diff --git a/config/initializers/sentry.rb b/config/initializers/sentry.rb
index 515a4996..3ed6fb6b 100644
--- a/config/initializers/sentry.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/sentry.rb
@@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ Sentry.init do |config|
           when '/', '/ping'
             0.00 # ignore health check
           else
-            0.01
+            ENV.fetch('SENTRY_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE', 1.0).to_f
         end
       else
-        0.0 # ignore all other transactions
+        ENV.fetch('SENTRY_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE', 1.0).to_f # sample all other transactions
     end
   end
 end
diff --git a/docs/environment_variables.md b/docs/environment_variables.md
index 5579a733..d045cc39 100644
--- a/docs/environment_variables.md
+++ b/docs/environment_variables.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ The following environment variables are specifically support in CodeOcean and ar
 | `SENTRY_DSN` | ` ` | Specifies the [Sentry error reporting](https://sentry.io) endpoint for the Rails server |  
 | `SENTRY_JAVASCRIPT_DSN` | ` `    | Specifies the [Sentry error reporting](https://sentry.io) endpoint for the frontend used by browsers |  
 | `SENTRY_CURRENT_ENV` | ` ` | Specifies the [Sentry](https://sentry.io) environment used for error reporting |  
+| `SENTRY_TRACE_SAMPLE_RATE` | `1.0` | Specifies the sampling rate for traces in [Sentry](https://sentry.io) |  
 | `RAILS_LOG_LEVEL` | `info` in production<br>`debug` in development | Specifies how many log messages to print. The available log levels are: `debug`, `info`, `warn`, `error`, `fatal`, and `unknown`. |
 | `RAILS_LOG_TO_STDOUT` | `false` in `production` | Enables the server to print log output to the command line |  
 | `RAILS_SERVE_STATIC_FILES` | `true` in `development` and `test`<br>`false` in `production` and `staging` | Specifies whether the Rails server should be able to handle requests for non-dynamic resources (e.g., assets) |