diff --git a/apps/opentelemetry_api/lib/open_telemetry/span.ex b/apps/opentelemetry_api/lib/open_telemetry/span.ex
index 91a885cc0..0fdceff13 100644
--- a/apps/opentelemetry_api/lib/open_telemetry/span.ex
+++ b/apps/opentelemetry_api/lib/open_telemetry/span.ex
@@ -77,6 +77,28 @@ defmodule OpenTelemetry.Span do
   @spec add_events(OpenTelemetry.span_ctx(), [OpenTelemetry.event()]) :: boolean()
   defdelegate add_events(span_ctx, events), to: :otel_span
 
+  @doc """
+  Record an exception as an event, following the semantics convetions for exceptions.
+
+  If trace is not provided, the stacktrace is retrieved from `Process.info/2`
+  """
+  @spec record_exception(OpenTelemetry.span_ctx(), Exception.t()) :: boolean()
+  def record_exception(span_ctx, exception, trace \\ nil, attributes \\ [])
+
+  def record_exception(span_ctx, exception, trace, attributes) when is_exception(exception) do
+    exception_type = to_string(exception.__struct__)
+
+    exception_attributes = [
+      {"exception.type", exception_type},
+      {"exception.message", Exception.message(exception)},
+      {"exception.stacktrace", Exception.format_stacktrace(trace)}
+    ]
+
+    add_event(span_ctx, "exception", exception_attributes ++ attributes)
+  end
+
+  def record_exception(_, _, _, _), do: false
+
   @doc """
   Sets the Status of the currently active Span.
 
diff --git a/apps/opentelemetry_api/mix.exs b/apps/opentelemetry_api/mix.exs
index 4aa1ca800..717f78cc7 100644
--- a/apps/opentelemetry_api/mix.exs
+++ b/apps/opentelemetry_api/mix.exs
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ defmodule OpenTelemetry.MixProject do
       app: app,
       version: version(Keyword.fetch!(desc, :vsn)),
       description: to_string(Keyword.fetch!(desc, :description)),
-      elixir: "~> 1.8",
+      elixir: "~> 1.11",
       start_permanent: Mix.env() == :prod,
       # We should never have dependencies
       deps: deps(Keyword.fetch!(config, :deps)),
diff --git a/test/otel_tests.exs b/test/otel_tests.exs
index ad8078fcf..bf4621e6e 100644
--- a/test/otel_tests.exs
+++ b/test/otel_tests.exs
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ defmodule OtelTests do
   require Record
   @fields Record.extract(:span, from_lib: "opentelemetry/include/otel_span.hrl")
   Record.defrecordp(:span, @fields)
+  @event_fields Record.extract(:event, from_lib: "opentelemetry_api/include/opentelemetry.hrl")
+  Record.defrecordp(:event, @event_fields)
 
   test "use Tracer to set attributes" do
     :otel_batch_processor.set_exporter(:otel_exporter_pid, self())
@@ -34,4 +36,39 @@ defmodule OtelTests do
                                                              {"attr-2", "value-2"}])}
   end
 
+  test "Span.record_exception/4 should return false if passed an invalid exception" do
+    Tracer.with_span "span-3" do
+      refute OpenTelemetry.Span.record_exception(Tracer.current_span_ctx(), :not_an_exception)
+    end
+  end
+
+  test "Span.record_exception/4 should add an exception event to the span" do
+    :otel_batch_processor.set_exporter(:otel_exporter_pid, self())
+    s = Tracer.start_span("span-4")
+
+    try do
+      raise RuntimeError, "my error message"
+    rescue
+      ex ->
+        assert Span.record_exception(s, ex, __STACKTRACE__)
+        assert Span.end_span(s)
+
+        stacktrace = Exception.format_stacktrace(__STACKTRACE__)
+
+        assert_receive {:span,
+                        span(
+                          name: "span-4",
+                          events: [
+                            event(
+                              name: "exception",
+                              attributes: [
+                                {"exception.type", "Elixir.RuntimeError"},
+                                {"exception.message", "my error message"},
+                                {"exception.stacktrace", ^stacktrace}
+                              ]
+                            )
+                          ]
+                        )}
+    end
+  end
 end