Getting started with metrics - Console

Learn how to use OpenTelemetry Metrics in a .NET Console application

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This guide will show you how to get started with OpenTelemetry .NET Metrics in a console application in just a few minutes.

Prerequisites

Creating a console application

Create a new console application and run it:

dotnet new console --output getting-started
cd getting-started
dotnet run

You should see the following output:

Hello World!

Adding OpenTelemetry metrics

Install the OpenTelemetry Console Exporter package:

dotnet add package OpenTelemetry.Exporter.Console

Update the Program.cs file with the following code:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics.Metrics;
using OpenTelemetry;
using OpenTelemetry.Metrics;

// Define a meter
private static readonly Meter MyMeter = new("MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary", "1.0");

// Create a counter instrument
private static readonly Counter<long> MyFruitCounter = MyMeter.CreateCounter<long>("MyFruitCounter", "fruit", "Counts fruit by name and color");

// Configure the OpenTelemetry MeterProvider
using var meterProvider = Sdk.CreateMeterProviderBuilder()
    .AddMeter("MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary")
    .AddConsoleExporter()
    .Build();

// Record some measurements
MyFruitCounter.Add(1, new("name", "apple"), new("color", "red"));
MyFruitCounter.Add(2, new("name", "lemon"), new("color", "yellow"));
MyFruitCounter.Add(1, new("name", "lemon"), new("color", "yellow"));
MyFruitCounter.Add(2, new("name", "apple"), new("color", "green"));
MyFruitCounter.Add(5, new("name", "apple"), new("color", "red"));
MyFruitCounter.Add(4, new("name", "lemon"), new("color", "yellow"));

Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit");
Console.ReadKey();

Run the application again (using dotnet run) and you should see the metric output from the console (metrics will be seen once the program ends), similar to shown below:

Export MyFruitCounter, Meter: MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary/1.0
(2021-09-23T22:00:08.4399776Z, 2021-09-23T22:00:08.4510115Z) color:red name:apple LongSum
Value: 6
(2021-09-23T22:00:08.4399776Z, 2021-09-23T22:00:08.4510115Z) color:yellow name:lemon LongSum
Value: 7
(2021-09-23T22:00:08.4399776Z, 2021-09-23T22:00:08.4510115Z) color:green name:apple LongSum
Value: 2

Congratulations! You are now collecting metrics using OpenTelemetry.

How it works

Meter

The program creates a Meter instance named “MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary”. A Meter is the entry point to create metric instruments.

private static readonly Meter MyMeter = new("MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary", "1.0");

Counter instrument

It then creates a Counter instrument from the Meter. A Counter is used to measure a non-decreasing value.

private static readonly Counter<long> MyFruitCounter = MyMeter.CreateCounter<long>("MyFruitCounter");

Recording measurements

The counter is used to report several metric measurements with different attribute combinations:

MyFruitCounter.Add(1, new("name", "apple"), new("color", "red"));

MeterProvider configuration

An OpenTelemetry MeterProvider is configured to:

  1. Subscribe to instruments from the specified Meter
  2. Export the metrics to the console
var meterProvider = Sdk.CreateMeterProviderBuilder()
    .AddMeter("MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary")
    .AddConsoleExporter()
    .Build();

The MeterProvider aggregates the measurements in-memory with a default cardinality limit of 2000 combinations of attributes.

Handling high cardinality metrics

If you need to collect metrics with cardinality higher than the default limit of 2000, you can customize the cardinality limit:

var meterProvider = Sdk.CreateMeterProviderBuilder()
    .AddMeter("MyCompany.MyProduct.MyLibrary")
    .AddView(instrumentName: "MyFruitCounter", new MetricStreamConfiguration { CardinalityLimit = 10 })
    .AddConsoleExporter()
    .Build();

Metrics pipeline

The metrics pipeline in OpenTelemetry .NET follows this flow:

  1. Instruments record measurements
  2. MeterProvider receives and aggregates measurements
  3. MetricReader reads aggregated metrics
  4. Exporter exports metrics to a backend

Special note about OpenTelemetry .NET

Metrics in OpenTelemetry .NET is a somewhat unique implementation, as most of the Metrics API is implemented by the .NET runtime itself. From a high level, this means you can instrument your application by simply depending on the System.Diagnostics.DiagnosticSource package.

Learn more


Last modified August 12, 2025: Add dotnet docs from /docs folder of opentelemetry-dotnet (#7474) (bb927496)