---
title: "Connect to data sources | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Includes information about how to use Grafana to connect to sources of data that exist outside Grafana Cloud."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Connect to data sources

If you’re new to data sources in Grafana Cloud, start with [Manage data sources in Grafana Cloud](data-sources-in-cloud/) for an overview of the data sources included with your stack, data sources you add yourself, permissions, and provisioning. To understand how data sources relate to plugins and integrations, refer to [Data sources, plugins, and integrations](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/data-sources/concepts/). If a data source isn’t working as expected, refer to [Troubleshoot general data source issues](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/data-sources/troubleshooting/).

This section includes the following topics:

- [Manage data sources](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/data-sources-in-cloud/)
- [Get started with an existing data source](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/existing-datasource/)
- [Data sources](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/data-sources/)
- [Private data source connect (PDC)](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/private-data-source-connect/)
- [Multi-stack data sources](/docs/grafana-cloud/observe-and-act/connect-externally-hosted/multi-stack-data-sources/)

Watch this video to start adding data sources to Grafana.

You can also explore Grafana Cloud by importing example data sources, allowing you to build dashboards without having to instrument your own application:

- [Importing example data](/docs/grafana-cloud/learn-and-build/get-started/)