Configure Load Testing with Custom OpenTelemetry (OTLP)

Send Load Testing metrics and lifecycle events to any OTLP-compliant collector - Honeycomb, Grafana Cloud, CloudWatch, InfluxDB, or self-hosted.

Send your load-test metrics and lifecycle events to any OTLP-compliant collector - Honeycomb, Grafana Cloud, CloudWatch Metrics, InfluxDB (via OTel Collector proxy), or a self-hosted collector. You can also switch existing Datadog, New Relic, or Dynatrace tiles from their native SDK path to OTLP push with a single toggle - no new credentials required.

About OpenTelemetry (OTel)

OpenTelemetry is a vendor-neutral standard for emitting metrics, logs, and traces. An OTLP endpoint is any collector that accepts data in the OTel wire format. Because it’s a standard, one integration sends metrics to any tool that accepts OTLP.

For load testing, that means:

• Push the same 21 BrowserStack metrics (VU counts, response times, error rates, browser web-vitals, engine CPU/memory) to your own observability stack.
• Add BrowserStack lifecycle events (test_started, test_completed, iteration_ended, etc.) as structured OTel Logs so you can correlate load-test phases with your app’s telemetry.
• Keep your existing dashboards - no need to build BrowserStack-specific ones.

Set up custom OTLP

Choose your setup method - configure via the BrowserStack UI, or use the CLI for source-controlled configurations and CI/CD pipelines.

integrations:
  custom_otlp:
    enabled: true
    connection:
      name: 'Honeycomb Prod'
      otlpEndpoint: 'https://api.honeycomb.io/v1/metrics'
      protocol: 'http/protobuf'           # or 'grpc'
      temporality: 'cumulative'           # or 'delta' | 'per-instrument'
      authHeaderKey: 'x-honeycomb-team'
      authHeaderValue: '${HONEYCOMB_API_KEY}'   # env-var interpolation
    # Optional: pick which metrics + events to send
    metrics:
      - select: [browserstack.vu.max, browserstack.response.time.p95]
        tags: ['env:prod', 'team:payments']
    events: all

export HONEYCOMB_API_KEY="hcaik_your_real_key"
browserstack-load --config browserstack-load.yml

authHeaderValue: '${HONEYCOMB_API_KEY}'

Error: Environment variable 'HONEYCOMB_API_KEY' referenced by
'integrations.custom_otlp.connection.authHeaderValue' is not set or is empty.
Export it before running the CLI, or replace the ${HONEYCOMB_API_KEY}
reference with a literal value.

Choose metrics and events per load test

Saving the credential (via UI or CLI) makes the OTel tile available. You still choose per load test whether and how to use it.

integrations:
  custom_otlp:
    enabled: true
    connection:
      name: 'Honeycomb Prod'
      otlpEndpoint: 'https://api.honeycomb.io/v1/metrics'
      protocol: 'http/protobuf'
      temporality: 'cumulative'
      authHeaderKey: 'x-honeycomb-team'
      authHeaderValue: '${HONEYCOMB_API_KEY}'
    # Choose which metrics to send
    metrics:
      - select: [browserstack.vu.max, browserstack.response.time.p95]
        tags: ['env:prod', 'team:payments']
    # Choose which events to send
    events: all                            # Option A: all events
    # events:                              # Option B: specific events only
    #   - select:
    #       - test_started
    #       - test_completed
    #     tags:
    #       - 'env:prod'

Supported collectors

The Custom OTLP integration works against any OTLP-compliant collector. The following collectors are verified end-to-end:

Not on the list? It’ll still work as long as your collector accepts OTLP. Reach out to BrowserStack support if you’d like your collector added to the verified list.

Verify metrics are flowing

After your next load test completes:

1. In BrowserStack, open the test run’s detail page.
2. Click APM Tools in the side panel.
3. An OTel card is displayed with the collector name you configured (e.g., “Honeycomb Prod”).
4. Open your collector’s UI. Metrics with the browserstack.* namespace and tags from your load test (test_id, dashboard_id, region, env, custom tags) appears within 30 seconds of the run starting.

Troubleshoot connection issues

If you encounter errors when saving your custom OTLP configuration, use this guide to identify and resolve the issue.

Where your credentials are stored

Your credentials are stored encrypted at rest and only transmitted to the OTLP endpoint you configured. Your credentials are never logged or exposed to other integrations, and BrowserStack’s Load Testing service never accesses the raw values.

You can revoke the credential at any time by clicking Disconnect on the OTel tile in Project Settings > Integrations. Disconnect removes the credential immediately. Any in-flight test runs stop pushing to that collector on the next metric batch.

Next steps

• Run a load test: See the quick-start guide to set up and run your first load test (about five minutes).
• Combine with native APM tiles: Enable OTel push on your existing Datadog, New Relic, or Dynatrace tile in parallel with Custom OTLP for cross-vendor visibility.
• Use env-var interpolation in CI: For CI/CD pipelines, keep the YAML in source control and store the real API key in your CI’s secrets manager.
• Set up alerts in your collector: Alert on metrics like browserstack.errors.percentage > 5% during scheduled tests - see your collector’s alerting docs.