What is Observability?
Helicone provides end-to-end observability for your LLM applications, giving you complete visibility into every request, session, and user interaction. Track costs, latency, errors, and performance metrics in real-time.Key Observability Features
Request Logging
Capture and analyze every LLM request with detailed metadata, inputs, and outputs
Session Tracking
Group related requests to understand multi-turn conversations and workflows
Distributed Tracing
Visualize complex LLM workflows with parent-child request relationships
Custom Properties
Add custom metadata to segment and filter your requests
User Metrics
Track costs, usage, and performance per user
Analytics Dashboard
Visualize trends, costs, and performance over time
What You Can Observe
Request-Level Metrics
- Latency: Time to first token, total request duration
- Costs: Token usage and dollar costs per request
- Model Performance: Completion quality, error rates
- Request/Response Data: Full input prompts and completions
- Metadata: Timestamps, model versions, provider info
Aggregate Metrics
- Total Costs: Track spending across all requests
- Usage Patterns: Requests per day, peak usage times
- Error Rates: Failed requests, rate limits, timeouts
- User Analytics: Cost and usage per user
- Session Analytics: Multi-turn conversation metrics
Dashboard Features
Real-Time Monitoring
The Helicone dashboard provides:- Live request feed - See requests as they happen
- Cost tracking - Real-time spend monitoring
- Performance charts - Latency and throughput metrics
- Filtering and search - Find specific requests instantly
- Custom time ranges - Analyze any time period
Analytics Views
Different views for different insights:- Requests View - Detailed log of all LLM calls
- Sessions View - Grouped conversation flows
- Users View - Per-user cost and usage analytics
- Models View - Compare performance across models
- Properties View - Segment by custom metadata
Getting Started
View Requests
See all logged requests in your dashboard at helicone.ai/requests
Add Metadata
Enrich requests with custom properties and user IDs
Use Cases
Production Monitoring
Production Monitoring
Track performance and costs in production. Set up alerts for errors, high costs, or latency spikes.
Debugging
Debugging
Inspect failed requests, compare inputs/outputs, and trace complex workflows to identify issues.
Cost Optimization
Cost Optimization
Identify expensive operations, compare model costs, and track spend per user or feature.
Product Analytics
Product Analytics
Understand how users interact with your AI features. Track engagement, popular flows, and drop-off points.
Compliance & Auditing
Compliance & Auditing
Maintain complete logs of all LLM interactions for compliance and security auditing.
Next Steps
Log Your First Request
Start capturing LLM requests
Track Sessions
Group related requests together
Add Custom Properties
Enrich requests with metadata
Monitor Users
Track per-user analytics