---
title: "Send Logs to Grafana Cloud | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Send Logs to Grafana Cloud Logs are files that list things that have happened, events related to things like a computer’s operating system or software running on that system. These are typically recorded as a list of messages in a file, often including a time stamp to record when the event occurred."
---

> For a curated documentation index, see [llms.txt](/llms.txt). For the complete documentation index, see [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt).

# Send Logs to Grafana Cloud

Logs are files that list things that have happened, events related to things like a computer’s operating system or software running on that system. These are typically recorded as a list of messages in a file, often including a time stamp to record when the event occurred.

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## Get started with Grafana Cloud Logs

To get up and running with logs in Grafana cloud, you need to start sending your log data to the log ingestion endpoint. This can be done by [collecting logs with Grafana Alloy](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/logs/collect-logs-with-alloy/). If you want some hands on practice first, there’s a tutorial for [sending logs to Loki using Alloy](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/tutorials/send-logs-to-loki/).

As Grafana Cloud Logs works by indexing only metadata instead of the full text log line, you should carefully consider the set of labels sent. Read [the documentation page on Labels](/docs/loki/next/get-started/labels/) to learn how to use labels effectively for the best experience.

Good examples of labels include:

- Hostname
- Environment
- Service

Avoid indexing [high cardinality](/docs/loki/next/get-started/labels/cardinality/) fields like *usernames*, *order ids* or request parameters.

After beginning to send data, you can start to query it using the `Explore` tab or create your own visualizations. This is how you might integrate logs into a panel in Grafana Cloud:

## A deeper introduction to Loki

[Loki](/oss/loki/) is the horizontally scalable, highly available, multi-tenant log aggregation system powering Grafana Cloud logs. It is designed to be cost-effective and easy to operate. It does not index the contents of the logs, but rather a set of labels for each log stream. This allows for high developer velocity while still being easy and fast to query.

Compared to other log aggregation systems, Loki:

- Does not do full text indexing on logs. By storing compressed, unstructured logs and only indexing metadata, Loki is simpler to operate and cheaper to run.
- Indexes and groups log streams using the same labels you’re already using with Prometheus, enabling you to seamlessly switch between metrics and logs using the same labels that you’re already using with Prometheus.
- Is an especially good fit for storing [Kubernetes](https://kubernetes.io/) Pod logs. Metadata such as Pod labels is automatically scraped and indexed.
- Has native support in Grafana (needs Grafana v6.0+).

Loki is like Prometheus, but for logs: we prefer a multidimensional label-based approach to indexing, and want a single-binary, easy to operate system with no dependencies. Loki differs from Prometheus by focusing on logs instead of metrics, and delivering logs via push, instead of pull.

## Further reading

This annotated list of additional resources is provided for both context and to help you discover ways to use Loki with greater success and ease.

### Authenticate to query Cloud Logs via the API

If you need to query Grafana Cloud Logs programmatically using the Loki HTTP API, refer to [Authenticate to query Cloud Logs](authenticate-to-query-logs/) for how to find your credentials and authenticate with Basic Auth.

### Delete accidentally exposed information

If you accidentally logged sensitive information, you can delete them from our systems by following this guide: [Delete unwanted information in log lines](delete-log-lines/). If you also use Cloud Logs Export, refer to [Delete data from your exported log archive](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/logs/export/cle-delete-exported-data/) to remove any copies already synced to your own cloud storage bucket.

### Drop sensitive information

The surest way to keep sensitive information out of your logs is to remove it before you send it. If you collect logs with Grafana Alloy, use the [`stage.drop`](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/reference/components/loki/loki.process/#stagedrop) block to drop whole log entries that match a condition, or the [`stage.replace`](/docs/grafana-cloud/send-data/alloy/reference/components/loki/loki.process/#stagereplace) block to replace matching text within a log line.

Avoid putting sensitive values in labels. Refer to [Labels](/docs/loki/next/get-started/labels/) for guidance on choosing labels.

### Send Amazon CloudWatch logs

To send Amazon CloudWatch logs to Loki, see how to use an intermediary [Lambda Promtail](/docs/loki/latest/send-data/lambda-promtail/) function created especially for this task.