OpenTelemetry metrics

OpenTelemetry metrics via OTLP

What it’s for: Teams already using OpenTelemetry SDKs or the OpenTelemetry Collector who want to send metrics directly to Grafana Cloud.

OpenTelemetry is an open source observability framework that provides a standard way to generate, collect, and export telemetry data.

OTLP (OpenTelemetry Protocol) is the native way to send OpenTelemetry metrics directly to Grafana Cloud’s Mimir backend.

Trade-offs

Best for: Teams using OpenTelemetry SDKs or Collector for instrumentation

Pros	Cons
Native OpenTelemetry support	Requires OTLP-compatible source
No format conversion needed	Newer than Prometheus ecosystem
Same protocol for metrics, logs, traces	Some advanced Prometheus features differ
Vendor-neutral, future-proof

Note: The linked documentation mentions Grafana Alloy as the recommended collector. Alloy is Grafana’s distribution of the OTel Collector with additional features. If you’re starting fresh, consider using Grafana Alloy. This course is for teams already running the standard OTel Collector.

Documentation

View the full documentation. Learning path coming soon!

OpenTelemetry to Grafana Cloud

OpenTelemetry is an open source observability framework that provides a standard way to generate, collect, and export telemetry data: metrics, logs, and traces. If your applications or infrastructure already emit OpenTelemetry metrics, you can send them directly to Grafana Cloud via OTLP, the OpenTelemetry Protocol.

Because OpenTelemetry is becoming the industry standard for telemetry instrumentation, many modern frameworks, libraries, and tools natively support it. If you’re already using OpenTelemetry SDKs in your applications or running the OpenTelemetry Collector, you’re set up for this approach.

Grafana Cloud’s Mimir backend accepts OTLP metrics natively. You configure your OpenTelemetry Collector or SDK to export to Grafana Cloud’s OTLP endpoint, and metrics flow directly in. No format conversion needed.

This is the most future-proof approach if you’re adopting OpenTelemetry as your telemetry standard. It handles metrics, logs, and traces with a single protocol, and it’s vendor-neutral. You can switch backends without changing your instrumentation.