diff --git a/api-publishing/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/EventPublishingController.java b/api-publishing/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/EventPublishingController.java
index 3add7bad62..371a97b622 100644
--- a/api-publishing/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/EventPublishingController.java
+++ b/api-publishing/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/EventPublishingController.java
@@ -180,7 +180,9 @@ private ResponseEntity postBinaryEvents(final String eventTypeName,
                             "publishing record result can not be empty");
                 }
                 final EventPublishResult result = publishingResultConverter.mapPublishingResultToView(recordResults);
-                final int eventCount = result.getResponses().size();
+
+                final int eventCount = nakadiRecords.size();
+                TracingService.setTag("number_of_events", eventCount);
 
                 final long totalSizeBytes = countingInputStream.getCount();
                 TracingService.setTag("slo_bucket", TracingService.getSLOBucketName(totalSizeBytes));
@@ -264,11 +266,14 @@ private ResponseEntity postEventInternal(final String eventTypeName,
             } else {
                 result = publisher.publish(eventsAsString, eventTypeName, consumerTags);
             }
+            // FIXME: there should be a more direct way to get the input batch size
             final int eventCount = result.getResponses().size();
 
             reportMetrics(eventTypeMetrics, result, totalSizeBytes, eventCount);
             reportSLOs(startingNanos, totalSizeBytes, eventCount, result, eventTypeName, client);
 
+            TracingService.setTag("number_of_events", eventCount);
+
             if (result.getStatus() == EventPublishingStatus.FAILED) {
                 TracingService.setErrorFlag();
             }
diff --git a/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/BinaryEventPublisher.java b/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/BinaryEventPublisher.java
index 1212598e61..d6367912ff 100644
--- a/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/BinaryEventPublisher.java
+++ b/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/BinaryEventPublisher.java
@@ -82,9 +82,6 @@ private List<NakadiRecordResult> processInternal(final EventType eventType,
                                                      final List<NakadiRecord> records,
                                                      final List<Check> checks,
                                                      final Map<HeaderTag, String> consumerTags) {
-
-        TracingService.setTag("number_of_events", records.size());
-
         for (final Check check : checks) {
             final List<NakadiRecordResult> res = check.execute(eventType, records);
             if (res != null && !res.isEmpty()) {
diff --git a/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/EventPublisher.java b/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/EventPublisher.java
index af9bc3c6ea..5be8b4464b 100644
--- a/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/EventPublisher.java
+++ b/core-services/src/main/java/org/zalando/nakadi/service/publishing/EventPublisher.java
@@ -137,9 +137,6 @@ EventPublishResult processInternal(final String events,
 
         Closeable publishingCloser = null;
         final List<BatchItem> batch = BatchFactory.from(events);
-
-        TracingService.setTag("number_of_events", batch.size());
-
         try {
             publishingCloser = timelineSync.workWithEventType(eventTypeName, nakadiSettings.getTimelineWaitTimeoutMs());