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Apollo Studio

apollographql.com

From $5/mo Free plan WebWindowsmacOSLinuxAPISelf-hosted
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Spec score 9.5 #2 of 26 in API Design Tools

What it is

Apollo Studio is the interface for Apollo GraphOS, a platform for managing a supergraph and coordinating GraphQL development. Studio Explorer lets developers create, run, and share GraphQL operations, with query linting and autocomplete. GraphOS maintains a central registry of schemas and metadata, generates changelogs, and visualizes graphs. Teams can review proposed schema changes asynchronously and validate them against past requests from registered clients to check for breaking changes. Composition, validation, and approvals can connect to CI/CD pipelines. Access controls include granular roles and filtered graph variants for specific clients or partners. Studio tracks usage by field, client, and operation, showing trends, request volume, rates, errors, and service traces; OpenTelemetry support can send metrics to a chosen APM tool. Rover CLI supports schema publishing, CI checks, and local supergraph testing, while the Platform API enables custom automation. GraphOS supports any GraphQL API, including Federation and Connectors. Free costs nothing, supports up to three developers, and retains checks and insights data for one day. Developer starts at $5 a month, based on $5 per million requests.

Spec sheet

What it does
GraphOS Studio is Apollo's web interface for collaborating on GraphQL schemas, validating changes and delivering supergraphs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Purpose
GraphOS Studio provides an interface for the Apollo GraphOS platform to manage a supergraph and support teams shipping features quickly, independently, and safely.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Integrations
Studio integrations include Slack and Datadog, while performance alerts can notify Slack or PagerDuty.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Support
The plans list Community Support for Free, Developer Support 8×5 without an SLA, Standard Support 8×5 with an SLA, and Enterprise Business Support 24×7×365 with an SLA.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United StatesRead 28 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Founded
2016Read 28 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Access controls
Graph variants support granular roles and separate discoverability, review, and publishing permissions; filtered variants can be created for particular clients or partners.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Changelog news
Apollo Federation 2.13 was released in January 2026 and Federation 2.15 in July 2026, with the latter moving composition to Rust and improving validation errors.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Chrome extension features
Apollo Client Devtools adds an Explorer-like query tool, watched-query inspector, mutation inspector and cache inspector to Chrome developer tools.Read 15 Oct 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com
CI/CD
Composition, change validation, and approvals can be integrated into existing continuous integration and delivery pipelines.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Collaboration
Studio provides graph visualization, a central subgraph registry and organization-based collaboration workflows.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Company founded year
LinkedIn lists Apollo GraphQL as founded in 2016.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company headquarters and size
LinkedIn lists Apollo GraphQL headquarters in San Francisco and a company size of 201–500 employees.Read 15 Oct 2026 · linkedin.com
Company legal name
Crunchbase lists the legal name as Apollo Graph Inc. and identifies Geoff Schmidt, Matt DeBergalis and Nick Martin as founders.Read 15 Oct 2026 · crunchbase.com
Connector requirements
Apollo Connectors 0.4 requires at least Router 2.15.0, build pipeline 2.14.1 and Federation specification 2.14.1.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Current status
Apollo's public status page reported all listed services, including Studio UI, schema checks and Insights, fully operational when opened.Read 15 Oct 2026 · status.apollographql.com
Data handling
Apollo states that graph operation result data never reaches an Apollo-managed service, while some tools have opt-in GraphOS reporting and certain tools collect anonymous usage data by default.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Datadog limitation
Apollo's Datadog forwarding integration is planned for deprecation and is restricted to legacy plans rather than Developer or Standard plans.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Developer interfaces
Rover CLI supports publishing subgraph schemas, running schema checks from CI, and testing a supergraph locally; the Platform API supports custom automation and tooling.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Documentation
Apollo's documentation covers Studio, Explorer, security, access management, APIs, routing, observability, connectors and release lifecycles with configuration examples.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Explorer IDE
Studio Explorer is a browser IDE for creating, running and managing queries, mutations and subscriptions, and it is free for GraphOS organizations.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
For whom
Apollo describes Free as for students or hobbyists, Developer as for small production API teams, Standard as for teams scaling across services, and Enterprise as for companies with large-scale GraphQL initiatives.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Free plan limit
The Free plan's self-hosted GraphOS Router is limited to 60 requests per minute, and checks and insights data is retained for one day.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
Funding news
Apollo announced a $130 million Series D led by Insight Partners on August 17, 2021, at a valuation above $1.5 billion.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
HQ news
Apollo announced a new San Francisco headquarters at 201 California Street on December 2, 2025, while retaining a distributed-work model.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Limit: AWS Marketplace complexity
AWS Marketplace reviewers say federation concepts and router configuration take time to learn and may be excessive for small or simple API landscapes.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Limit: G2 learning curve and cache work
G2 reviewers report a steep learning curve, difficulty maintaining or clearing the client cache and extra complexity for simple projects.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Limit: Gartner specialization
A Gartner-displayed dislike says Apollo can feel like a separate skill from general GraphQL.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com
Observability
GraphOS collects operation and field metrics from clients, routers and subgraphs and presents usage, latency, errors and traces in Studio Insights.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Platform API
The GraphOS Platform API is public and documented as a graph with a README and example operations available through Studio.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Praise: AWS Marketplace governance
AWS Marketplace reviewers praise unified schemas, federation, automated validation, CI/CD integration, documentation and governance for distributed teams.Read 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Praise: G2 usability and documentation
G2 reviewers repeatedly praise ease of use, rich documentation, smooth integrations, caching and support for GraphQL clients, gateways and supergraphs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Praise: Gartner visibility and monitoring
Gartner reviewer feedback praises Studio's easy interface, GraphQL visibility and tools for managing and monitoring graphs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com
Rating on AWS Marketplace
4.4 out of 5 from 16 ratingsRead 15 Oct 2026 · aws.amazon.com
Rating on Chrome Web Store
2.7 out of 5 from 269 ratingsRead 15 Oct 2026 · chromewebstore.google.com
Rating on G2
4.8 out of 5 from 10 reviewsRead 15 Oct 2026 · g2.com
Rating on Gartner Peer Insights
4.7 out of 5 from 61 ratingsRead 15 Oct 2026 · gartner.com
Reliability commitment
Apollo says hosted services target at least 99.9% monthly availability excluding scheduled downtime and follow a fail-open design principle.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Roles and keys
GraphOS supports organization and graph roles plus scoped graph, subgraph and persisted-query API keys for CI/CD and runtime reporting.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Router licence
Apollo Router Core and Federation 2 are source-available under Elastic License 2.0, which prohibits offering the software as a managed service and forbids licence-key circumvention.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Sandbox
Sandbox mode lets users run Explorer and schema-reference tools against a local or remote endpoint without an Apollo account, including offline localhost use after an initial load.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Schema checks
GraphOS runs schema checks and supports composition, change validation and approvals in CI/CD workflows.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Schema registry
Registering a graph creates a cloud-hosted schema source of truth that tracks schema history and produces changelogs.Read 15 Oct 2026 · github.com
Schema validation
Teams can propose and review schema changes asynchronously and validate them against past requests from registered clients to check for breaking changes.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com
SDKs and tools
Apollo publishes MIT-licensed Client libraries for JavaScript, iOS and Kotlin, plus MIT-licensed Server, Rover CLI, VS Code extension and MCP Server projects.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Security controls
Apollo documents defense-in-depth controls including disabling production introspection, router error redaction, access controls, safelisting and operation limits.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Self-hosting
Paid and free GraphOS plans include a self-hosted GraphOS Router option, with the Free plan rate-limited to 60 requests per minute.Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Supported APIs
The pricing page says GraphOS supports any GraphQL API and includes support for GraphQL Federation and Connectors.Read 29 Sep 2026 · apollographql.com

Plans and prices

Free Free Forever Free; no credit card required Up to 3 developers · Router limited to 60 requests/minute · 1-day checks and insights retention · Community support Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Developer $5 a month Starting at $5 per million requests; billed monthly with automatic volume discounts Up to 10 developers · 7-day checks and insights retention · Developer support 8×5 without SLA · $50 signup usage credit Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Enterprise Priced on request Custom pricing; talk to sales Unlimited developers · 18-month checks and insights retention · Business support 24×7×365 with SLA · Premium support and professional services add-ons Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com
Standard Priced on request Custom pricing; talk to sales Up to 30 developers · 90-day checks and insights retention · Standard support 8×5 with SLA Read 15 Oct 2026 · apollographql.com

Every Apollo Studio plan and price →

Strong points and limits

Strong points

  • Explorer includes query linting and autocomplete.
  • Schema changes can be checked against past client requests.
  • Role controls and filtered graph variants are available.
  • Usage metrics include operation trends, errors, and traces.
  • Supports GraphQL APIs, Federation, and Connectors.

Limits

  • Free router is limited to 60 requests per minute.
  • Free checks and insights data lasts one day.
  • Developer requires a credit card.
  • Standard and Enterprise prices are custom and unlisted.

Who it suits

Apollo describes Free for students or hobbyists and Developer for small production API teams. Standard and Enterprise are described for teams scaling across services and companies with large GraphQL initiatives.

Apollo Studio in depth

Read the full write-up

Overview

Apollo Studio is the management interface for Apollo GraphOS, aimed at teams building and operating GraphQL supergraphs. It suits organizations that need schema changes, delivery checks, and usage visibility coordinated across developers and services. Its governance tools are the main draw; the Free plan’s low router request ceiling and short retention make it a constrained choice for production workloads.

Key features

Studio Explorer lets developers create, run, and share GraphQL operations, with autocomplete and query linting. That makes it a practical API workbench, but the stronger case is connecting exploration to shared schema management rather than using it only as a query editor.

GraphOS centralizes schemas and metadata, generates changelogs, and visualizes the graph. Teams can propose and review schema changes asynchronously and validate them against past requests from registered clients to identify breaking changes. Composition, validation, and approvals can also run in existing CI/CD pipelines, which helps teams make schema governance part of their delivery process.

Graph variants support separate permissions for discovery, review, and publishing, while filtered variants can tailor what clients or partners can see. Usage metrics span fields, clients, and operations, including trends, request volume, rates, errors, and service traces. OpenTelemetry support can send metrics to a team’s chosen APM tool. Rover CLI handles subgraph publishing, CI schema checks, and local supergraph testing; the Platform API supports custom automation. GraphOS supports any GraphQL API, including Federation and Connectors.

Apollo says graph operation result data does not reach an Apollo-managed service. Some tools have opt-in GraphOS reporting, while certain tools collect anonymous usage data by default.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing, billed Forever Free, requires no credit card, and allows up to 3 developers. Its self-hosted router is limited to 60 requests per minute, data retention is one day, and support is community-based. This is a sensible starting point for students and hobbyists, but the request cap and brief retention limit its usefulness for sustained production monitoring.

Developer costs $5 a month, billed monthly, starting at $5 per million requests. It supports up to 10 developers, retains data for 7 days, and includes Developer Support 8×5 without an SLA. New signups receive $50 in usage credit, and a credit card is required. It is a step up for small production API teams, though the short retention and non-SLA support are meaningful trade-offs.

Standard has custom pricing and requires talking to sales. It supports up to 30 developers, 90 days of retention, and Standard Support 8×5 with an SLA, making it better suited to teams scaling across services. Enterprise also uses custom pricing through sales, with unlimited developers, 18 months of retention, and Business Support 24×7×365 with an SLA. That package fits companies with large-scale GraphQL initiatives; its support and retention exceed the lower tiers, but the price is not fixed.

Contract validation and team collaboration are supported. The entry’s included team-seat figure is 10, while plan limits differ: Free allows 3 developers, Developer 10, Standard 30, and Enterprise unlimited. Compare the seat allowance with the plan’s developer cap when sizing a team.

Platforms

Apollo Studio supports API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows environments. The hybrid deployment model and API explorer suit teams combining hosted management with self-hosted components. Server-language support spans TypeScript, JavaScript, Java, Kotlin, Python, C#, Go, Ruby, Rust, Elixir, PHP, and Scala.

Who it's for

Studio is strongest for teams coordinating schema changes across services, embedding checks in CI/CD, and tracking how clients use operations. Free fits learning and hobby projects; Developer targets small production API teams. Teams scaling across services may need Standard’s longer retention and SLA, while Enterprise is aimed at larger GraphQL programs. Developers who only need a query editor may not need the broader governance layer.

Pros and cons

Pro: Asynchronous schema review and validation against registered-client requests help teams catch breaking changes before release.

Pro: CI/CD integration, granular variant permissions, and filtered views support coordinated work across teams and partners.

Pro: Field-, client-, and operation-level metrics plus traces give teams several levels of operational visibility.

Con: Free’s router limit of 60 requests per minute and one-day retention are restrictive for production use.

Con: Developer offers only seven days of retention and support without an SLA; longer retention and SLA-backed support require custom-priced plans.

Alternatives

For a standalone GraphQL client, Altair GraphQL Client is worth considering: its Basic plan supports up to 2 team members and 20 queries, while Pro is 7.99 USD pe. Choose Apollo Client when you want the free client library rather than Apollo Studio’s schema-management and observability platform.

GraphQL Hive is an alternative with a free Hobby plan that includes 1M operations per month, 7-day usage-data retention, and unlimited seats, projects, organizations, schema pushes, and ch. Hot Chocolate may suit readers seeking a free tool licensed for commercial or private projects, while GraphiQL is a free MIT-licensed package for React applications.

PostGraphile is an alternative for readers considering its open-source V4 Core or V5 releases under the MIT license. WunderGraph Cosmo offers a free Developer plan with one federated graph, 10M requests per month, 10 subgraphs, one team member, and seven-day retention. GraphQL Ruby is the direct option for Ruby server work; its GraphQL::Pro plan costs $1,100 a year.

Browse the GraphQL Tools and API Design Tools directories to compare tools across those categories.

Verdict

Choose Apollo Studio if your GraphQL team needs schema governance tied to CI/CD and operational insight across clients and services. The decisive advantage is combining change validation, permissions, and usage visibility in one GraphOS workflow. Look elsewhere if you need only a lightweight query client, or if the Free tier’s request and retention limits cannot support your production workload and custom-priced plans do not fit.

Verdict

Apollo Studio combines schema management, validation, access controls, and observability for GraphQL teams. Compare the Free plan's request and retention limits with the custom-priced plans' stated support and retention terms.

Where Specifiction places it

Alternatives to Apollo StudioAll alternatives →

Pact From $115.42/mo · Free plan 8.9 Visit