---
title: "Get metric metadata"
method: GET
path: "/api/v1/metrics/{metric_name}"
tags: ["Metrics"]
---

# Get metric metadata

`GET /api/v1/metrics/{metric_name}`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.datadoghq.com`
- URL: `https://api.datadoghq.com/api/v1/metrics/{metric_name}`
- Auth: one of:
  - API key in header `DD-API-KEY` and API key in header `DD-APPLICATION-KEY`
  - OAuth 2
    - Authorization code: `/oauth2/v1/authorize`
    - Token URL: `/oauth2/v1/token` scopes: `metrics_read`

Get metadata about a specific metric.

## Path parameters

- `metric_name` string, required

## Response `200`

OK

- MetricMetadata: Object with all metric related metadata.
  - `description` string: Metric description.
  - `integration` string: Name of the integration that sent the metric if applicable.
  - `per_unit` string: Per unit of the metric such as `second` in `bytes per second`.
  - `short_name` string: A more human-readable and abbreviated version of the metric name.
  - `statsd_interval` integer: StatsD flush interval of the metric in seconds if applicable.
  - `type` string: Metric type such as `gauge` or `rate`.
  - `unit` string: Primary unit of the metric such as `byte` or `operation`.

## Other responses

- `403`: Forbidden
- `404`: Not Found
- `429`: Too many requests

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/datadog/apis/datadog-api-v1-collection.md) - [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/datadog/apis/datadog-api-v1-collection/llms.txt) - [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/datadog/apis/datadog-api-v1-collection/revisions/ca5871004d26?raw)