---
type: Comparison
title: "SNMP vs gNMI: Polling vs Streaming Telemetry"
description: "SNMP vs gNMI — pull polling vs push streaming, OIDs vs YANG models, resolution and scale, and why SNMP still dominates the installed base."
resource: "https://snmp-monitoring.info/comparisons/snmp-vs-gnmi/"
tags: [comparisons]
timestamp: 2026-07-11T00:00:00Z
---

# SNMP vs gNMI: Polling vs Streaming Telemetry

SNMP vs gNMI — pull polling vs push streaming, OIDs vs YANG models, resolution and scale, and why SNMP still dominates the installed base.

## Related concepts

- Up: [SNMP vs Alternatives: Protocols & Tools Compared](/comparisons/index.md)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is gNMI replacing SNMP?

Gradually and partially, on newer gear — not wholesale. gNMI offers push-based, high-resolution telemetry that's superior for performance monitoring on modern platforms, but it's a young standard with incomplete model coverage and no presence on the vast legacy and non-network installed base. SNMP remains essential for everything gNMI doesn't yet reach, so most networks run both.

### What is streaming telemetry?

Streaming telemetry is a push model where a device continuously sends data to a collector — via subscriptions over gRPC in gNMI's case — rather than waiting to be polled. Data is described by YANG models (often OpenConfig) and pushed as it changes or at high frequency, enabling sub-second resolution without the overhead of constant polling. It suits large, fast-moving networks.

### Should I use SNMP or gNMI?

Choose by device support and resolution needs. For modern gear where you need sub-second performance telemetry, gNMI wins. For the broad installed base, non-network devices, mixed vendors, and routine health monitoring, SNMP wins — and its polling model is deterministic, stateless, and simple. Many environments use gNMI on new fabric and SNMP everywhere else.

### Does gNMI support everything SNMP does?

No. gNMI is a young, still-evolving standard, and its YANG/OpenConfig model coverage is incomplete, so it doesn't yet expose everything reachable via SNMP. Many metrics, device classes, and legacy or non-network devices remain accessible only through SNMP. That coverage gap is a key reason SNMP stays in use alongside streaming telemetry.

## Source

Concept generated from https://snmp-monitoring.info/comparisons/snmp-vs-gnmi/ — the SNMP Monitoring vendor-neutral knowledge base. Content is limited to what that page states (no external claims added here).