Counter

Updated on Apr 9, 2026

A Counter tracks a value that only ever goes up. Use it for things you count — requests served, errors raised, bytes sent. When the process restarts, the counter resets to zero.

If your value can go down, use a Gauge instead.

from prometheus_client import Counter
c = Counter('my_failures', 'Description of counter')
c.inc()     # Increment by 1
c.inc(1.6)  # Increment by given value

If there is a suffix of _total on the metric name, it will be removed. When exposing the time series for counter, a _total suffix will be added. This is for compatibility between OpenMetrics and the Prometheus text format, as OpenMetrics requires the _total suffix.

Constructor

Counter(name, documentation, labelnames=(), namespace='', subsystem='', unit='', registry=REGISTRY)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
`name`	`str`	required	Metric name. A `_total` suffix is appended automatically when exposing the time series.
`documentation`	`str`	required	Help text shown in the `/metrics` output and Prometheus UI.
`labelnames`	`Iterable[str]`	`()`	Names of labels for this metric. See Labels.
`namespace`	`str`	`''`	Optional prefix.
`subsystem`	`str`	`''`	Optional middle component.
`unit`	`str`	`''`	Optional unit suffix appended to the metric name.
`registry`	`CollectorRegistry`	`REGISTRY`	Registry to register with. Pass `None` to skip registration, which is useful in tests where you create metrics without wanting them in the global registry.

namespace, subsystem, and name are joined with underscores to form the full metric name:

# namespace='myapp', subsystem='http', name='requests_total'
# produces: myapp_http_requests_total
Counter('requests_total', 'Total requests', namespace='myapp', subsystem='http')

Methods

`inc(amount=1, exemplar=None)`

Increment the counter by the given amount. The amount must be non-negative.

c.inc()       # increment by 1
c.inc(5)      # increment by 5
c.inc(0.7)    # fractional increments are allowed

To attach trace context to an observation, pass an exemplar dict. Exemplars are only rendered in OpenMetrics format. See Exemplars for details.

c.inc(exemplar={'trace_id': 'abc123'})

`reset()`

Reset the counter to zero. Use this when a logical process restarts without restarting the actual Python process.

c.reset()

`count_exceptions(exception=Exception)`

Count exceptions raised in a block of code or function. Can be used as a decorator or context manager. Increments the counter each time an exception of the given type is raised.

@c.count_exceptions()
def f():
    pass

with c.count_exceptions():
    pass

# Count only a specific exception type
with c.count_exceptions(ValueError):
    pass

Labels

See Labels for how to use .labels(), .remove(), .remove_by_labels(), and .clear().

Real-world example

Tracking HTTP requests by method and status code in a web application:

from prometheus_client import Counter, start_http_server

REQUESTS = Counter(
    'requests_total',
    'Total HTTP requests received',
    labelnames=['method', 'status'],
    namespace='myapp',
)
EXCEPTIONS = Counter(
    'exceptions_total',
    'Total unhandled exceptions',
    labelnames=['handler'],
    namespace='myapp',
)

def handle_request(method, handler):
    with EXCEPTIONS.labels(handler=handler).count_exceptions():
        # ... process the request ...
        status = '200'
    REQUESTS.labels(method=method, status=status).inc()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    start_http_server(8000)  # exposes metrics at http://localhost:8000/metrics
    # ... start your application ...

This produces time series like myapp_requests_total{method="GET",status="200"}.