---
id: opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda
version: "0.65b0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda — OpenTelemetry AWS Lambda instrumentation

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 4.5M/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package integrates OpenTelemetry tracing into AWS Lambda functions, allowing you to capture and export distributed traces from serverless workloads. It provides an Instrumentor that hooks into the Lambda runtime to automatically trace function invocations and propagate trace context across service boundaries using AWS X-Ray propagation. The package is part of the OpenTelemetry Python contrib ecosystem and works alongside the AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry (ADOT) Lambda Layer, which can automatically initialize the SDK without code changes.

You install it as a standard Python dependency and call its Instrumentor to enable tracing in your Lambda handler. It depends on opentelemetry-instrumentation, opentelemetry-propagator-aws-xray, and opentelemetry-semantic-conventions to handle the core tracing mechanics and AWS-specific trace context propagation. The package is actively maintained, supports modern Python versions, and carries no known security vulnerabilities.

Use it for:

- Trace Lambda function invocations and downstream service calls to debug latency and errors in serverless applications.
- Export Lambda execution telemetry to AWS X-Ray or other OpenTelemetry-compatible backends for centralized observability.
- Correlate Lambda traces with traces from other services (EC2, containers, databases) using standard OpenTelemetry propagation.
- Automatically instrument Lambda handlers deployed via ADOT Lambda Layer without modifying application code.
- Monitor cold-start performance and execution duration of Lambda functions across multiple invocations.

## Worth the install?

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

Instruments AWS Lambda functions to emit OpenTelemetry traces, capturing request and execution data for observability within the Lambda runtime environment.

Yes, if you run Lambda functions and need distributed tracing. The package has low install friction, active maintenance, permissive licensing, and no known vulnerabilities. It integrates cleanly with the OpenTelemetry ecosystem and AWS observability tools. The Beta status is not a blocker—it reflects the package's maturity level, not instability. Install it if you want to trace Lambda workloads; skip it only if you have no observability requirements.

## Install

pip install opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda
uv add opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda
poetry add opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda

## Installing opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda

Before you install: Low install friction; depends on three core OpenTelemetry packages. Actively maintained with a release 29 days old and recent commits; marked Beta but supports current Python versions (3.10–3.14).

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows use in most commercial and open-source projects without significant restrictions.

Quickstart:

pip install opentelemetry-instrumentation-aws-lambda

from opentelemetry.instrumentation.aws_lambda import AwsLambdaInstrumentor

AwsLambdaInstrumentor().instrument()

Requires Python 3.10 or later; designed to run within AWS Lambda runtime or with ADOT Lambda Layer for automatic initialization.

Verify before relying:

- Whether automatic initialization via ADOT Lambda Layer requires additional setup beyond package installation.
- Specific Lambda runtime versions and regions where this instrumentation is tested and supported.
- Performance overhead and trace sampling behavior under typical Lambda workloads.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 4.5M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

aws lambda tracing, opentelemetry lambda instrumentation, lambda observability, distributed tracing lambda, aws lambda monitoring, lambda telemetry collection, serverless tracing, aws-lambda, distributed-tracing, observability

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