---
title: Quickstart on Elastic Cloud Serverless
description: Quickstart setup guides for the {{edot}} on Elastic Cloud Serverless.
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4572/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/quickstart/serverless
products:
  - Elastic Agent
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless
  - Elastic Documentation
  - Elastic Observability
applies_to:
  - Serverless Observability projects: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
  - Elastic Agent: Generally available
---

# Quickstart on Elastic Cloud Serverless
The [Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4572/reference/opentelemetry/managed-inputs/managed-otlp-endpoint) simplifies OpenTelemetry data ingestion. It provides an endpoint for OpenTelemetry SDKs and Collectors to send telemetry data, with Elastic handling scaling, data processing, and storage. The endpoint is exclusively for Elastic Cloud users, initially available in Elastic Cloud Serverless only.
The Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint is designed for the following use cases:
- Logs and Infrastructure Monitoring: Logs forwarded in OTLP format and host and Kubernetes metrics in OTLP format.
- APM: Application telemetry in OTLP format.

<note applies-to="Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.5">
  In previous versions, the **EDOT Collector** was a standalone product. From this version onwards, this OpenTelemetry collector capability is built into **Elastic Agent**.
</note>


## Prerequisites

- An Elastic Observability Serverless project.
- An Elastic OpenTelemetry or any system that can forward logs, metrics, or traces in OTLP format.

You also need to retrieve your OTLP endpoint address and an API key.
Follow these steps to retrieve the managed OTLP endpoint URL for your Serverless project:
1. In Elastic Cloud Serverless, open your Observability project.
2. Go to **Add data** → **Application** → **OpenTelemetry**.
3. Select **Managed OTLP Endpoint** in the second step.
4. Copy the OTLP endpoint configuration value.
5. Select **Create API Key** to generate an API key.


## Quickstart guides

Select the quickstart guide for your environment from the following list:
- [Kubernetes on serverless](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4572/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/quickstart/serverless/k8s)
- [Docker on serverless](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4572/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/quickstart/serverless/docker)
- [Hosts or VMs on serverless](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4572/solutions/observability/get-started/opentelemetry/quickstart/serverless/hosts_vms)


## Differences from the Elastic APM endpoint

The Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint stores OpenTelemetry data without schema translation, preserving OpenTelemetry semantic conventions and resource attributes in OTel-native format. Custom attributes are stored under `attributes.*` with dots preserved. It supports ingesting OTLP logs, metrics, and traces.
The APM Server or managed inputs OTLP intake (the `.apm` endpoint) is a legacy path that translates OTLP data to ECS format before storage. Custom attributes land in `labels.*` with dots replaced by underscores. This path is not recommended for new users, and EDOT SDKs are not supported here.
For a full comparison of ingest paths and their data format implications, refer to [How your ingest path determines the data format](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/4572/reference/opentelemetry/compatibility/data-streams#ingest-path-data-format).

## Provide feedback

Help improve the Elastic Cloud Managed OTLP Endpoint by sending us feedback in our [discussion forum](https://discuss.elastic.co/c/apm) or [community Slack](https://elasticstack.slack.com/signup).
For Elastic Agent feedback, open an issue in the [elastic-agent repository](https://github.com/elastic/elastic-agent/issues).