---
title: "OpenTelemetry | Grafana k6 documentation"
description: "Use the OpenTelemetry output to send test results in OTEL metrics format."
---

# OpenTelemetry

Grafana k6 can push test run metrics in the [OpenTelemetry (OTEL) metrics format](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otel/metrics/) to an OTEL metrics collector or a metrics backend that supports the OTEL metrics format by using the OpenTelemetry output `--out opentelemetry`.

For any feedback, bugs or suggestions feel free to [open an issue](https://github.com/grafana/k6/issues) directly in the k6 repository. Contributions are also welcome!

## Metrics mapping

k6 converts all [k6 metric types](/docs/k6/latest/using-k6/metrics/) to an equivalent [OTEL metric type](https://opentelemetry.io/docs/specs/otel/metrics/data-model/#timeseries-model), and all k6 tags to OTEL attributes. When possible, the units are also passed with the metrics.

Expand table

| k6 Metric | OpenTelemetry Metric                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       |
|-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Counter   | `Float64CounterOption`                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| Gauge     | `Float64ObservableGauge`                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   |
| Rate      | Exported as a single `Int64Counter` counter named `metric_name` with an attribute `condition` that can have two values: `zero` and `nonzero`. If you previously used the legacy pair-of-counters format (`metric_name.occurred` / `metric_name.total`), update your dashboards and queries to filter on the `condition` attribute instead. |
| Trend     | `Float64Histogram`                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         |

## Run the k6 test

You can use the `--out opentelemetry` option when running your tests to use this extension:

Bash ![Copy code to clipboard](/media/images/icons/icon-copy-small-2.svg) Copy

```bash
K6_OTEL_GRPC_EXPORTER_INSECURE=true K6_OTEL_METRIC_PREFIX=k6_ k6 run --tag test-id=123 -o opentelemetry examples/script.js
```

## Configuration

The following options can be configured:

Expand table

| Name                               | Value                                                                                                                                                               |
|------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `K6_OTEL_SERVICE_NAME`             | The name of the service to use for the metrics exporting. Default value is `k6`.                                                                                    |
| `K6_OTEL_SERVICE_VERSION`          | The version of the service to use for the metrics exporting. Default is version of the k6, e.g. `v0.54.0`                                                           |
| `K6_OTEL_METRIC_PREFIX`            | Metric prefix. Default is empty.                                                                                                                                    |
| `K6_OTEL_FLUSH_INTERVAL`           | How frequently to flush metrics from k6 metrics engine. Default is `1s`.                                                                                            |
| `K6_OTEL_EXPORT_INTERVAL`          | Configures the intervening time between metrics exports. Default is `10s`.                                                                                          |
| `K6_OTEL_HEADERS`                  | Configures headers in the W3C Correlation-Context format without additional semi-colon delimited metadata (i.e. “k1=v1,k2=v2”). Passes the headers to the exporter. |
| `K6_OTEL_TLS_INSECURE_SKIP_VERIFY` | Disables server certificate verification.                                                                                                                           |
| `K6_OTEL_TLS_CERTIFICATE`          | Configures the path to the root CA certificate file for TLS credentials. If it is not provided but TLS is enabled then the host’s root CAs set is used.             |
| `K6_OTEL_TLS_CLIENT_CERTIFICATE`   | Configures the path to the client certificate file.                                                                                                                 |
| `K6_OTEL_TLS_CLIENT_KEY`           | Configures the path to the client key file.                                                                                                                         |
| `K6_OTEL_EXPORTER_PROTOCOL`        | Configures the protocol of exporter to use. Valid options are `grpc` and `http/protobuf`. Default is `grpc`.                                                        |
| `K6_OTEL_GRPC_EXPORTER_INSECURE`   | Disables client transport security for the gRPC exporter.                                                                                                           |
| `K6_OTEL_GRPC_EXPORTER_ENDPOINT`   | Configures the gRPC exporter endpoint. Default is `localhost:4317`.                                                                                                 |
| `K6_OTEL_HTTP_EXPORTER_INSECURE`   | Disables client transport security for the HTTP exporter.                                                                                                           |
| `K6_OTEL_HTTP_EXPORTER_ENDPOINT`   | Configures the HTTP exporter endpoint. Must be host and port only, without scheme. Default is `localhost:4318`.                                                     |
| `K6_OTEL_HTTP_EXPORTER_URL_PATH`   | Configures the HTTP exporter path. Default is `/v1/metrics`.                                                                                                        |

You can also use the OpenTelemetry SDK configuration environment variables to configure the OpenTelemetry output, like the [gRPC exporter configuration](https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/otel/exporters/otlp/otlpmetric/otlpmetricgrpc@v1.26.0). The `K6_OTEL_*` environment variables take precedence over the OpenTelemetry SDK configuration environment variables.