txt, updated 3 November 2026, and a Markdown twin of every page (10). Each tool's line says what it does, tags say which group it belongs to, and the reference says which tools need OAuth and which are preview; nothing says when not to use a tool (12). No parameters, types or enums are published; the setup examples show only the `include-tags` header (4). Example natural-language queries per group, a troubleshooting page for OAuth, API key, permission and connection errors, and no error code list (7). A dated what's-new feed and a 0.1.0 registry version, but no MCP changelog or server version in the docs (8). 10 + 10 + 12 + 4 + 7 + 8 = 51.

### Payments & pricing: Grafana MCP Server +30

- Grafana MCP Server (60): Read with the self-hosted rule. The server is free under Apache-2.0 and needs no signup of its own, so 20 + 20 + 20. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). It needs a Grafana instance, which can be the free open-source Grafana. Grafana Cloud prices were not checked. The separate hosted Grafana Cloud MCP server counts towards Grafana Assistant usage and is not what this listing grades.
- New Relic MCP Server (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). The pricing page is public for the free tier and data ingest ($0.40 per GB beyond 100 GB), but MCP tools are metered as compute units with no per-call rate, and user and edition prices are quoted on request (10). The free tier includes MCP, 100 GB a month and one full platform user with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser and completes the OAuth flow (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.

### Maintenance & community: Grafana MCP Server +16

- Grafana MCP Server (96): v2.1.1 tagged on 20 October 2026, 12 days before the check, after v2.1.0 the same day, with commits on main to 31 October (30). 17 tagged releases from 1.1.0 on 10 August to 2.1.1 in the 90 days to 1 November (20). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November, 38 issues closed in the 30 days before that check against 54 open and 22 open pull requests, and several feature requests from March and April without a reply (21 of 25). Listed in the official MCP registry as `io.github.grafana/mcp-grafana`, a GitHub-verified namespace, with v2.1.1 published on 20 October and marked latest (15). Renovate, a Docker image scan workflow, cosign signing with SPDX SBOMs for releases from 2.1.0, and Go toolchain and dependency bumps for CVEs on 21 and 28 October (10).
- New Relic MCP Server (80): Read as a closed service. The what's-new feed and press releases record changes through October 2026, the latest on 28 October (Change Tracking in GitHub Copilot), and docs llms.txt was regenerated on 3 November (30). More than three dated entries in 90 days, among them the Ground Truth CLI on 6 October, the CEO appointment on 1 October, OpenTelemetry AI monitoring in August and the ISO 42001 announcement (20). A support portal, in-app support and a community forum; the skills hub repository on GitHub, whose issue replies couldn't be read (10 of 15). com.newrelic/mcp-server in the official registry since 28 October 2025 under a DNS-verified namespace, still at 0.1.0 (15). No package to assess for a hosted server; NerdGraph has official clients (5). 30 + 20 + 10 + 15 + 5 = 80.

### Agent ergonomics: Grafana MCP Server +15

- Grafana MCP Server (74): 79 tools load by default and 119 with every category on, counted from the registration code in `cmd/mcp-grafana/main.go` and `tools/*.go` at tag v2.0.2, with no tool added or removed by v2.1.1. That is 5 of 25 by count, plus 9 for `--enabled-tools`, per-category `--disable-*` flags, 12 opt-in categories and `--disable-write`, which leaves 62 (14). `limit` and `page` on searches, `get_dashboard_summary`, JSONPath reads through `get_dashboard_property`, a jq filter on `grafana_api_request`, and a 100-line default on `query_loki_logs` with an optional byte and time-range guardrail (18 of 20). Unknown argument keys are rejected with the valid ones listed, empty results carry likely causes and next steps, and TraceQL errors return correction hints. No documented error list (16 of 20). In source every default tool sets `readOnlyHint` and `destructiveHint` (60 read-only, 9 marked destructive), and 73 of 79 also set `idempotentHint`. The six that leave it unset are writes, for which the protocol default is false. No idempotency keys on creates (17 of 20). Most parameters are optional in the source structs. The Go module is the only library, with a Python wrapper for install (9 of 15).
- New Relic MCP Server (59): 40 tools in the default list, above the 30-tool line (5), with the `include-tags` header to load only named groups (add 10, so 15). Time windows on most tools, `convert_time_period_to_epoch_ms`, filters on incidents, errors and logs, and NRQL's own LIMIT and FACET; no documented page size (14). The troubleshooting page covers setup errors with fixes, and the docs say nothing about tool-level error bodies (8). Every tool is a read (query, list, fetch, analyse) and the gap tool reads files the client sends, so a retry is safe; no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint was confirmed because tools/list wasn't read (12). Natural-language prompts need no parameters from the user, and the API behind the server has official NerdGraph clients; nothing agent-specific beyond skills (10). 15 + 14 + 8 + 12 + 10 = 59.

### Security & auth: New Relic MCP Server +9

- Grafana MCP Server (67): The server holds a Grafana service account token, which Grafana RBAC can scope by action and resource and which can be revoked. `GRAFANA_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN_FILE` is re-read on each request for rotation. Username and password and a deprecated API key also work. The open-source server has no OAuth, and no secret travels in a URL (25 of 30). `--disable-write`, `--disable-query`, per-category flags, Loki enforced matchers and a per-tool RBAC table support least privilege. Writes are on by default, the default set includes `grafana_api_request` for any API path, and nothing asks for confirmation (14 of 20). Log lines, dashboards and annotations reach the model as stored. No injection guidance was found in the README or docs, and issue #680 on the subject has been open since 24 March 2026 (2 of 15). OpenTelemetry traces, metrics and logs per tool call and slow-request logging, with arguments left out of spans unless `--include-args-in-spans` is set (10 of 15). Grafana Labs runs a disclosure programme on Intigriti without bounties, lists ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2, and publishes advisories on grafana.com, two of them for this server (CVE-2026-15583 on 15 July and CVE-2026-19516 on 11 August 2026). The repository has no SECURITY.md and grafana.com has no security.txt (16 of 20).
- New Relic MCP Server (76): OAuth 2.0 with the scopes `observability:read`, `offline` and `offline_access`, access tokens that expire after 5 minutes, refresh for 24 hours, revocation by deleting the user or turning off the organisation toggle, and the token acting as the user with no more than their roles; the alternative is a user API key in a header (28). A read scope, organisation toggles that default the API key, preview, Atlassian and AWS routes to off, an organisation-scoped role requirement, and no write tools in the list (16). Logs, error messages and trace attributes are untrusted text and no injection guidance was found (2). NrAuditEvent records sign-ins with IP addresses and NrdbQuery labels queries sent through the server, both queryable by the operator (13). security.txt pointing to a HackerOne programme, a published security policy citing SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 audits of its facilities and its own penetration testing, and an ISO 42001 certification announced on 29 September 2026; the trust centre itself renders through a script and was unread (17). 28 + 16 + 2 + 13 + 17 = 76.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Grafana MCP Server | New Relic MCP Server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 91 | 60 | Grafana MCP Server +31 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 51 | Grafana MCP Server +30 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 59 | Grafana MCP Server +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 76 | New Relic MCP Server +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Grafana MCP Server +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 96 | 80 | Grafana MCP Server +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 81 | New Relic MCP Server +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **71 · BB** | **61 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Grafana MCP Server | New Relic MCP Server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | Grafana Labs | New Relic, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.newrelic.com/mcp/` |
| Transports | stdio, SSE (legacy), Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | 119 | 40 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.grafana/mcp-grafana` | `com.newrelic/mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2022-11-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-10 | 2026-09-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 3.5k stars, 152k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Grafana MCP Server

- -3.0 on 1 November 2026: negative event
- +0.1 on 28 October 2026: checklist
- -0.6 on 17 October 2026: product, new evidence, negative event

### New Relic MCP Server

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Grafana MCP Server.** Every default tool declares typed inputs and read-only and destructive annotations in source, and `--disable-write` cuts the default 79 tools to 62. Writes and a general `grafana_api_request` tool are on by default, the default list is long at 79 tools, and two `X-Grafana-URL` flaws, one rated critical, were fixed in July and August 2026.

**New Relic MCP Server.** OAuth with a read scope, 5-minute access tokens, role-bound calls and a queryable audit trail make this a safe read surface over an account's data, and the free tier includes it. 40 tools need tag filtering, the schemas aren't public, there is no per-call price, and no dated GA notice was found.

## Before you call either

### Grafana MCP Server

1. Start with `--disable-write` unless the task needs writes, and add `--disable-api` to remove `grafana_api_request`
2. Pass `--enabled-tools` with only the categories needed. The default list loads 79 tools
3. Use `get_dashboard_summary` or `get_dashboard_property` with a JSONPath before `get_dashboard_by_uid`, which returns the whole dashboard JSON
4. Set `GRAFANA_USAGE_STATS=disabled` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` to stop the four-hourly usage report to stats.grafana.org
5. Use streamable HTTP, not SSE, when each caller needs its own token or organisation, and set `--server-auth-token` on any non-loopback address

### New Relic MCP Server

1. Connect with OAuth; an `api-key` header reaches only the core tools and the docs say the API key route works only where stated
2. Send `include-tags` with the groups the task needs (for example `discovery,data-access`) to keep the tool list under 30
3. Call `list_available_new_relic_accounts` first and pass the account id to every query; `convert_time_period_to_epoch_ms` turns phrases such as last 30 minutes into the epoch bounds the other tools take
4. Stay under 2,000 tool calls an hour per user and 25 concurrent NerdGraph requests; a 429 clears as in-flight requests finish
5. Ask the organisation administrator to turn on the Preview Tools, API Keys, Atlassian or AWS toggles in feature control manager before relying on those tools; they are off by default

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Grafana MCP Server or New Relic MCP Server?

Grafana MCP Server scores 71 (BB) on agent readiness against New Relic MCP Server's 61 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. New Relic MCP Server leads on security & auth.

### Do Grafana MCP Server and New Relic MCP Server need an API key?

Grafana MCP Server takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. New Relic MCP Server uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Grafana MCP Server and New Relic MCP Server without installing anything?

Grafana MCP Server runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. New Relic MCP Server has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.newrelic.com/mcp/.

### Are Grafana MCP Server and New Relic MCP Server open source?

Grafana MCP Server is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for New Relic MCP Server.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-new-relic.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-new-relic.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "grafana-mcp-server", "b": "new-relic"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare grafana-mcp-server new-relic`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/grafana-mcp-server.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/new-relic.json

## Other comparisons with Grafana MCP Server or New Relic MCP Server

- [Causely MCP server vs Grafana MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/causely-vs-grafana-mcp-server.md)
- [Causely MCP server vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/causely-vs-new-relic.md)
- [Grafana MCP Server vs incident.io API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-incident-io.md)
- [Grafana MCP Server vs PagerDuty MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-pagerduty-mcp.md)
- [Grafana MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [incident.io API vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/incident-io-vs-new-relic.md)
- [New Relic MCP Server vs PagerDuty MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/new-relic-vs-pagerduty-mcp.md)
- [New Relic MCP Server vs Rootly MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/new-relic-vs-rootly-mcp.md)
- [Axiom MCP Server vs Grafana MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axiom-vs-grafana-mcp-server.md)
- [Axiom MCP Server vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axiom-vs-new-relic.md)
- [Better Stack vs Grafana MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-grafana-mcp-server.md)
- [Better Stack vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/better-stack-vs-new-relic.md)
- [Datadog MCP Server vs Grafana MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-grafana-mcp-server.md)
- [Datadog MCP Server vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datadog-mcp-vs-new-relic.md)
- [Grafana MCP Server vs Honeycomb MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-honeycomb-mcp.md)
- [New Relic MCP Server vs Sentry MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/new-relic-vs-sentry-mcp.md)
- [Grafana MCP Server vs Sentry MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grafana-mcp-server-vs-sentry-mcp.md)
- [Honeycomb MCP vs New Relic MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/honeycomb-mcp-vs-new-relic.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp