What changed
On October 2, 2026, Cloudflare increased retention for adaptive analytics datasets, including HTTP requests, security events and DNS analytics, to at least 31 days on every plan. Free and Pro domains previously had as little as 24 hours or up to eight days depending on the dataset. Customers can now query up to 30 days in a single request through the Cloudflare dashboard, Custom Dashboards and GraphQL Analytics API. Domain analytics are consolidated into Traffic, Performance, Security, Cache, Origin, DNS and Visitors tabs sharing one time range. This does not add previously unavailable fields or datasets to a plan; aggregated datasets such as httpRequests1hGroups retain their own plan-specific limits.
Why it matters
Longer retention changes what solo operators and small SaaS teams can investigate without buying higher-tier analytics. A traffic spike, attack burst or DNS anomaly can now be compared with previous weeks instead of disappearing from the free-tier window. The practical distinction is adaptive dataset access: teams that automate reports through GraphQL must still check node-specific limits rather than assume every dataset has a 31-day history. This is separate from Cloudflare's recently expanded Logpush export service, covered in BTN draft #425.
From hours or days to a useful monthly window
Cloudflare says Free and Pro accounts previously saw 24 hours to eight days for some adaptive analytics datasets. The new minimum 31-day retention supports one 30-day query interval and comparisons with the same weekday in prior weeks.
Dashboard and API access both change
The expanded window applies to domain dashboards, Custom Dashboards and GraphQL Analytics API. Cloudflare has also grouped domain analytics views under one shared date filter to make comparisons across HTTP, security, cache and DNS easier.
The word adaptive matters
The retention guarantee applies to adaptive datasets such as httpRequestsAdaptiveGroups and firewallEventsAdaptive. Aggregated nodes such as httpRequests1hGroups still have plan-specific history and query constraints. Other field entitlements remain unchanged.
This is not raw log retention
Aggregated or sampled analytics are not the same as per-request raw logs. Cloudflare's separate Logpush pricing and included allowances determine the economics of exporting raw records; that is a different service and decision.