# Does Tail-based Sampling Sample Logs/Metrics?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-tail-based-sampling-sample-logs-metrics/373642>\
**Category:** APM\
**Tags:** server\
**Created:** [January 24, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-tail-based-sampling-sample-logs-metrics/373642 "2025-01-24T17:23:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BenB196](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/benb196/32/83401_2.png) [@BenB196](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BenB196)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 5:23pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-tail-based-sampling-sample-logs-metrics/373642/1 "2025-01-24T17:23:54Z")

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Hi All,

Might be a bit of a "dump" question, but I couldn't really find any documentation on it, so wanted to ask and confirm. With APM/OTel there are essentially 3 parts: traces, logs, metrics.

When using tail-based sampling, its "obvious" that it will sample, traces, but what is less obvious is what happens to the logs and metrics. Does tail-based sampling "ignore" these and just pass them through, or does it also sample these parts? The documentation, [Transaction sampling | Elastic Observability [8.17] | Elastic](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/observability/current/apm-sampling.html), just either calls things transactions/traces, but never makes clear mention of Logs/Metrics.

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**Author:** ![Kostya\_Masliuk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/kostya_masliuk/32/137867_2.png) [@Kostya\_Masliuk](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Kostya_Masliuk)\
**Post date:** [January 24, 2025, 9:38pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-tail-based-sampling-sample-logs-metrics/373642/2 "2025-01-24T21:38:40Z")

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Hi @BenB196,

Your understanding is correct, tail-based sampling is only applicable for traces. For logs and metrics tail-based sampling will just pass them through without any other action.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BenB196](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/benb196/32/83401_2.png) [@BenB196](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/BenB196)\
**Post date:** [January 25, 2025, 12:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/does-tail-based-sampling-sample-logs-metrics/373642/3 "2025-01-25T00:48:48Z")

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Thanks @Kostya_Masliuk for the confirmation!