> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.fluentbit.io/manual/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.fluentbit.io/manual/data-pipeline/outputs/flowcounter.md).

# Flow counter

The *Flow counter* output plugin lets you count up records and their size.

## Configuration parameters

| Key           | Description                                                                                                            | Default  |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- |
| `event_based` | When enabled, use the timestamp from the log event for time bucketing instead of the current wall-clock time.          | `false`  |
| `unit`        | The unit of duration. Allowed values: `second`, `minute`, `hour`, `day`.                                               | `minute` |
| `workers`     | The number of [workers](/manual/administration/multithreading.md#outputs) to perform flush operations for this output. | `0`      |

## Get started

You can run the plugin from the command line or through the configuration file.

### Command line

From the command line you can let Fluent Bit count up data with the following options:

```shell
fluent-bit -i cpu -o flowcounter
```

### Configuration file

In your main configuration file append the following:

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="fluent-bit.yaml" %}

```yaml
pipeline:
  inputs:
    - name: cpu
      tag: cpu

  outputs:
    - name: flowcounter
      match: '*'
      unit: second
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="fluent-bit.conf" %}

```
[INPUT]
  Name cpu
  Tag  cpu

[OUTPUT]
  Name  flowcounter
  Match *
  Unit second
```

{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

## Testing

When Fluent Bit is running, you will see the reports in the output interface similar to this:

```
...
[out_flowcounter] cpu.0:[1482458540, {"counts":60, "bytes":7560, "counts/minute":1, "bytes/minute":126 }]
...
```


---

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