Prometheus and OpenTelemetry finally play nice

The New Stack

by B. Cameron Gain

February 19, 2026

AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary

Prometheus and OpenTelemetry, two key players in the observability space, have resolved their long-standing technical incompatibilities, marking a significant step forward for users relying on these tools. While Prometheus has traditionally been the gold standard for Kubernetes metrics, OpenTelemetry has emerged as a versatile solution by complementing Prometheus with distributed tracing and logging capabilities. The recent improvements in their integration, particularly with Prometheus 3.0 supporting UTF-8 and OTLP-native enhancements, have addressed many of the historical challenges that made combining these tools complex. The journey toward smoother collaboration began with the release of Prometheus 2.0, which introduced compatibility issues when used as a metrics backend via OpenTelemetry. These problems persisted until Prometheus 3.0 arrived, introducing native support for OTLP ingestion and improved handling of data formats like histograms. Richard "RichiH" Hartmann, director of community at Grafana Labs, highlighted that this progress is paving the way for better alignment between the two projects, reducing friction for users who want to adopt both tools without sacrificing functionality. For organizations already using Prometheus, adding OpenTelemetry for enhanced observability (including traces and logs) has often been seen as a potential risk due to compatibility concerns. However, the advancements in Prometheus 3.0 have simplified this process, making it less complex and more efficient. This integration not only benefits users but also fosters a more unified approach to observability, with the hope of eventually standardizing certain practices across both tools. The significance of these improvements lies in their ability to reduce technical debt for DevOps professionals. By addressing past compatibility issues and streamlining the use of OpenTelemetry alongside Prometheus, developers can focus on building scalable and reliable systems without worrying about fragmented tooling. As the open-source community continues to collaborate on refining these integrations, the future looks promising for a more cohesive observability ecosystem.

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Originally published on The New Stack on 2/19/2026