Sentry: profiling enabled but no profiles arrive

TL;DR

Set a nonzero trace sample rate first. nodeProfilingIntegration (or the Python/Ruby equivalent) is configured, the profile sample rate is 1.0, and still no profiles appear.

When to use

You are seeing this: Profile sampling is relative to trace sampling. Use this skill when you run into "Sentry: profiling enabled but no profiles arrive".

When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

The symptom

nodeProfilingIntegration (or the Python/Ruby equivalent) is configured, the profile sample rate is 1.0, and still no profiles appear.

The cause

Profile sampling is relative to trace sampling. Profiles are collected while there is an active sampled span, so:

• traces_sample_rate = 0 or unset means no spans are sampled, which means no profiles, regardless of the profile rate.
• In Rails the docs state it outright: profiles_sample_rate is a percentage relative to traces_sample_rate.
• In Python, profile_lifecycle = "trace" collects profiles while there is an active span; with continuous profiling, profile_session_sample_rate gates the sessions.

A profile rate of 1.0 with a trace rate of 0.05 yields profiles for ~5% of requests, not 100%.

Confirmation

Check whether transactions/spans are arriving at all. If the transaction volume is zero or tiny, the trace rate is the bottleneck. If spans arrive but profiles do not, the profiling integration is missing or misconfigured (Node: @sentry/profiling-node not installed; Python: sentry-sdk without the profiling extras path).

Fix

1. Set a nonzero trace sample rate first.
2. Confirm the profiling integration is in the integrations list (Node) or the equivalent option (Python/Ruby).
3. Raise the trace rate if profile volume is too thin; the profile rate multiplies it, it does not override it.

Verify

Trigger a sampled request and confirm a profile attaches to the transaction. Profiles also consume quota as their own category, so watch the profiles usage after enabling.

Researched against live Sentry docs 2026-09-26. The Node.js guide (docs.sentry.io/platforms/javascript/guides/node/) documents adding nodeProfilingIntegration from @sentry/profiling-node and profileSessionSampleRate for the percentage of sessions. The Rails guide (docs.sentry.io/platforms/ruby/guides/rails/) documents profilessamplerate as a percentage relative to tracessamplerate. The Python setup page (docs.sentry.io/platforms/python/) documents profilesessionsamplerate with profilelifecycle trace, collecting profiles while there is an active span.