logger.error or logger.exception in Python

Consider this Python code:

try:
    1 / 0
except Exception as e:
    logger.error("An error occurred while dividing by zero.: %s", e)

The output of this is:

An error occurred while dividing by zero.: division by zero

No traceback. Perhaps you don't care because you don't need it.
I see code like this quite often and it's curious that you even use logger.error if it's not a problem. And it's curious that you include the stringified exception into the logger message.

Another common pattern I see is use of exc_info=True like this:

try:
    1 / 0
except Exception:
    logger.error("An error occurred while dividing by zero.", exc_info=True)

Its output is:

An error occurred while dividing by zero.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/peterbengtsson/dummy.py", line 23, in <module>
    1 / 0
    ~~^~~
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

Ok, now you get the traceback and the error value (division by zero in this case).

But a more convenient function is logger.exception which looks like this:

try:
    1 / 0
except Exception:
    logger.exception("An error occurred while dividing by zero.")

Its output is:

An error occurred while dividing by zero.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/peterbengtsson/dummy.py", line 9, in <module>
    1 / 0
    ~~^~~
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

So it's sugar for logger.error.

Also, a common logging config is something like this:

import logging

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
logging.basicConfig(
    format="%(asctime)s - %(levelname)s - %(name)s - %(message)s", level=logging.ERROR
)

So if you use logger.exception what will it print? In short, the same as if you used logger.error. For example, with the logger.exception("An error occurred while dividing by zero.") line above:

2026-03-06 10:45:23,570 - ERROR - __main__ - An error occurred while dividing by zero.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/peterbengtsson/dummy.py", line 12, in <module>
    1 / 0
    ~~^~~
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero

Bonus - add_note

You can, if it's applicable, inject some more information about the exception. Consider:

try:
    n / 0
except Exception as exception:
    exception.add_note(f"The numerator was {n}.")
    logger.exception("An error occurred while dividing by zero.")

The net output of this is:

2026-03-06 10:48:34,279 - ERROR - __main__ - An error occurred while dividing by zero.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/peterbengtsson/dummy.py", line 13, in <module>
    1 / 0
    ~~^~~
ZeroDivisionError: division by zero
The numerator was 123.