---
title: Deprecating Span Events API
linkTitle: Deprecating Span Events API
date: 2026-03-17
author: >-
  [Liudmila Molkova](https://github.com/lmolkova) (Grafana Labs), [Robert
  Pająk](https://github.com/pellared) (Splunk), [Trask
  Stalnaker](https://github.com/trask) (Microsoft)
sig: Specification, Logs
cSpell:ignore: Liudmila Molkova Pająk
---

OpenTelemetry is deprecating the Span Event API. This post explains why we’re
making this change, what it means at a high level, and how you can prepare. In
short:

- We want to remove confusion and duplication caused by having two overlapping
  ways to emit events: span events and log-based events.
- New code should write events as logs that are correlated with the current
  span.
- The older "span events" style will be phased out over time, but existing data
  and views that show events on spans will keep working.

## Why deprecate the Span Event API?

Today, OpenTelemetry offers two main ways to emit events that are correlated
with traces:

- Span events, created via the [Tracing API](/docs/specs/otel/trace/api) using
  methods `Span.AddEvent` or `Span.RecordException`.
- Log-based events, emitted via the [Logs API](/docs/specs/otel/logs/api)
  (either directly or through logging libraries bridged into OpenTelemetry) and
  associated with the active context.

Having two competing APIs for the same concept has several drawbacks:

- **Split guidance for instrumentation authors.** Library and framework authors
  must choose between two ways of emitting very similar data. Different choices
  lead to inconsistent user experiences across the ecosystem.
- **Duplicate concepts for users.** Operators must understand both span events
  and log events, how they are exported, and how their backends treat them.
- **Slower evolution.** Improvements to the event model (for example, around
  schemas, attributes, and backward-compatibility) must be specified and
  implemented in two places.

The OpenTelemetry community has been converging on a simpler mental model:
**events are logs with names** emitted via the Logs API, correlated with traces
and metrics through context, rather than as a special case on spans. This change
is significant because it unifies how OpenTelemetry represents events. For more
background on this direction, see the earlier blog post
[OpenTelemetry Logging and You](/blog/2025/opentelemetry-logging-and-you/).

At the same time, we recognize that span events are widely used today. Many
backends present span events in dedicated trace views, and some users depend on
events being sent in the same OTLP export payload as their parent span.

The plan in [OTEP 4430: Span Event API deprecation plan][OTEP] aims to balance
these goals:

- Provide **clear, consistent guidance** that new events should go through the
  Logs API.
- **Preserve existing workflows** that depend on span events in traces, via a
  compatibility layer.

In short, we are deprecating the **API** for recording span events, not the
ability to see events attached to spans.

## What is changing?

The deprecation focuses on **how new events are recorded**:

- OTLP support for log-based events is already stable, and the Logs API can
  capture everything span events historically carried, with richer metadata and
  more flexible export and filtering.
- The tracing specification will deprecate APIs such as `Span.AddEvent` and
  `Span.RecordException` in favor of emitting log-based events.
- Language APIs and SDKs will make log-based events first-class, and provide
  compatibility options that can still surface those events as span events where
  needed.
- Instrumentations and semantic conventions will gradually move from span events
  to log-based events in their next major versions, while keeping existing
  behavior stable until then.

## What stays the same?

Even though the Span Event API is being deprecated, several important aspects of
user experience are intentionally preserved:

- **Correlation across signals continues to work the same way.** Log-based
  events still participate in OpenTelemetry context.
- **Existing data remains valid.** Data that already uses span events remains
  part of the supported OTLP trace model.

Deprecation is about providing a single recommended way to emit events in new
code, not about removing visibility into events on spans.

## What should you do?

First and foremost, we want this transition to be safe, gradual, and compatible
with the workflows you rely on today.

Depending on your role, here is how the upcoming changes can affect you and what
you can do.

### Operators

If you mainly consume traces, logs, and metrics in dashboards and analysis
tools:

- You should not need to change your applications or dashboards immediately.
- When you upgrade, your instrumentations may emit exceptions and other events
  as log-based events rather than span events. Verify that events still appear
  in the views you rely on (for example, span timelines and event views).

### Application developers

If you maintain an application that you instrument:

- You should not need to change code immediately.
- Watch for new versions of your instrumentation libraries as they may start
  emitting log-based events. However, they may still have an option to keep
  using span events.
- The SDK will offer you a way transform log-based events back onto span events.

If you maintain your own custom instrumentation:

- Prefer the Logs API for new events and exceptions.
- Avoid adding new dependencies on span event methods, especially where they are
  already marked as deprecated.

### Observability vendors

If you build observability backends or services:

- Support ingestion of log-based events.
- Ensure that log-based events can still be surfaced in existing span-oriented
  views where users expect them.

### Instrumentation authors

If you author OpenTelemetry instrumentations:

- Keep existing stable major versions behaviorally compatible for now.
- Consider adding an opt-in mechanism in current major versions (like
  [`OTEL_SEMCONV_EXCEPTION_SIGNAL_OPT_IN`](/docs/specs/semconv/exceptions)) to
  emit log-based events alongside existing span events.
- For the next major versions, plan to migrate events and exceptions to the Logs
  API following updated semantic conventions, rather than adding new span
  events.

### Semantic convention authors

If you define or maintain OpenTelemetry semantic conventions:

- Document events as log-based events, specifying attributes and event names for
  log records instead of span events.
- When evolving existing conventions that currently rely on span events, provide
  clear guidance on their log-based equivalents.

### OpenTelemetry maintainers

If you maintain OpenTelemetry language APIs and SDKs:

- Expose and stabilize the Logs API so that end users can easily emit log-based
  events.
- Prepare for the deprecation of span event methods such as `Span.AddEvent` and
  `Span.RecordException` in favor of log-based events, while maintaining
  compatibility where needed.
- Provide helpers or configuration that can transform log-based events back onto
  span events for users and backends that still depend on that representation.

## Closing

Please share your requirements and concerns in
[community#3312](https://github.com/open-telemetry/community/issues/3312). We
are especially interested in which compatibility aspects matter most to you, for
example, whether you rely on seeing events directly on spans in trace views, on
having events included in the same OTLP export payload as their parent spans, or
on other behaviors your current tooling depends on.

Deprecation here does **not** mean removing span events. It is about shifting
the recommended way to emit new events toward the Logs API.

Our goal is to make events in OpenTelemetry **simpler, more consistent, and more
powerful**, while providing a graceful transition to the new recommendations.

[OTEP]:
  https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-specification/blob/fd43145dde7e5192ebc59a20992d98a3e6af5553/oteps/4430-span-event-api-deprecation-plan.md
