Arize
OpenTelemetry-native AI observability with open-source Phoenix companion
What is Arize?
Arize AX is an enterprise AI observability and evaluation platform for generative AI applications and agents, built on OpenTelemetry conventions to avoid vendor lock-in. It pairs agent tracing, automated evaluators, prompt management, and production monitoring with the open-source Phoenix project for self-hosted use. The platform reports processing 1 trillion spans and 50 million evals per month, indicating it is tested at production scale rather than only on demos.
Knowledge bases, internal search, operations, data, finance, HR, and back-office tools with AI workflows.
See the full Knowledge & Ops guide to compare more tools, buyer criteria, and related workflows.
Use cases to evaluate
Instrument an LLM agent with OpenTelemetry SDKs and ship spans to Phoenix locally
Run online evaluators on production traces to flag hallucinations as they happen
Manage and version prompts inside the same platform that monitors them in prod
Meet enterprise compliance with SOC2, HIPAA, and configurable data residency
Fit to evaluate
Platform teams already standardized on OpenTelemetry for app observability
Open-source-friendly orgs that start on Phoenix and grow into managed AX
Enterprises with multi-region or data-residency requirements
Applied AI teams running heavy automated evals on production traffic
Business fit
Right for you if your observability strategy is OTel-first and you want eval, tracing, and monitoring built on standard data formats you can export anytime. Skip if you want a closed proprietary trace format or have no plans to standardize on OpenTelemetry. Phoenix is genuinely free and self-hosted, so teams can start there and graduate to AX SaaS when they need scale, evals, and SLAs. AX Pro at $50/month is one of the cheaper paid entry points in this category if 50K spans and 10GB ingestion fit your volume.
How to evaluate Arize
Use this category when operational data, policies, tasks, or internal requests are spread across disconnected systems.
Confirm the exact workflow
Map Arize to one concrete workflow first, such as instrument an llm agent with opentelemetry sdks and ship spans to phoenix locally. Avoid buying before the owner, trigger, output, and success metric are clear.
Check category fit
Compare internal search, permissions, workflow support, and reporting.
Compare practical alternatives
Shortlist Arize against Glean, Guru, Slite so the decision is based on fit, effort, and workflow ownership rather than brand recognition alone.
Validate cost and rollout effort
Phoenix free and open source, self-hosted; AX Free SaaS covers 25K spans/month, 1GB ingestion, 15-day retention; AX Pro $50/month covers 50K spans, 10GB ingestion, 30-day retention; overages $10 per million spans and $3 per GB; AX Enterprise custom with SOC2/HIPAA, SaaS or self-hosted, multi-region. Also confirm implementation time, support needs, and whether the medium setup matches your team.
Compare Arize with alternatives
Use this quick comparison before booking demos or moving data into a new system.
| Primary workflow | Instrument an LLM agent with OpenTelemetry SDKs and ship spans to Phoenix locally, Run online evaluators on production traces to flag hallucinations as they happen |
|---|---|
| Best-fit team | Platform teams already standardized on OpenTelemetry for app observability, Open-source-friendly orgs that start on Phoenix and grow into managed AX |
| Implementation effort | Medium setup and maintenance profile |
| Pricing check | Free plan + paid plans |
| Closest alternatives | GleanGuruSliteSlab |
Arize pricing
| Model | Free plan + paid plans |
|---|---|
| Snapshot | Phoenix free and open source, self-hosted; AX Free SaaS covers 25K spans/month, 1GB ingestion, 15-day retention; AX Pro $50/month covers 50K spans, 10GB ingestion, 30-day retention; overages $10 per million spans and $3 per GB; AX Enterprise custom with SOC2/HIPAA, SaaS or self-hosted, multi-region. |
| Checked |
Common questions about Arize
What is Arize?
Arize AX is an enterprise AI observability and evaluation platform for generative AI applications and agents, built on OpenTelemetry conventions to avoid vendor lock-in. It pairs agent tracing, automated evaluators, prompt management, and production monitoring with the open-source Phoenix project for self-hosted use. The platform reports processing 1 trillion spans and 50 million evals per month, indicating it is tested at production scale rather than only on demos.
What is Arize used for?
Common use cases: Instrument an LLM agent with OpenTelemetry SDKs and ship spans to Phoenix locally; Run online evaluators on production traces to flag hallucinations as they happen; Manage and version prompts inside the same platform that monitors them in prod; Meet enterprise compliance with SOC2, HIPAA, and configurable data residency.
How much does Arize cost?
Phoenix free and open source, self-hosted; AX Free SaaS covers 25K spans/month, 1GB ingestion, 15-day retention; AX Pro $50/month covers 50K spans, 10GB ingestion, 30-day retention; overages $10 per million spans and $3 per GB; AX Enterprise custom with SOC2/HIPAA, SaaS or self-hosted, multi-region.
Who is Arize best for?
Arize fits Platform teams already standardized on OpenTelemetry for app observability, Open-source-friendly orgs that start on Phoenix and grow into managed AX, Enterprises with multi-region or data-residency requirements, Applied AI teams running heavy automated evals on production traffic. Right for you if your observability strategy is OTel-first and you want eval, tracing, and monitoring built on standard data formats you can export anytime. Skip if you want a closed proprietary trace format or have no plans to standardize on OpenTelemetry. Phoenix is genuinely free and self-hosted, so teams can start there and graduate to AX SaaS when they need scale, evals, and SLAs. AX Pro at $50/month is one of the cheaper paid entry points in this category if 50K spans and 10GB ingestion fit your volume.
What are alternatives to Arize?
Common alternatives to Arize include Glean, Guru, Slite, Slab, Tettra, Sana.