---
title: OpenTelemetry is a CNCF Graduated Project
linkTitle: OpenTelemetry Graduates
date: 2026-05-21
author: >-
  [The OpenTelemetry Community](https://github.com/open-telemetry)
---

Today, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)
[announced](https://www.cncf.io/announcements/2026/05/21/cloud-native-computing-foundation-announces-opentelemetrys-graduation-solidifying-status-as-the-de-facto-observability-standard/)
that OpenTelemetry has graduated.

Graduation is an important milestone for the project and reflects the strength
of the OpenTelemetry community and ecosystem. Since the merger of OpenTracing
and OpenCensus, thousands of contributors, maintainers, end users, and
organizations have helped shape OpenTelemetry into an open, vendor-neutral
observability framework used across the industry.

This milestone belongs to the community.

We want to thank everyone who has contributed code, documentation,
specifications, language SDKs, semantic conventions, bug reports, reviews,
community support, advocacy, and end-user experiences. OpenTelemetry exists
because of the people who continue to invest their time and expertise in the
project every day.

We are also grateful to the CNCF community, Technical Oversight Committee
sponsors, and end users who supported OpenTelemetry throughout the graduation
process.

Graduation is not the finish line. The OpenTelemetry community remains committed
to building interoperable, high-quality observability standards and tooling for
cloud native software at global scale.

Thank you for being part of the journey. We’re excited for what comes next.
