---
title: "How to find and filter logs | Grafana Labs"
description: "Filter logs by labels, fields, and text"
---

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

## How to find and filter logs

Your logs already have three layers you can filter by: labels, fields, and text.

## The three layers

| Layer            | What it contains                                           | Example                              |
|------------------|------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| **Labels**       | Index identifying the log stream                           | `job="api"`, `instance="server-01"`  |
| **Fields**       | Additional metadata and parsed fields from the log message | `level="error"`, `status_code="500"` |
| **Text content** | The actual log message                                     | “Connection timeout to database”     |

## Filtering strategy

Use all three layers together for precise investigation:

1. Filter by labels to narrow to specific services or systems.
2. Filter by fields to focus on certain attributes from the logs, such as log level, status code, or other structured data.
3. Search text to find specific messages or error patterns.