diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/kong/instana-header-support.yml b/changelog/unreleased/kong/instana-header-support.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..337fd04a966
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/kong/instana-header-support.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+message: |
+    **OpenTelemetry**: include instana header support in propagation
+type: feature
+scope: Plugin
diff --git a/kong-3.10.0-0.rockspec b/kong-3.10.0-0.rockspec
index f1b503720b8..f14f65d7481 100644
--- a/kong-3.10.0-0.rockspec
+++ b/kong-3.10.0-0.rockspec
@@ -699,6 +699,7 @@ build = {
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.extractors.gcp"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/gcp.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.extractors.aws"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/aws.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.extractors.datadog"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/datadog.lua",
+    ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.extractors.instana"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/instana.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors._base"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/_base.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors.w3c"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/w3c.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors.b3"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/b3.lua",
@@ -708,6 +709,7 @@ build = {
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors.gcp"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/gcp.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors.aws"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/aws.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors.datadog"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/datadog.lua",
+    ["kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors.instana"] = "kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/instana.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.request_id"] = "kong/observability/tracing/request_id.lua",
     ["kong.observability.tracing.tracing_context"] = "kong/observability/tracing/tracing_context.lua",
 
diff --git a/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/instana.lua b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/instana.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4031a326079
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/extractors/instana.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,67 @@
+local _EXTRACTOR        = require "kong.observability.tracing.propagation.extractors._base"
+local propagation_utils = require "kong.observability.tracing.propagation.utils"
+local from_hex          = propagation_utils.from_hex
+
+local INSTANA_EXTRACTOR = _EXTRACTOR:new({
+  headers_validate = {
+    any = {
+      "x-instana-t",
+      "x-instana-s",
+      "x-instana-l",
+    }
+  }
+})
+
+function INSTANA_EXTRACTOR:get_context(headers)
+
+  local trace_id_raw = headers["x-instana-t"]
+
+  if type(trace_id_raw) ~= "string" then
+    return
+  end
+
+  if trace_id_raw then
+    trace_id_raw = trace_id_raw:match("^(%x+)")
+    local trace_id_len = trace_id_raw and #trace_id_raw or 0
+    if not trace_id_raw or
+       not(trace_id_len == 16 or trace_id_len == 32)
+    then
+      kong.log.warn("x-instana-t header invalid; ignoring.")
+    end
+  end
+
+  local span_id_raw = headers["x-instana-s"]
+
+  if type(span_id_raw) ~= "string" then
+    return
+  end
+
+  if span_id_raw then
+    span_id_raw = span_id_raw:match("^(%x+)")
+    if not span_id_raw then
+      kong.log.warn("x-instana-s header invalid; ignoring.")
+    end
+  end
+
+  local level_id_raw = headers["x-instana-l"]
+
+  if level_id_raw then
+    -- the flag can come in as "0" or "1" 
+    -- or something like the following format
+    -- "1,correlationType=web;correlationId=1234567890abcdef"
+    -- here we only care about the first value
+    level_id_raw = level_id_raw:sub(1, 1)
+  end
+  local should_sample = level_id_raw == "1"
+
+  local trace_id = trace_id_raw and from_hex(trace_id_raw) or nil
+  local span_id = span_id_raw and from_hex(span_id_raw) or nil
+  
+  return {
+    trace_id      = trace_id,
+    span_id       = span_id,
+    should_sample = should_sample,
+  }
+end
+
+return INSTANA_EXTRACTOR
diff --git a/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/init.lua b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/init.lua
index e9568573f5a..d7411da31a6 100644
--- a/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/init.lua
+++ b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/init.lua
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ local function get_plugin_params(config)
         formats.DATADOG,
         formats.AWS,
         formats.GCP,
-
+        formats.INSTANA
       }
       propagation_config.inject = { "preserve" }
 
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ local function get_plugin_params(config)
         formats.DATADOG,
         formats.AWS,
         formats.GCP,
+        formats.INSTANA,
       }
       propagation_config.inject = {
         -- the old logic used to propagate the "found" incoming format
diff --git a/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/instana.lua b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/instana.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..087e61d1164
--- /dev/null
+++ b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/injectors/instana.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+local _INJECTOR = require "kong.observability.tracing.propagation.injectors._base"
+local to_hex    = require "resty.string".to_hex
+
+local INSTANA_INJECTOR = _INJECTOR:new({
+  name = "instana",
+  context_validate = {}, -- all fields are optional
+  trace_id_allowed_sizes = { 16, 8 },
+  span_id_size_bytes = 8,
+})
+
+
+function INSTANA_INJECTOR:create_headers(out_tracing_ctx)
+  local headers = {
+    ["x-instana-t"] = to_hex(out_tracing_ctx.trace_id) or nil, 
+    ["x-instana-s"] = to_hex(out_tracing_ctx.span_id) or nil,
+  }
+  
+  if out_tracing_ctx.should_sample ~= nil then
+    headers["x-instana-l"] = out_tracing_ctx.should_sample and "1" or "0"
+  end
+
+  return headers
+end
+
+
+function INSTANA_INJECTOR:get_formatted_trace_id(trace_id)
+  return { instana = to_hex(trace_id) }
+end
+
+
+return INSTANA_INJECTOR
diff --git a/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/utils.lua b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/utils.lua
index 9efd9e11aca..4d8835f229c 100644
--- a/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/utils.lua
+++ b/kong/observability/tracing/propagation/utils.lua
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ local FORMATS = {
   DATADOG   = "datadog",
   AWS       = "aws",
   GCP       = "gcp",
+  INSTANA   = "instana",
 }
 
 local function hex_to_char(c)
diff --git a/kong/plugins/opentelemetry/schema.lua b/kong/plugins/opentelemetry/schema.lua
index 41a127859c6..60ecd3d9dcf 100644
--- a/kong/plugins/opentelemetry/schema.lua
+++ b/kong/plugins/opentelemetry/schema.lua
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ return {
                 old_default = "preserve" },
               required = false,
               default = "preserve",
-              one_of = { "preserve", "ignore", "b3", "b3-single", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "gcp", "datadog" } } },
+              one_of = { "preserve", "ignore", "b3", "b3-single", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "gcp", "datadog", "instana" } } },
         { sampling_rate = {
           description = "Tracing sampling rate for configuring the probability-based sampler. When set, this value supersedes the global `tracing_sampling_rate` setting from kong.conf.",
           type = "number",
diff --git a/kong/plugins/zipkin/schema.lua b/kong/plugins/zipkin/schema.lua
index da4b0aa8d3e..0d19d47c63a 100644
--- a/kong/plugins/zipkin/schema.lua
+++ b/kong/plugins/zipkin/schema.lua
@@ -56,11 +56,11 @@ return {
           { include_credential = { description = "Specify whether the credential of the currently authenticated consumer should be included in metadata sent to the Zipkin server.", type = "boolean", required = true, default = true } },
           { traceid_byte_count = { description = "The length in bytes of each request's Trace ID.", type = "integer", required = true, default = 16, one_of = { 8, 16 } } },
           { header_type = { description = "All HTTP requests going through the plugin are tagged with a tracing HTTP request. This property codifies what kind of tracing header the plugin expects on incoming requests", type = "string", required = true, default = "preserve",
-                            one_of = { "preserve", "ignore", "b3", "b3-single", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp" },
+                            one_of = { "preserve", "ignore", "b3", "b3-single", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp", "instana" },
                             deprecation = { message = "zipkin: config.header_type is deprecated, please use config.propagation options instead", removal_in_version = "4.0", old_default = "preserve" }
                           } },
           { default_header_type = { description = "Allows specifying the type of header to be added to requests with no pre-existing tracing headers and when `config.header_type` is set to `\"preserve\"`. When `header_type` is set to any other value, `default_header_type` is ignored.", type = "string", required = true, default = "b3",
-                            one_of = { "b3", "b3-single", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp" },
+                            one_of = { "b3", "b3-single", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp", "instana" },
                             deprecation = { message = "zipkin: config.default_header_type is deprecated, please use config.propagation.default_format instead", removal_in_version = "4.0", old_default = "b3" }
                           } },
           { tags_header = { description = "The Zipkin plugin will add extra headers to the tags associated with any HTTP requests that come with a header named as configured by this property.", type = "string", required = true, default = "Zipkin-Tags" } },
diff --git a/spec/01-unit/26-observability/02-propagation_strategies_spec.lua b/spec/01-unit/26-observability/02-propagation_strategies_spec.lua
index ca780242101..ff27dad1227 100644
--- a/spec/01-unit/26-observability/02-propagation_strategies_spec.lua
+++ b/spec/01-unit/26-observability/02-propagation_strategies_spec.lua
@@ -1637,6 +1637,114 @@ local test_data = { {
     },
     err = "gcp injector context is invalid: field span_id not found in context"
   } }
+}, {
+    extractor = "instana",
+    injector = "instana",
+    headers_data = { {
+      description = "base case",
+      extract = true,
+      inject = true,
+      trace_id = trace_id_16,
+      headers = {
+        ["x-instana-t"] = trace_id_16,
+        ["x-instana-s"] = span_id_8_1,
+        ["x-instana-l"] = "1",
+      },
+      ctx = {
+        trace_id = trace_id_16,
+        span_id = span_id_8_1,
+        should_sample = true,
+        trace_id_original_size = 16,
+      }
+    }, {
+      description = "sampled = false",
+      extract = true,
+      inject = true,
+      trace_id = trace_id_16,
+      headers = {
+        ["x-instana-t"] = trace_id_16,
+        ["x-instana-s"] = span_id_8_1,
+        ["x-instana-l"] = "0",
+      },
+      ctx = {
+        trace_id = trace_id_16,
+        span_id = span_id_8_1,
+        should_sample = false,
+        trace_id_original_size = 16,
+      }
+    }, {
+      description = "8B trace id",
+      extract = true,
+      inject = true,
+      trace_id = trace_id_8,
+      headers = {
+        ["x-instana-t"] = trace_id_8,
+        ["x-instana-s"] = span_id_8_1,
+        ["x-instana-l"] = "0",
+      },
+      ctx = {
+        trace_id = padding_prefix .. trace_id_8,
+        span_id = span_id_8_1,
+        should_sample = false,
+        trace_id_original_size = 8,
+      }
+    }, {
+      description = "big 16B trace ID",
+      inject = true,
+      trace_id = big_trace_id_16,
+      headers = {
+        ["x-instana-t"]  = big_trace_id_16,
+        ["x-instana-s"] = span_id_8_1,
+      },
+      ctx = {
+        trace_id = big_trace_id_16,
+        span_id = span_id_8_1,
+      }
+    }, {
+      description = "invalid flag",
+      extractor = true,
+      trace_id = trace_id_16,
+      headers = {
+        ["x-instana-t"] = trace_id_16,
+        ["x-instana-s"] = span_id_8_1,
+        ["x-instana-l"] = "5",
+      },
+      ctx = {
+        trace_id = big_trace_id_16,
+        span_id = span_id_8_1,
+        should_sample = true,
+      }
+    },{ -- extraction error cases
+    description = "invalid trace ID (non hex)",
+    extract = true,
+    trace_id = "abcdefghijklmnop",
+    headers = {
+      ["x-instana-t"] = "abcdefghijklmnop",
+      ["x-instana-s"] = span_id_8_1,
+    },
+    err = "x-instana-t header invalid; ignoring."
+  }, {
+    description = "invalid trace ID (too long)",
+    extract = true,
+    headers = {
+      ["x-instana-t"] = too_long_id,
+    },
+    err = "x-instana-t header invalid; ignoring."
+  }, {
+    description = "invalid trace ID (too short)",
+    extract = true,
+    headers = {
+      ["x-instana-t"] = "abc",
+    },
+    err = "x-instana-t header invalid; ignoring."
+  }, {
+    description = "empty header",
+    extract = true,
+    headers = {
+      ["x-instana-t"] = "",
+    },
+    err = "x-instana-t header invalid; ignoring."
+  },}
 } }
 
 
diff --git a/spec/03-plugins/34-zipkin/zipkin_spec.lua b/spec/03-plugins/34-zipkin/zipkin_spec.lua
index df9e4590555..d90bdc7e6d2 100644
--- a/spec/03-plugins/34-zipkin/zipkin_spec.lua
+++ b/spec/03-plugins/34-zipkin/zipkin_spec.lua
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ local http_route_host             = "http-route"
 local http_route_ignore_host      = "http-route-ignore"
 local http_route_w3c_host         = "http-route-w3c"
 local http_route_dd_host          = "http-route-dd"
+local http_route_ins_host         = "http-route-ins"
 local http_route_clear_host       = "http-clear-route"
 local http_route_no_preserve_host = "http-no-preserve-route"
 
@@ -671,6 +672,21 @@ local function setup_zipkin_old_propagation(bp, service, traceid_byte_count)
       default_header_type = "datadog",
     }
   })
+
+  -- header_type = "instana"
+  bp.plugins:insert({
+    name = "zipkin",
+    route = {id = bp.routes:insert({
+      service = service,
+      hosts = { http_route_ins_host },
+    }).id},
+    config = {
+      sample_ratio = 1,
+      http_endpoint = fmt("http://%s:%d/api/v2/spans", ZIPKIN_HOST, ZIPKIN_PORT),
+      header_type = "instana",
+      default_header_type = "instana",
+    }
+  })
 end
 
 local function setup_zipkin_new_propagation(bp, service, traceid_byte_count)
@@ -687,7 +703,7 @@ local function setup_zipkin_new_propagation(bp, service, traceid_byte_count)
         { name = "static", value = "ok" },
       },
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve" },
         default_format = "b3-single",
       },
@@ -723,7 +739,7 @@ local function setup_zipkin_new_propagation(bp, service, traceid_byte_count)
       sample_ratio = 1,
       http_endpoint = fmt("http://%s:%d/api/v2/spans", ZIPKIN_HOST, ZIPKIN_PORT),
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve", "w3c" },
         default_format = "b3-single",
       },
@@ -741,13 +757,31 @@ local function setup_zipkin_new_propagation(bp, service, traceid_byte_count)
       sample_ratio = 1,
       http_endpoint = fmt("http://%s:%d/api/v2/spans", ZIPKIN_HOST, ZIPKIN_PORT),
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve", "datadog" },
         default_format = "datadog",
       },
     }
   })
 
+  -- header_type = "instana"
+  bp.plugins:insert({
+    name = "zipkin",
+    route = {id = bp.routes:insert({
+      service = service,
+      hosts = { http_route_ins_host },
+    }).id},
+    config = {
+      sample_ratio = 1,
+      http_endpoint = fmt("http://%s:%d/api/v2/spans", ZIPKIN_HOST, ZIPKIN_PORT),
+      propagation = {
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "aws", "datadog", "gcp", "instana" },
+        inject = { "preserve", "instana" },
+        default_format = "instana",
+      },
+    }
+  })
+
   -- available with new configuration only:
   -- no preserve
   bp.plugins:insert({
@@ -1579,6 +1613,35 @@ describe("http integration tests with zipkin server [#"
       end)
     end)
 
+    describe("propagates instana tracing headers", function()
+      it("with instana headers in client request", function()
+        local trace_id = gen_trace_id(16)
+        local span_id = gen_span_id()
+        local r = proxy_client:get("/", {
+          headers = {
+            ["x-instana-t"] = trace_id,
+            ["x-instana-s"] = span_id,
+            host = http_route_host,
+          },
+        })
+        local body = assert.response(r).has.status(200)
+        local json = cjson.decode(body)
+
+        assert.equals(trace_id, json.headers["x-instana-t"])
+      end)
+
+      it("without instana headers in client request", function()
+        local r = proxy_client:get("/", {
+          headers = { host = http_route_ins_host },
+        })
+        local body = assert.response(r).has.status(200)
+        local json = cjson.decode(body)
+
+        assert.is_not_nil(json.headers["x-instana-t"])
+        assert.is_not_nil(json.headers["x-instana-s"])
+      end)
+    end)
+
     if propagation_config == "new" then
       it("clears non-propagated headers when configured to do so", function()
         local trace_id = gen_trace_id(16)
diff --git a/spec/03-plugins/37-opentelemetry/03-propagation_spec.lua b/spec/03-plugins/37-opentelemetry/03-propagation_spec.lua
index dd34df4f151..0f8f1b9e4ac 100644
--- a/spec/03-plugins/37-opentelemetry/03-propagation_spec.lua
+++ b/spec/03-plugins/37-opentelemetry/03-propagation_spec.lua
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ local http_route_ignore_host      = "http-route-ignore"
 local http_route_w3c_host         = "http-route-w3c"
 local http_route_dd_host          = "http-route-dd"
 local http_route_b3_single_host   = "http-route-b3-single"
+local http_route_ins_host         = "http-route-ins"
 local http_route_clear_host       = "http-clear-route"
 local http_route_no_preserve_host = "http-no-preserve-route"
 
@@ -124,6 +125,18 @@ local function setup_otel_old_propagation(bp, service)
       header_type = "b3-single",
     }
   })
+
+  bp.plugins:insert({
+    name = "opentelemetry",
+    route = {id = bp.routes:insert({
+      service = service,
+      hosts = { http_route_ins_host },
+    }).id},
+    config = {
+      traces_endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/v1/traces",
+      header_type = "instana",
+    }
+  })
 end
 
 -- same configurations as "setup_otel_old_propagation", using the new
@@ -138,7 +151,7 @@ local function setup_otel_new_propagation(bp, service)
     config = {
       traces_endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/v1/traces",
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve" },
         default_format = "w3c",
       }
@@ -170,7 +183,7 @@ local function setup_otel_new_propagation(bp, service)
     config = {
       traces_endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/v1/traces",
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve", "w3c" },
         default_format = "w3c",
       }
@@ -186,7 +199,7 @@ local function setup_otel_new_propagation(bp, service)
     config = {
       traces_endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/v1/traces",
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve", "datadog" },
         default_format = "datadog",
       }
@@ -202,13 +215,28 @@ local function setup_otel_new_propagation(bp, service)
     config = {
       traces_endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/v1/traces",
       propagation = {
-        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp" },
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
         inject = { "preserve", "b3-single" },
         default_format = "w3c",
       }
     }
   })
 
+  bp.plugins:insert({
+    name = "opentelemetry",
+    route = {id = bp.routes:insert({
+      service = service,
+      hosts = { http_route_ins_host },
+    }).id},
+    config = {
+      traces_endpoint = "http://localhost:8080/v1/traces",
+      propagation = {
+        extract = { "b3", "w3c", "jaeger", "ot", "datadog", "aws", "gcp", "instana" },
+        inject = { "preserve", "instana" },
+        default_format = "instana",
+      }
+    }
+  })
   -- available with new configuration only:
   -- no preserve
   bp.plugins:insert({
@@ -511,6 +539,21 @@ describe("propagation tests #"    .. strategy         ..
     assert.equals(trace_id, json.headers["ot-tracer-traceid"])
   end)
 
+  it("propagates instana headers", function()
+    local trace_id = gen_trace_id()
+    local span_id = gen_span_id()
+    local r = proxy_client:get("/", {
+      headers = {
+        ["x-instana-t"] = trace_id,
+        ["x-instana-s"] = span_id,
+        host = http_route_ins_host,
+      },
+    })
+    local body = assert.response(r).has.status(200)
+    local json = cjson.decode(body)
+
+    assert.equals(trace_id, json.headers["x-instana-t"])
+  end)
 
   describe("propagates datadog tracing headers", function()
     it("with datadog headers in client request", function()