---
id: opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging
version: "1.14.0a0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging — Google Cloud Logging exporter for OpenTelemetry

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 7.7M/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package bridges OpenTelemetry's logging framework to Google Cloud Logging, allowing you to export application logs as structured records within GCP's observability stack. It wraps the google-cloud-logging client and integrates with OpenTelemetry's SDK to attach resource metadata, service identifiers, and trace context to each log entry.

However, the package is explicitly deprecated. Google Cloud now recommends using standard OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) exporters instead, which provide native ingestion for logs, traces, and metrics through a single unified API. If you are starting a new project on GCP, the migration guide in the repository should be your first stop; this exporter is primarily useful for maintaining existing applications that already depend on it.

Use it for:

- Export application logs from Python services running on GKE, Cloud Run, or GCE to Cloud Logging with OpenTelemetry metadata.
- Write structured JSON logs to stdout in GCP environments using SimpleLogRecordProcessor for agent-based ingestion.
- Attach service name, instance ID, and trace context to logs for correlation with traces and metrics in Cloud Console.
- Migrate legacy Python logging to OpenTelemetry while keeping logs in Cloud Logging during a transition period.

## Worth the install?

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

Exports OpenTelemetry logs to Google Cloud Logging, integrating application observability with GCP's native logging infrastructure.

Yes, but with strong conditions: install only if you are maintaining an existing application already using this exporter or if you need to migrate legacy logging to OpenTelemetry while staying on Cloud Logging. For new projects on GCP, use native OTLP exporters instead per the official migration guide. The package is actively maintained and has no known vulnerabilities, but its deprecation status means it will not receive new features.

## Install

pip install opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging
uv add opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging
poetry add opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging

## Installing opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained as of August 2026, though the package is explicitly deprecated in favor of native OTLP ingestion via Google Cloud's Telemetry API.

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in most projects without restriction, including commercial applications.

Quickstart:

pip install opentelemetry-exporter-gcp-logging

from opentelemetry.exporter.cloud_logging import CloudLoggingExporter
from opentelemetry.sdk._logs import LoggerProvider
from opentelemetry.sdk._logs.export import BatchLogRecordProcessor

logger_provider = LoggerProvider()
exporter = CloudLoggingExporter(default_log_name='my_log')
logger_provider.add_log_record_processor(BatchLogRecordProcessor(exporter))

Requires google-cloud-logging credentials configured for GCP authentication (typically via Application Default Credentials or explicit service account key).

Verify before relying:

- Whether the deprecation notice means this package will be removed or simply no longer receive feature updates.
- Performance characteristics when exporting high-volume logs compared to native OTLP ingestion.
- Compatibility with custom log attributes and structured JSON output beyond the documented examples.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 7.7M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

opentelemetry google cloud logging exporter, gcp cloud logging otel, opentelemetry logs to cloud logging, google cloud observability python, otel gcp exporter, cloud logging structured json export, opentelemetry log processor gcp, observability, deprecated, gcp-integration

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