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Section 3 · Send logs

Summary of methods for sending data to Grafana Cloud

Estimated time: 1 min

Journey summary

Six things to remember

#	Takeaway
1	External collectors work: Bring your own collectors, let Grafana Cloud store
2	Match method to source: Prometheus → remote write, InfluxDB → exporter, Graphite → carbon-relay-ng, etc.
3	OpenTelemetry is universal: OTLP works for both metrics and logs
4	HTTP API is flexible: Any HTTP client can send logs
5	Grafana Cloud Metrics stores metrics: Prometheus-compatible, scalable
6	Grafana Cloud Logs stores logs: Query with LogQL, correlate with metrics

If you’re starting fresh, Grafana recommends collecting with Grafana Alloy, or a Grafana Cloud integration for common systems. This journey is for teams sending data from existing collectors.

Quick reference

Your source	Method	Destination
Prometheus	Remote write	Grafana Cloud Metrics
InfluxDB	InfluxDB exporter or Telegraf	Grafana Cloud Metrics
Graphite	carbon-relay-ng (native) or HTTP API	Grafana Cloud Graphite
OpenTelemetry metrics	OTLP endpoint	Grafana Cloud Metrics
OpenTelemetry logs	OTLP endpoint	Grafana Cloud Logs
Any HTTP client	HTTP API	Grafana Cloud Logs

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Audio transcript

Here's what to remember from this journey.

First, using external collectors is a valid approach when you already have collection in place. You don’t have to use Grafana tools for collection. Bring your own and let Grafana Cloud handle storage. Just remember that if you’re starting fresh, Grafana recommends collecting with Alloy, or a Grafana Cloud integration for common systems.

Second, for metrics, match the method to your source. Prometheus uses remote write. InfluxDB uses the exporter or Telegraf. Graphite has a native hosted service you reach with carbon-relay-ng or the Graphite HTTP API. Native OpenTelemetry uses OTLP.

Third, for logs, OTLP is the modern choice if you’re on OpenTelemetry. HTTP API is the flexible choice for custom integrations.

Finally, once your data is in Grafana Cloud, you get all of its visualization, alerting, and analysis capabilities regardless of how you sent it.