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PagerDuty vs Datadog 2026: Which Platform Wins?

PagerDuty is an incident response and on-call management platform focused on alerting and escalation workflows, while Datadog is a comprehensive observability platform that includes monitoring, logging, APM, and incident management in one suite. Datadog offers deeper infrastructure visibility; PagerDuty excels at incident coordination.

P

PagerDuty

Cloud-based incident response and on-call management platform for DevOps and SRE teams.

Teams that already have monitoring tools in place and need specialized incident response orchestration and on-call management at scale

Score71%
VS
Datadog

Datadog

Cloud monitoring and observability platform with integrated APM and infrastructure monitoring

Organizations seeking to consolidate multiple monitoring and observability tools into a single unified platform with deep infrastructure visibility

Score71%

Quick Answer

AI Summary

PagerDuty is an incident response and on-call management platform focused on alerting and escalation workflows, while Datadog is a comprehensive observability platform that includes monitoring, logging, APM, and incident management in one suite. Datadog offers deeper infrastructure visibility; PagerDuty excels at incident coordination.

Our Verdict

AI-assisted

Choose PagerDuty if your primary need is incident response orchestration, on-call scheduling, and alert routing—it's the market leader in incident management with superior escalation workflows and team collaboration features. Choose Datadog if you need a unified observability platform that eliminates tool sprawl by combining infrastructure monitoring, log management, APM, and incident management in one product with better cost efficiency at scale.

Community feedback

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P
PagerDuty
8/10
Datadog
7/10
P

Choose PagerDuty if

Best pick

Teams that already have monitoring tools in place and need specialized incident response orchestration and on-call management at scale

Datadog

Choose Datadog if

Organizations seeking to consolidate multiple monitoring and observability tools into a single unified platform with deep infrastructure visibility

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Key Differences at a Glance

  • Primary Function:Incident response & on-call management vs Full-stack observability & monitoring
  • Log Management:Datadog wins(Full log aggregation with 15+ GB/day free tier vs Limited (basic event logs only))
  • APM (Application Performance Monitoring):Datadog wins(Native APM with 100+ framework support vs Not included)
See all 7 differences

Key Facts & Figures

129 numeric metrics compared

MetricPagerDutyDatadogRatio
Starting Monthly Cost per User(USD)$49
Available Integrations(integrations)600+
Free Trial Period(days)14 days
Uptime SLA Guarantee(percentage)99.99%
Estimated Global Market Share(percentage)28%
Base Monthly Cost Per User(USD)$49$15.00 (base) + metered
Free Tier User Limit(users)3 users
Data Source Integrations(count)200+ integrations100+
Mean Time to Response (MTTR) Improvement(percent)58% faster
Alert Fatigue Reduction(percent)60% via deduplication
Customer Retention Rate(percent)96%
Native Monitoring Capabilities(integrations)400+ via integrations600+ native integrations
Log Retention Standard Plan(days)Not included90 days
Alert Grouping Reduction(%)75% alert noise reduction60% alert reduction via AI
MTTR Improvement vs Manual(%)87% faster72% faster
Typical Setup Time(hours)8-16 hours4-8 weeks
Founding Year2010
Native Integrations Available(count)600+450+
Base Monthly Cost (10 users)(USD)$490/month
Cost at 100 Users(USD/month)$4,900/month
Average Incident Resolution Time Improvement(percent)35% faster (reported by customers)
Fortune 500 Adoption Rate(percent)70%+
Base Annual Cost(USD)$1,449
Number of Integrations(count)600+450+
Time to Incident Creation from Alert(seconds)<60 seconds
Standard Data Retention(days)N/A - incident focused15 days standard
Base Monthly Cost (5 Users, Annual Commitment)(USD/month)$1,495
Native Integrations(count)5,000+600+ pre-built integrations
Mobile Push Notification Latency(seconds)<2 seconds
Communication Channels Supported(count)6 channels
Atlassian Bundle Discount(percent)0%
Average Onboarding Time(days)5-7 days
Founded Year2009
Available Integrations(count)500+600+
Base Monthly Pricing(USD)$49/user
Customers (Approximate)(count)10,000+
Metrics Data Retention(months)15 months15 months
Global Data Centers(locations)18+ regions18+ regions
Time to First Dashboard(minutes)15-3015-30
Starting Monthly Price(USD)$32 per host/month$32 per host/month
Native Integrations(count)800+800+
Supported Data Sources(count)50+50+
Starting Cost (Pro Plan)(USD/month)$231/month$231/month
Error Tracking Speed(seconds)1-3 seconds1-3 seconds
Supported Languages(count)40+ languages40+ languages
Log Storage (included)(GB/month)100+ GB100+ GB
Uptime SLA(percentage)99.99%99.99%
Data Retention (free tier)(days)7 days7 days
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)$15 per host minimum$15 per host minimum
Pre-built Integrations(count)600+600+
Community Size(millions of users)250K+ users250K+ users
Base Monthly Cost(USD)$180+/month (Standard plan)$180+/month (Standard plan)
Integration Partners(integrations)600+600+
Average Setup Time(minutes)30-60 minutes30-60 minutes
Base Monthly Cost per Host(USD)$15/month$15/month
Supported Programming Languages (APM)(languages)15+ major frameworks15+ major frameworks
Third-party Integrations(count)600+ integrations600+ integrations
Included Infrastructure Metrics(metrics per host)200 metrics200 metrics
Custom Metrics Cost(USD per metric/month)$0.05 per metric$0.05 per metric
Average MTTR Improvement(percent reduction)35% reduction (typical)35% reduction (typical)
Starting Monthly Cost per Host(USD)$15/month (Standard tier)$15/month (Standard tier)
Setup Time to Production(minutes)0.5 hours0.5 hours
Data Retention Period(months)450 days (15 months default)450 days (15 months default)
Pre-built Integrations(integrations)500+ auto-instrumented500+ auto-instrumented
Memory Footprint (Typical Setup)(MB)800-1200 (with agent)800-1200 (with agent)
Monthly Cost Per Host (Enterprise)(USD)$15-25$15-25
Average Deployment Time(days)0.5 hours0.5 hours
G2 Customer Satisfaction Rating (2024)(stars)4.5/5.04.5/5.0
G2 Review Count (2024)(reviews)2,800+2,800+
Average Cost per GB Ingested(USD)$1.00$1.00
Typical Deployment Timeline(weeks)3.5 weeks3.5 weeks
Default Data Retention Period(months)15 months15 months
Out-of-Box Integrations(count)~600+ integrations~600+ integrations
APM Real-Time Metric Resolution(seconds)1-5 seconds1-5 seconds
Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent)99.99%99.99%
Learning Curve (Time to Productivity)(weeks)1-2 weeks1-2 weeks
Monthly Cost (100GB/day ingestion)(USD)$4,000-6,000$4,000-6,000
Implementation Timeline(weeks)5-15 days5-15 days
Time-to-First-Alert(minutes)2-5 minutes2-5 minutes
Default Data Retention (included in pricing)(months)15 months15 months
APM Trace Sampling Depth(percent)100% of traces stored100% of traces stored
SIEM Compliance Modules (pre-built)(count)0 (add-on only)0 (add-on only)
Enterprise Customers(millions)19,000+ (2024)19,000+ (2024)
Time to Production(days)0.5-1 day0.5-1 day
Monthly Cost (1TB/day ingestion)(USD)$12,000-$18,000$12,000-$18,000
Price per GB Ingested(USD/GB)$0.10-$0.50$0.10-$0.50
Infrastructure Management Overhead(hours per month)0.1-0.3 FTE0.1-0.3 FTE
Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score)2/10 - agent-based, minimal config2/10 - agent-based, minimal config
Free Tier Data Retention(days)15 days15 days
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost(USD)$50k-$200k+$50k-$200k+
Time to Setup (minutes)(minutes)15-3015-30
Starting Monthly Price(USD)$15$15
APM Transaction Sampling Interval(seconds)10 seconds10 seconds
Log Management Cost(USD per GB/month)$0.10$0.10
Average Implementation Time(days)5-7 days5-7 days
Supported Programming Languages(languages)50+50+
Monthly Cost Per Host(USD)$15-32$15-32
Time to Production Deployment(hours)15-30 minutes15-30 minutes
Annual Cost (100 hosts, moderate usage)(USD)$28,200-38,400$28,200-38,400
Base Monthly Pricing (1GB/day ingestion)(USD)$600-$900$600-$900
Query Response Time (1GB dataset)(milliseconds)300-800ms300-800ms
Typical Deployment Time(minutes)1-2 weeks1-2 weeks
SIEM Use Cases Supported(count)50+ security rules50+ security rules
Monthly Cost (10 hosts, standard tier)(USD)$150-$550$150-$550
Default Data Retention(days)450 days (15 months)450 days (15 months)
Agent Installation Time(minutes)15-30 minutes15-30 minutes
Uptime SLA(percent)99.99% guaranteed SLA99.99% guaranteed SLA
Log Retention (Standard)(days)30 days30 days
Starting Price Per Host(USD/month)$15-20 per host (estimated)$15-20 per host (estimated)
Agent Installation Complexity(agents required)3+ agents (APM, Infrastructure, Logs)3+ agents (APM, Infrastructure, Logs)
Gartner Peer Reviews Score(out of 5.0)4.6/5.0 (2,100+ reviews)4.6/5.0 (2,100+ reviews)
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost (1000 hosts)(USD)$180K-240K (with logs)$180K-240K (with logs)
Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)(minutes reduction)32% faster than legacy APM32% faster than legacy APM
Starting Price (Monthly)(USD)$15$15
Integration Count(integrations)600+600+
Error Alert Latency(seconds)5-10 seconds5-10 seconds
Data Retention (Default)(days)15 days15 days
Mobile SDKs Supported(platforms)iOS, Android, React NativeiOS, Android, React Native
Typical Enterprise Cost (Annual)(USD)$10,000-$50,000+$10,000-$50,000+
Minimum Monthly Commitment(USD)$360 (~$15/host × 24 hosts typical)$360 (~$15/host × 24 hosts typical)
Initial Deployment Time(minutes)1515
Log Ingestion at $10k/Month Spend(GB per day)~500~500
Default Metrics Retention(days)15 (upgradeable to 400+)15 (upgradeable to 400+)
Enterprise Customer Count (2025)(organizations)22,00022,000
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)$231-400$231-400
Annual Cost for 500GB/day Ingestion(USD)$480,000-$720,000$480,000-$720,000
Minimum Required DevOps FTE(people)0-1 (for integrations only)0-1 (for integrations only)
Data Retention Cost per GB/month(USD)$0.05-$0.15$0.05-$0.15
SLA Uptime Guarantee(percent)99.99%99.99%

Sourced from publicly available data ·

Key Differences

7 attributes compared head-to-head

P
3PagerDuty
Evenly matched1 tie
Datadog
3Datadog
  • Primary Function

    PagerDuty

    Incident response & on-call management

    Datadog

    Full-stack observability & monitoring

  • Log Management

    PagerDuty

    Limited (basic event logs only)

    Datadog

    Full log aggregation with 15+ GB/day free tier(winner)

  • APM (Application Performance Monitoring)

    PagerDuty

    Not included

    Datadog

    Native APM with 100+ framework support(winner)

  • Starting Price (Monthly)

    PagerDuty

    $9/user for on-call management(winner)

    Datadog

    $15/host or $0.05/GB logs

  • Integrations

    PagerDuty

    600+ integrations with incident tools(winner)

    Datadog

    450+ integrations across monitoring/logging/APM

  • Incident Response Workflow

    PagerDuty

    Advanced routing, escalation policies, war rooms(winner)

    Datadog

    Basic incident creation from alerts

  • Infrastructure Monitoring

    PagerDuty

    Via integrations only

    Datadog

    Native agent with 200+ metrics per host(winner)

Full Comparison

PPagerDuty
Datadog
Starting Monthly Cost per User(USD)
$49
Free Trial Period(days)
14 days
Base Monthly Cost Per User(USD)
$49
$15.00 (base) + metered
Free Tier User Limit(users)
3 users
Base Monthly Cost (10 users)(USD)
$490/month
Show 31 more attributes
Cost at 100 Users(USD/month)
$4,900/month
Base Annual Cost(USD)
$1,449
Additional Data Ingestion Cost(USD per 10GB/day)
N/A - not data-focused
Base Monthly Cost (5 Users, Annual Commitment)(USD/month)
$1,495
Atlassian Bundle Discount(percent)
0%
Base Monthly Pricing(USD)
$49/user
Starting Monthly Price(USD)
$32 per host/month
Free Tier Value(USD/month)
$0 - limited (3 hosts max)
Starting Cost (Pro Plan)(USD/month)
$231/month
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)
$15 per host minimum
Base Monthly Cost(USD)
$180+/month (Standard plan)
Base Monthly Cost per Host(USD)
$15/month
Custom Metrics Cost(USD per metric/month)
$0.05 per metric
Starting Monthly Cost per Host(USD)
$15/month (Standard tier)
Monthly Cost Per Host (Enterprise)(USD)
$15-25
Average Cost per GB Ingested(USD)
$1.00
Monthly Cost (100GB/day ingestion)(USD)
$4,000-6,000
Monthly Cost (1TB/day ingestion)(USD)
$12,000-$18,000
Price per GB Ingested(USD/GB)
$0.10-$0.50
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost(USD)
$50k-$200k+
Starting Monthly Price(USD)
$15
Log Management Cost(USD per GB/month)
$0.10
Monthly Cost Per Host(USD)
$15-32
Annual Cost (100 hosts, moderate usage)(USD)
$28,200-38,400
Base Monthly Pricing (1GB/day ingestion)(USD)
$600-$900
Monthly Cost (10 hosts, standard tier)(USD)
$150-$550
Starting Price Per Host(USD/month)
$15-20 per host (estimated)
Starting Price (Monthly)(USD)
$15
Typical Enterprise Cost (Annual)(USD)
$10,000-$50,000+
Minimum Monthly Commitment(USD)
$360 (~$15/host × 24 hosts typical)
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)
$231-400
Available Integrations(integrations)
600+
Available Integrations(count)
500+
600+
Third-party Integrations(count)
600+ integrations
Integration Count(integrations)
600+
Mobile App Rating(quality level)
4.8/5
Jira Integration Depth
API-based integration
Data Source Integrations(count)
200+ integrations
100+
Jira Sync Capability
One-way basic plugin sync
Supported Data Sources(count)
50+
Pre-built Integrations(count)
600+
Multi-tenant Deployment Options
Cloud, hybrid, self-hosted (enterprise)
Open-Source Self-Hosted Availability(null)
Enterprise tier only
Self-Hosting Support
No, SaaS only
Setup Time to Production(minutes)
0.5 hours
Implementation Timeline(weeks)
5-15 days
Show 3 more attributes
Time to Production(days)
0.5-1 day
Agent Installation Time(minutes)
15-30 minutes
Agent Installation Complexity(agents required)
3+ agents (APM, Infrastructure, Logs)
Uptime SLA Guarantee(percentage)
99.99%
Uptime SLA(percentage)
99.99%
Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent)
99.99%
Uptime SLA(percent)
99.99% guaranteed SLA
SLA Uptime Guarantee(percent)
99.99%
Estimated Global Market Share(percentage)
28%
Customers (Approximate)(count)
10,000+
Enterprise Customer Count (2025)(organizations)
22,000
Mean Time to Response (MTTR) Improvement(percent)
58% faster
Alert Fatigue Reduction(percent)
60% via deduplication
Alert Grouping Reduction(%)
75% alert noise reduction
60% alert reduction via AI
MTTR Improvement vs Manual(%)
87% faster
72% faster
Average Incident Resolution Time Improvement(percent)
35% faster (reported by customers)
Show 14 more attributes
Time to Incident Creation from Alert(seconds)
<60 seconds
Mobile Push Notification Latency(seconds)
<2 seconds
Error Tracking Speed(seconds)
1-3 seconds
Metric Cardinality Ceiling(millions)
Unlimited with tag aggregation
Memory Footprint (Typical Setup)(MB)
800-1200 (with agent)
APM Real-Time Metric Resolution(seconds)
1-5 seconds
Time-to-First-Alert(minutes)
2-5 minutes
Free Tier Data Retention(days)
15 days
Query Response Time (1GB dataset)(milliseconds)
300-800ms
Typical Deployment Time(minutes)
1-2 weeks
Default Data Retention(days)
450 days (15 months)
Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR)(minutes reduction)
32% faster than legacy APM
Error Alert Latency(seconds)
5-10 seconds
Log Ingestion at $10k/Month Spend(GB per day)
~500
Customer Retention Rate(percent)
96%
Native Monitoring Capabilities(integrations)
400+ via integrations
600+ native integrations
Log Retention Standard Plan(days)
Not included
90 days
Native APM Included
No (integration only)
Yes (full distributed tracing)
On-Call Scheduling Features(null)
Native, advanced rotation policies
Basic (limited schedule management)
Native Integrations Available(count)
600+
450+
Show 22 more attributes
Mobile App Incident Management(availability)
Full (scheduling, ack, resolve on mobile)
Standard Data Retention(days)
N/A - incident focused
15 days standard
Communication Channels Supported(count)
6 channels
On-Call Scheduling Complexity
Advanced (rotations, overrides, patterns)
Post-Incident Review Capability
Basic manual reviews
Built-in Collaboration Space
Chat integration required
APM Specialization
Distributed tracing and session replay
APM Capabilities
Native distributed tracing
Log Management
Built-in with retention policies
Log Ingestion & Parsing
Most comprehensive with custom parsing
Log Aggregation Included
Full log aggregation and analytics
APM Distributed Tracing(languages supported)
Native support
Log Management Included(null)
Yes, standard in most plans
APM (Application Performance Monitoring)
Advanced APM with distributed tracing
Session Replay Quality(pixel-perfect fidelity)
Advanced session replay with pixel-perfect reproduction
Out-of-Box Integrations(count)
~600+ integrations
Default Data Retention (included in pricing)(months)
15 months
Query Language Complexity
Limited query builder; UI-driven
Primary Use Case Coverage
Infrastructure, APM, logs, metrics, synthetics, RUM
Session Replay Feature
Available with RUM plan
Infrastructure Monitoring
Hosts, containers, Kubernetes, cloud services, databases
Native APM Capability
Included in all plans
Typical Setup Time(hours)
8-16 hours
4-8 weeks
Time to Setup (minutes)(minutes)
15-30
Founding Year
2010
Enterprise SSO (SAML/OAuth)
Yes
Enterprise Security Features(count)
SAML, SSO, SOC2 Type II, HIPAA compliance, security monitoring
SIEM Compliance Modules (pre-built)(count)
0 (add-on only)
Enterprise Compliance(certifications)
SOC 2, ISO 27001, FedRAMP, HIPAA
SIEM Use Cases Supported(count)
50+ security rules
Mobile App Platform Support
iOS & Android (full-featured)
Fortune 500 Adoption Rate(percent)
70%+
Number of Integrations(count)
600+
450+
Native Integrations(count)
800+
Pre-built Integrations(integrations)
500+ auto-instrumented
Machine Learning Capabilities(availability)
Incident pattern detection only
FedRAMP Authorization(boolean)
Not authorized
Native Integrations(count)
5,000+
600+ pre-built integrations
Alert Deduplication Method
ML-driven with event correlation
AI Root Cause Analysis(null)
Basic anomaly detection
Average Onboarding Time(days)
5-7 days
Time to First Dashboard(minutes)
15-30
Average Deployment Time(days)
0.5 hours
Setup Time(hours)
15-30 minutes
Typical Deployment Timeline(weeks)
3.5 weeks
Show 1 more attribute
Initial Deployment Time(minutes)
15
Founded Year
2009
Metrics Data Retention(months)
15 months
Data Retention Period(months)
450 days (15 months default)
Default Data Retention Period(months)
15 months
Log Retention (Standard)(days)
30 days
Data Retention (Default)(days)
15 days
Global Data Centers(locations)
18+ regions
Kubernetes Support
Comprehensive with advanced orchestration
User Interface Intuitiveness
Advanced features, steeper learning curve
Data Query Language
Datadog Query Language (DQL) + PromQL support
Supported Languages(count)
40+ languages
Log Storage (included)(GB/month)
100+ GB
Data Retention (free tier)(days)
7 days
User Session Replay(feature)
Advanced with ML insights
Community Size(millions of users)
250K+ users
Integration Partners(integrations)
600+
Average Setup Time(minutes)
30-60 minutes
Learning Curve (Time to Productivity)(weeks)
1-2 weeks
Supported Programming Languages (APM)(languages)
15+ major frameworks
Included Infrastructure Metrics(metrics per host)
200 metrics
Minimum Contract Term(months)
Monthly/pay-as-you-go
Root Cause Analysis Technology
Machine learning-based pattern recognition
Average MTTR Improvement(percent reduction)
35% reduction (typical)
Customer Support Availability(hours)
24/7 phone, email, chat
Enterprise Support Availability
24/7 dedicated support with SLA
APM Code-Level Detail(null)
Method-level with sampling
APM Transaction Sampling Interval(seconds)
10 seconds
G2 Customer Satisfaction Rating (2024)(stars)
4.5/5.0
G2 Review Count (2024)(reviews)
2,800+
Gartner Magic Quadrant Position (2024)(text)
Leader
APM Trace Sampling Depth(percent)
100% of traces stored
Enterprise Customers(millions)
19,000+ (2024)
Infrastructure Management Overhead(hours per month)
0.1-0.3 FTE
Minimum Required DevOps FTE(people)
0-1 (for integrations only)
Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score)
2/10 - agent-based, minimal config
Deployment Options(count)
SaaS, full on-premise, hybrid
Average Implementation Time(days)
5-7 days
Supported Programming Languages(languages)
50+
Kubernetes Monitoring Capabilities(text)
Basic container metrics and logs
Built-in APM
Yes, with distributed tracing
AI/ML Analytics
Yes (anomaly detection, AI Advisor)
Time to Production Deployment(hours)
15-30 minutes
Self-Hosted Deployment
Not available
Maximum Data Ingestion Per Day (Enterprise)(GB)
Unlimited (licensing dependent)
AI Root Cause Analysis Capability(dependency hops)
3 hops (with manual configuration)
Gartner Peer Reviews Score(out of 5.0)
4.6/5.0 (2,100+ reviews)
Typical Enterprise Annual Cost (1000 hosts)(USD)
$180K-240K (with logs)
Mobile SDKs Supported(platforms)
iOS, Android, React Native
Default Metrics Retention(days)
15 (upgradeable to 400+)
Default Log Retention (free tier)(days)
3
Annual Cost for 500GB/day Ingestion(USD)
$480,000-$720,000
Data Retention Cost per GB/month(USD)
$0.05-$0.15
Query Language Expressiveness(languages supported)
DQL, limited SQL
Open-Source
No (proprietary SaaS)

Pros & Cons

10 pros·4 cons across both

P
Datadog
P

PagerDuty

+5-2

Pros

  • Industry-leading incident response workflows with multi-level escalation policies
  • Superior on-call scheduling with timezone-aware rotation and automatic rescheduling
  • 600+ pre-built integrations with monitoring, ticketing, and communication tools
  • Advanced war room features for real-time incident collaboration
  • Lowest entry cost at $9/user/month for core on-call functionality

Cons

  • Requires separate monitoring tools (Datadog, Prometheus, New Relic) to function effectively
  • No native infrastructure monitoring, logging, or APM—limited standalone value
Datadog

Datadog

+5-2

Pros

  • Full-stack observability in one platform eliminates tool switching and context loss
  • Native APM with automatic instrumentation for 100+ frameworks and languages
  • Advanced log aggregation with 15GB/day free tier and powerful search capabilities
  • Infrastructure monitoring with 200+ system metrics per host and real-time dashboards
  • Unified incident management that correlates metrics, logs, and traces automatically

Cons

  • Steeper learning curve due to breadth of features and complex pricing model
  • Per-host and per-GB pricing becomes expensive at enterprise scale (10,000+ hosts can exceed $100K/month)

Frequently Asked Questions

5 questions

  1. Not effectively. PagerDuty is an incident response platform that requires data sources (alerts) from monitoring tools like Datadog, Prometheus, or New Relic. While it can receive webhooks, it lacks native infrastructure monitoring and observability features. You must integrate it with a separate monitoring solution to send alerts.

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