---
id: arize-otel
version: "0.13.0"
license: BSD
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# arize-otel — Helper package for OTEL setup to send traces to Arize & Phoenix

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 404.8K/mo

## What it is and what it does

arize-otel is a convenience wrapper around OpenTelemetry that simplifies setup for tracing LLM applications and sending traces to Arize or custom OTLP endpoints. It provides a high-level `register()` function that returns a configured TracerProvider, handling authentication, endpoint configuration, span batching, and Arize-specific headers in one call. The package can automatically discover and instrument installed OpenInference instrumentors (for libraries like OpenAI, LangChain, etc.) or work with custom span processors that enrich traces before export.

The package is designed as a lightweight convenience layer—you can use raw OpenTelemetry primitives instead if needed, but arize-otel eliminates boilerplate for the common case of instrumenting an LLM application and routing traces to Arize. It supports both Arize's standard and European endpoints, custom GRPC or HTTP collectors, environment variable configuration, and options to disable batch processing or log spans to console for debugging.

Use it for:

- Instrument an OpenAI or LangChain application and send traces to Arize for LLM observability without writing OTEL boilerplate.
- Route traces from a single application to multiple Arize spaces or projects dynamically using register_with_routing.
- Send traces to a custom OTLP collector (on-premise or third-party) by specifying a custom endpoint and transport type.
- Debug trace collection during development by enabling console logging and disabling batch processing.
- Enrich spans with custom processors before export by passing span_processors to register().
- Set up tracing via environment variables instead of code for containerized or cloud-deployed LLM applications.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Wraps OpenTelemetry with Arize-aware defaults to instrument and send LLM application traces to Arize or custom OTLP endpoints.

Yes. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and a permissive license. It genuinely simplifies OpenTelemetry setup for LLM tracing to Arize—a common workflow. Install it if you're already using Arize or a compatible OTLP collector and want to avoid writing OTEL configuration boilerplate; skip it if you need raw OpenTelemetry control or are not sending traces to Arize.

## Install

pip install arize-otel
uv add arize-otel
poetry add arize-otel

## Installing arize-otel

Before you install: Low install friction: pure Python wheel with five runtime dependencies on OpenTelemetry and OpenInference packages. Actively maintained with a release within the last 79 days and no known vulnerabilities.

License in practice: BSD permissive license allows use in commercial and proprietary projects with minimal restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install arize-otel

from arize.otel import register

tracer_provider = register(
    space_id="your-arize-space-id",
    api_key="your-arize-api-key",
    project_name="your-model-id",
    auto_instrument=True,
)

Verify before relying:

- Whether auto_instrument=True successfully discovers all installed OpenInference instrumentors in practice
- Performance overhead of batch span processing on high-volume tracing workloads
- Compatibility with non-Arize OTLP collectors beyond the documented custom endpoint pattern

## Package facts

- License: BSD (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 404.8K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

opentelemetry arize tracing, llm application observability, otel span exporter arize, trace instrumentation setup, llm monitoring and tracing, openinference instrumentation, distributed tracing llm, llm-observability, opentelemetry, tracing

[View on SkillFed](https://skillfed.io/packages/arize-otel) · [View on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/arize-otel/)