Arize Phoenix

Arize Phoenix is the open-source LLM tracing and evaluation project from Arize AI. Use it for local development, experimentation, and self-hosted workflows.

Phoenix is separate from Arize AX, the full-featured platform for production teams, AI-native companies, and enterprises, available as managed cloud or enterprise self-hosted deployment. LiteLLM supports both backends, but they use different callbacks, credentials, and endpoints. Use arize_phoenix for Phoenix, use arize for AX, or enable both when you need to send the same traces to each.

For teams building evaluation loops around LiteLLM traces, Arize's agent evaluation guide and LLM evaluation guide cover production workflows for tracing failures, evaluating model behavior, and improving agent reliability.

info

We want to learn how we can make the callbacks better! Meet the LiteLLM founders or join our discord

Pre-Requisites

uv add litellm

Quick Start

SDK

import litellm
import os

os.environ["LITELLM_OTEL_V2"] = "true"
os.environ["PHOENIX_API_KEY"] = ""
os.environ["PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT"] = "https://app.phoenix.arize.com/v1/traces"
os.environ["PHOENIX_PROJECT_NAME"] = ""   # optional, defaults to "default"
# LLM API Keys
os.environ["OPENAI_API_KEY"] = ""

# set arize_phoenix as a callback, litellm will send the data to phoenix
litellm.callbacks = ["arize_phoenix"]

# openai call
response = litellm.completion(
  model="gpt-4o",
  messages=[
    {"role": "user", "content": "Hi 👋 - i'm openai"}
  ]
)

LiteLLM Proxy

1. Setup config.yaml

model_list:
  - model_name: gpt-4o
    litellm_params:
      model: openai/gpt-4o
      api_key: os.environ/OPENAI_API_KEY

litellm_settings:
  callbacks: ["arize_phoenix"]

2. Set your credentials

LITELLM_OTEL_V2=true
PHOENIX_API_KEY="your-api-key"
PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT="https://app.phoenix.arize.com/v1/traces"
PHOENIX_PROJECT_NAME="my-project"   # optional

3. Start LiteLLM Proxy

litellm --config /path/to/config.yaml

4. Test it!

curl -L -X POST 'http://0.0.0.0:4000/v1/chat/completions' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer sk-1234' \
-d '{
  "model": "gpt-4o",
  "messages": [
    {
      "role": "user",
      "content": "Hey, how are you?"
    }
  ]
}'

What Phoenix renders

Open Phoenix; the project comes from PHOENIX_PROJECT_NAME (default default), stamped as the openinference.project.name resource attribute. Each request shows up as a chat <model> span under the request root.

Phoenix uses the same OpenInference vocabulary as Arize AX, so the LLM-call span carries llm.model_name, llm.provider, the llm.token_count.* usage split, llm.invocation_parameters, the message arrays when content capture is on, and llm.tools.*, alongside the canonical gen_ai.* keys. See the full attribute table.

Configuration

Variable	Required	Notes
PHOENIX_API_KEY	Phoenix Cloud only	Required when the endpoint is on app.phoenix.arize.com; litellm raises without it. Self-hosted Phoenix does not need one
PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_HTTP_ENDPOINT	No	Collector endpoint; takes precedence over PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT when both are set
PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT	No	Collector endpoint, used when the HTTP variable is unset
PHOENIX_PROJECT_NAME	No	Defaults to default; also readable as PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_PROJECT_NAME

If neither endpoint variable is set, litellm falls back to http://localhost:6006/v1/traces.

Protocol is inferred from the endpoint, not the variable name

Neither variable is tied to a protocol. litellm picks the protocol from the value you give it: an endpoint starting with grpc://, or containing :4317 without a /v1/traces path, exports over gRPC, and anything else exports over HTTP. So a Phoenix Cloud URL works in either variable, and pointing PHOENIX_COLLECTOR_ENDPOINT at https://app.phoenix.arize.com/v1/traces sends over HTTP as intended.

Picking the right collector endpoint

Phoenix has more than one collector endpoint shape, and picking the wrong one is the most common Phoenix setup mistake. Point the endpoint at the shape that matches your deployment:

Deployment	Endpoint
Phoenix Cloud (Spaces)	https://app.phoenix.arize.com/s/<space-name>/v1/traces
Phoenix Cloud (legacy)	https://app.phoenix.arize.com/legacy/v1/traces
Phoenix Cloud (old)	https://app.phoenix.arize.com/v1/traces
Self-hosted	http://localhost:6006/v1/traces

Advanced

Send to Phoenix and Arize AX at once

Presets compose, so you can run both backends from one proxy:

litellm_settings:
  callbacks: ["arize_phoenix", "arize"]

Full OpenTelemetry reference

This page covers the Phoenix-specific setup. For span attributes, prompt and response capture, metrics, distributed tracing, and which routes are traced, see the OpenTelemetry v2 guide.

Looking for prompt management rather than tracing? See Arize Phoenix Prompt Management.

Support & Talk to Founders

• Schedule Demo 👋
• Community Discord 💭
• Our emails ✉️ ishaan@berri.ai / krrish@berri.ai