# OpenTelemetry Protocol

Term type: Protocol

Pronounced: O-T-L-P (OTLP)

The protocol used to transmit telemetry such as logs, traces, and metrics from instrumented apps to a receiver.

Also known as: OTLP

OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) defines how telemetry is encoded and transmitted between applications, collectors, and receivers. It supports gRPC and HTTP transports.

The Aspire dashboard provides an OTLP receiver. An instrumented application uses an exporter configured with a compatible endpoint and transport to send data to it.

OTLP is the transport protocol, not the instrumentation library or the entire OpenTelemetry ecosystem. Configuring an OTLP endpoint does not by itself instrument application code.

## Practical example

Configure your API's OpenTelemetry exporter with the dashboard's OTLP endpoint to send its logs, traces, and metrics to Aspire.

## Learn more

- [Export telemetry with OTLP](https://aspire.dev/fundamentals/telemetry/#export-opentelemetry-data-for-monitoring)

- [Configure the dashboard OTLP receiver](https://aspire.dev/dashboard/configuration/#otlp)

## Related terms

- [Aspire dashboard](https://aspire.dev/hub/glossary/aspire-dashboard/)

- [Endpoint](https://aspire.dev/hub/glossary/endpoint/)

- [OpenTelemetry](https://aspire.dev/hub/glossary/opentelemetry/)

- [Service defaults](https://aspire.dev/hub/glossary/service-defaults/)