# Metrics Plugin: Meter vs. Timer?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839>\
**Category:** Logstash\
**Created:** [September 29, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839 "2016-09-29T17:52:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![wakinov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/49beb7/32.png) [@wakinov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wakinov)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839/1 "2016-09-29T17:52:38Z")

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What's the difference between **meter** and **timer**? I can find any info on it. Can you provide examples of when one would be used over the other?

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**Author:** ![magnusbaeck](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnusbaeck/32/44943_2.png) [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 5:49am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839/2 "2016-10-05T05:49:05Z")

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Meters are counters of the number of events, e.g. the number of HTTP 404s. Timers are for durations and include min/max/mean/stddev/percentiles, useful for e.g. the durations of HTTP requests.

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**Author:** ![wakinov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/49beb7/32.png) [@wakinov](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/wakinov)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 4:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839/3 "2016-10-05T16:23:44Z")

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Thanks for answering. So, if I wanted to capture the durations of HTTP requests, I would have to pass it in to the second parameter ( e.g. timer =\> ["http\_metric\_name", "%{http\_duration\_value}"] ) ?

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**Author:** ![magnusbaeck](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/magnusbaeck/32/44943_2.png) [@magnusbaeck](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/magnusbaeck)\
**Post date:** [October 5, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839/4 "2016-10-05T17:20:25Z")

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Yes.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [July 6, 2017, 4:35am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/metrics-plugin-meter-vs-timer/61839/5 "2017-07-06T04:35:32Z")

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Closed on July 6, 2017, 4:35am UTC