--- title: "Send data to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint | Grafana Cloud documentation" description: "Send OpenTelemetry data to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint." --- # Send data to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint The Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint is OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) compliant, and the recommended endpoint to send OpenTelemetry metrics, logs, and traces to Grafana Cloud. ## Recommended production architecture The recommended architecture for production observability uses [Grafana Alloy](/oss/alloy-opentelemetry-collector/), the Grafana Labs supported distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector. *The recommended OpenTelemetry architecture uses Grafana Alloy.* Grafana Alloy offers the following advantages over non-Collector setups: 1. A robust, reliable, and scalable pipeline to handle transport issues. 2. Support to enrich telemetry metadata data, for example to add `k8s.*` attributes. 3. Support to sample and redact data, and route data to multiple observability backends. > Note > > You can use other OpenTelemetry Collector distributions but need to perform additional set up and maintenance. ## Quickstart architecture For non-production observability, such as development or testing, or when it isn’t possible to deploy an OpenTelemetry Collector distribution, use OpenTelemetry instrumentation SDKs to send OTLP data directly to the OTLP endpoint. You can use a language specific instrumentation agent or SDK for automatic or manual instrumentation with full support to send OTLP metrics, logs, and traces. *A quickstart architecture that uses language specific agents or SDKs.* Alternatively you can use Grafana Beyla an eBPF instrumentation solution that is easy to set up and automatically instruments network-level telemetry for all languages and frameworks. Beyla supports Response, Error, and Duration metrics (RED metrics) and [distributed traces](/docs/beyla/latest/distributed-traces/). *A quickstart architecture that uses Grafana Beyla eBPF auto-instrumentation SDK.* A quickstart architecture is easy to set up, however be aware of the following disadvantages compared to Collector-based architectures: 1. Limited reliability to handle transport issues. 2. No support to enrich telemetry metadata data. 3. No support to sample and redact data, and route data to multiple observability backends. ## Recommended OpenTelemetry setup via Grafana Cloud integrations For most production and quickstart use cases, we recommend to use the Grafana Cloud connection tiles to set up and send OpenTelemetry data to Grafana Cloud. This opinionated approach includes all the binaries, connection parameters, and configuration snippets you need to set up OpenTelemetry. Connection tiles are available to set up a production architecture with: - Grafana auto-instrumentation agent for **Java** (JVM) and Grafana Alloy - Grafana instrumentation SDK for **.NET** and Grafana Alloy - Grafana **Beyla** eBPF auto-instrumentation and Grafana Alloy - **OpenTelemetry (OTLP)** with Grafana Alloy, for an application already instrumented with OpenTelemetry - The upstream **OpenTelemetry Collector** published by the OpenTelemetry Community, for an application already instrumented with OpenTelemetry > Note > > For application-level instrumentation for programming languages other than Java (JVM) and .NET, follow the [Application Observability instrumentation documentation](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/) or [upstream OpenTelemetry instrumentation documentation](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/languages/) and use the Grafana Alloy or upstream OpenTelemetry Collector connection tile to set up a Collector. To use a Grafana Cloud connection tile to set up OpenTelemetry, follow these steps: 1. [Sign In](/auth/sign-in/) to the **Grafana Cloud Portal**. 2. From your organization **Overview**, select or click **Launch** to open a Grafana Cloud stack. 3. With a stack selected, click **Launch** from the **Grafana** tile to launch Grafana Cloud. 4. With Grafana Cloud launched, click **Connections**, or expand, then click **Add new connection**. 5. Search for “OpenTelemetry” and press enter to filter the connection options. 6. Select the desired OpenTelemetry connection tile and follow the instructions. *Grafana Cloud connection tiles for OpenTelemetry* ## Manual OpenTelemetry setup for advanced users Advanced users can manually set up OpenTelemetry components to send OpenTelemetry data to Grafana Cloud. To send OTLP data to the Grafana Cloud OTLP endpoint you need to get your connection details from the Grafana Cloud administration console: 1. [Sign In](/auth/sign-in/) to the **Grafana Cloud Portal**. 2. From your organization **Overview**, select or click **Launch** to open a Grafana Cloud stack. 3. With a stack selected, click **Configure** from the **OpenTelemetry** tile. 4. Follow the instructions to generate an authentication token and OpenTelemetry environment variables for `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_PROTOCOL`, `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`, and `OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_HEADERS`. *Configure the OTLP endpoint for a Grafana Cloud stack.* > Note > > If you use Python, replace “Basic " in your connection variables shell script with “Basic%20”. Set up instructions are available for: - [Grafana Beyla](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/beyla/) an eBPF instrumentation solution that is easy to set up and automatically instruments network-level telemetry for all languages and frameworks. - Language specific OpenTelemetry agents and SDKs for [JVM-based languages](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/jvm/), [.NET](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/dotnet/), [Node.js](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/node/), [Python](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/python/), [PHP](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/php/), and [Go](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/instrument/go/) - [Grafana Alloy](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/collector/grafana-alloy/) distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector - [Grafana Kubernetes monitoring Helm chart](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/collector/grafana-alloy-kubernetes/) based on Grafana Alloy - The upstream [OpenTelemetry Collector](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/collector/opentelemetry-collector/) and the [OpenTelemetry Operator](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/collector/opentelemetry-operator/) for Kubernetes, published by the OpenTelemetry community ## OpenTelemetry environment variables The OpenTelemetry instrumentation SDKs and agents use specific environment variables to send application data to Grafana Cloud. Customize the following shell script template to set environment variables: sh ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy ```sh export OTEL_SERVICE_NAME=<< SERVICE >> export OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES=deployment.environment=<< ENVIRONMENT >>,service.namespace=<< NAMESPACE >>,service.version=<< VERSION >>,service.instance.id=<< ID >> ``` Add each value after the equals replacing the placeholder `<< ... >>` and remove any optional fields you don’t use. The `OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES` contains a comma separated list of field value pairs. The `OTEL_SERVICE_NAME` is a **required** unique service identifier. A **default** value is often auto-discovered by the instrumentation. For example, `ads` or `cart`. You can optionally set the service name as a resource attribute, see below. Expand table | `OTEL_RESOURCE_ATTRIBUTES` field | Description | Example value | |----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------| | `service.name` | **Required** unique service identifier.
Alternatively, set the `OTEL_SERVICE_NAME` env var.
**Default** often auto-discovered by the instrumentation. | `ads`, `cart` | | `service.version` | **Optional** service version.
**Default** often auto-discovered by the instrumentation. | `1.0.0`, `1.2.0 beta 3` | | `service.instance.id` | **Optional** unique instance id.
**Default** often auto-generated UUID by the instrumentation. | Pod name | | `service.namespace` | **Optional** organization-level identifier to group multiple services under. | `android`, `shop` | | `deployment.environment` | **Optional** organization-level unique deployment environment identifier. | `staging`, `production` | ## Visualize and use OpenTelemetry data Grafana Cloud provides a turnkey experience for application performance monitoring (APM) through [Grafana Application Observability](/docs/grafana-cloud/monitor-applications/application-observability/). It can detect anomalies, identify root causes, and fix problems in applications. Alternatively, you can consume your OpenTelemetry traces, metrics, and logs through Tempo traces, Prometheus/Mimir metrics, and Loki logs visualization. Then use your ingested OpenTelemetry data with your preferred Grafana Labs tooling. ## OpenTelemetry data format mapping to Grafana Cloud Refer to the [OTLP format considerations documentation](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/otlp/otlp-format-considerations/) for information on how OpenTelemetry metrics, logs, and traces are converted to Prometheus/Mimir, Loki, and Tempo.