Issue
Despite setting traces_sample_rate to 0.0, Sentry still receives transactions from my Laravel application. I want to completely disable transactions and stop all tracing.
Applies To
Laravel SDK users
Resolution
Setting traces_sample_rate to 0.0 does not fully disable tracing. It sets the local sample rate to 0%, but the SDK still inherits a sampling decision from an incoming trace. If an upstream service, such as your frontend, sends sentry-trace and baggage headers with a positive sampling decision, the Laravel SDK continues that trace and reports the transaction.
Sentry applies sampling in this order: traces_sampler, then the inherited parent decision, then traces_sample_rate. When you use a sample rate without a sampler, the SDK always inherits the parent decision.
To fully disable transactions, choose one option, ordered by how completely each stops tracing:
Set
traces_sample_rateto null, or leaveSENTRY_TRACES_SAMPLE_RATEunset. This is the default and disables tracing, so the SDK exits early and does not inherit incoming decisions.Keep tracing configured but drop everything: define a
traces_samplerthat returns0.0for all transactions, including inherited ones.
See the Laravel sampling documentation and the traces_sampler option.