---
title: Prometheus endpoints support in InfluxDB
description: Read and write Prometheus data in InfluxDB.
menu:
  enterprise_influxdb_v1:
    name: Prometheus
    weight: 40
    parent: Supported protocols
---

## Prometheus remote read and write API support

{{% warn %}}
Note: The Prometheus [API Stability Guarantees](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/stability/)
states that remote read and remote write endpoints are features listed as experimental
or subject to change, and thus considered unstable for 2.x. Any breaking changes
will be included in the InfluxDB release notes.
{{% /warn %}}

InfluxDB support for the Prometheus remote read and write API adds the following
HTTP endpoints to InfluxDB:

* `/api/v1/prom/read`
* `/api/v1/prom/write`

Additionally, there is a [`/metrics` endpoint](/influxdb/v1/administration/server_monitoring/#influxdb-metrics-http-endpoint) configured to produce default Go metrics in Prometheus metrics format.

### Create a target database

Create a database in your InfluxDB instance to house data sent from Prometheus.
In the examples provided below, `prometheus` is used as the database name, but
you're welcome to use the whatever database name you like.

```sql
CREATE DATABASE "prometheus"
```

### Configuration

To enable the use of the Prometheus remote read and write APIs with InfluxDB, add URL
values to the following settings in the [Prometheus configuration file](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#configuration-file):

* [`remote_write`](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#%3Cremote_write%3E)
* [`remote_read`](https://prometheus.io/docs/prometheus/latest/configuration/configuration/#%3Cremote_read%3E)

The URLs must be resolvable from your running Prometheus server and use the port
on which InfluxDB is running (`8086` by default).
Also include the database name using the `db=` query parameter.

#### Example: Endpoints in Prometheus configuration file

```yaml
remote_write:
  - url: "http://localhost:8086/api/v1/prom/write?db=prometheus"

remote_read:
  - url: "http://localhost:8086/api/v1/prom/read?db=prometheus"
```

#### Read and write URLs with authentication

If [authentication is enabled on InfluxDB](/enterprise_influxdb/v1/administration/authentication_and_authorization/),
pass the `username` and `password` of an InfluxDB user with read and write privileges
using the `u=` and `p=` query parameters respectively.

##### Examples of endpoints with authentication enabled**_  

```yaml
remote_write:
  - url: "http://localhost:8086/api/v1/prom/write?db=prometheus&u=username&p=password"

remote_read:
  - url: "http://localhost:8086/api/v1/prom/read?db=prometheus&u=username&p=password"
```

> Including plain text passwords in your Prometheus configuration file is not ideal.
> Unfortunately, environment variables and secrets are not supported in Prometheus configuration files.
> See this Prometheus issue for more information:
>
>[Support for environment variable substitution in configuration file](https://github.com/prometheus/prometheus/issues/2357)

## How Prometheus metrics are parsed in InfluxDB

As Prometheus data is brought into InfluxDB, the following transformations are
made to match the InfluxDB data structure:

* The Prometheus metric name becomes the InfluxDB [measurement](/enterprise_influxdb/v1/concepts/key_concepts/#measurement) name.
* The Prometheus sample (value) becomes an InfluxDB field using the `value` field key. It is always a float.
* Prometheus labels become InfluxDB tags.
* All `# HELP` and `# TYPE` lines are ignored.
* [v1.8.6 and later] Prometheus remote write endpoint drops unsupported Prometheus values (`NaN`,`-Inf`, and `+Inf`) rather than reject the entire batch.
  * If [write trace logging is enabled (`[http] write-tracing = true`)](/enterprise_influxdb/v1/administration/configure/config-data-nodes/#write-tracing), then summaries of dropped values are logged.
  * If a batch of values contains values that are subsequently dropped, HTTP status code `204` is returned.

### Example: Parse Prometheus to InfluxDB

```shell
# Prometheus metric
example_metric{queue="0:http://example:8086/api/v1/prom/write?db=prometheus",le="0.005"} 308

# Same metric parsed into InfluxDB
measurement
  example_metric
tags
  queue = "0:http://example:8086/api/v1/prom/write?db=prometheus"
  le = "0.005"
  job = "prometheus"
  instance = "localhost:9090"
  __name__ = "example_metric"
fields
  value = 308
```

> In InfluxDB v1.5 and earlier, all Prometheus data goes into a single measurement
> named `_` and the Prometheus measurement name is stored in the `__name__` label.
> In InfluxDB v1.6 or later, every Prometheus measurement gets its own InfluxDB measurement.

{{% warn %}}
This format is different than the format used by the [Telegraf Prometheus input plugin](https://github.com/influxdata/telegraf/tree/master/plugins/inputs/prometheus).
{{% /warn %}}