---
title: "OpenTelemetry metrics | Grafana Labs"
description: "Sending OpenTelemetry metrics to Grafana Cloud"
---

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

## 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.

[OpenTelemetry metrics flow](opentelemetry-metrics-flow.svg "OpenTelemetry metrics flow")

## 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](/docs/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](https://grafana.com/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/otlp/send-data-otlp/)