# Counter

A counter is a cumulative metric that represents a single monotonically increasing counter, where the value can only increase, or be reset to zero on restart.

- Use a counter to represent the number of requests served, tasks completed, or errors.
- Do not use a counter to expose a value that can decrease. For example, do not use a counter for the number of currently running processes; instead use a gauge.

See the [functions](https://docs.kloudfuse.com/platform/3.5.0/metrics-functions/) you can use with counter metrics.