diff --git a/docs/user_guide/getting_started/cloud_setup_guide.md b/docs/user_guide/getting_started/cloud_setup_guide.md
index 0a3f420dd..5ab8e9bf6 100644
--- a/docs/user_guide/getting_started/cloud_setup_guide.md
+++ b/docs/user_guide/getting_started/cloud_setup_guide.md
@@ -143,6 +143,24 @@ gcloud storage buckets add-iam-policy-binding $BUCKET_NAME \
 11. Give your SA `roles/bigquery.dataOwner` on the datasets you created. See
     [instructions](https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/control-access-to-resources-iam#bq_2).
 
+### Console log format
+
+On App Engine and Kubernetes, `gigl.common.logger.Logger` routes records to Google Cloud Logging, which on GKE renders
+each one as a single-line JSON envelope. To get the plain console format instead, set:
+
+```bash
+export GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING="1"
+```
+
+`1` and `true` (case-insensitive) disable cloud logging; anything else leaves it on.
+
+This is worth setting on processes whose stdout is relayed by another system before it reaches Cloud Logging. Ray is the
+motivating case: it prefixes each worker line it forwards to the driver with `(RayTrainWorker pid=...)`, which makes the
+line invalid JSON, so Cloud Logging stores it as a plain `textPayload` and the structured fields (`severity`,
+`sourceLocation`, trace correlation) are dropped anyway. The variable is read from the environment so that processes
+started with the `spawn` method — which inherit `os.environ` but not the parent's logging configuration — pick it up
+without each entry point having to opt in.
+
 ## AWS Project Setup Guide
 
 - Not yet supported
diff --git a/gigl/common/logger.py b/gigl/common/logger.py
index 67184b7e2..110eefb72 100644
--- a/gigl/common/logger.py
+++ b/gigl/common/logger.py
@@ -6,7 +6,11 @@
 
 from google.cloud import logging as google_cloud_logging
 
-from gigl.env.constants import GIGL_DEBUG, is_env_flag_enabled
+from gigl.env.constants import (
+    GIGL_DEBUG,
+    GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING_ENV_KEY,
+    is_env_flag_enabled,
+)
 
 _BASE_LOG_FILE_PATH = "/tmp/research/gbml/logs"
 
@@ -14,6 +18,11 @@
 class Logger(logging.LoggerAdapter):
     """
     GiGL's custom logger class used for local and cloud logging (VertexAI, Dataflow, etc.)
+
+    On App Engine and Kubernetes, records are routed to Google Cloud Logging, which
+    renders them as GCP JSON. Set ``GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING`` to fall back to the
+    console format.
+
     Args:
         logger (Optional[logging.Logger]): A custom logger to use. If not provided, the default logger will be created.
         name (Optional[str]): The name to be used for the logger. By default uses "root".
@@ -56,8 +65,12 @@ def _setup_logger(
     ) -> None:
         handler: logging.Handler
         if not logger.handlers:
-            if os.getenv("GAE_APPLICATION") or os.environ.get(
-                "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST"
+            is_cloud_environment = bool(
+                os.getenv("GAE_APPLICATION")
+                or os.environ.get("KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST")
+            )
+            if is_cloud_environment and not is_env_flag_enabled(
+                GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING_ENV_KEY
             ):
                 # Google Cloud Logging
                 client = google_cloud_logging.Client()
diff --git a/gigl/env/constants.py b/gigl/env/constants.py
index 425bce1b6..e471c181c 100644
--- a/gigl/env/constants.py
+++ b/gigl/env/constants.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 GIGL_CUDA_DOCKER_URI_ENV_KEY: Final[str] = "GIGL_CUDA_DOCKER_URI"
 GIGL_COMPONENT_ENV_KEY: Final[str] = "GIGL_COMPONENT"
 GIGL_BIGQUERY_QUOTA_PROJECT_ENV_KEY: Final[str] = "GIGL_BIGQUERY_QUOTA_PROJECT"
+GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING_ENV_KEY: Final[str] = "GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING"
 GIGL_ENABLE_PERF_MONITORING: Final[str] = "GIGL_ENABLE_PERF_MONITORING"
 GIGL_DEBUG: Final[str] = "GIGL_DEBUG"
 
diff --git a/tests/unit/common/test_logger.py b/tests/unit/common/logger_test.py
similarity index 52%
rename from tests/unit/common/test_logger.py
rename to tests/unit/common/logger_test.py
index 2ff4a7de9..09a156f38 100644
--- a/tests/unit/common/test_logger.py
+++ b/tests/unit/common/logger_test.py
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 import copy
+import logging
+import os
 import pickle
+from unittest import mock
 
 from absl.testing import absltest
 
@@ -33,6 +36,35 @@ def test_pickle_round_trips(self) -> None:
         self.assertIsInstance(clone, Logger)
         clone.info("pickle works")
 
+    def test_disabling_cloud_logging_uses_console_handler(self) -> None:
+        # KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST alone would send records to Google Cloud Logging as
+        # GCP JSON; GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING must win and give the console format.
+        with mock.patch.dict(
+            os.environ,
+            {
+                "KUBERNETES_SERVICE_HOST": "10.0.0.1",
+                "GIGL_DISABLE_CLOUD_LOGGING": "1",
+            },
+        ):
+            logger = Logger(name="test_cloud_logging_disabled")
+
+        handlers = logger.logger.handlers
+        self.assertEqual(len(handlers), 1)
+        self.assertIsInstance(handlers[0], logging.StreamHandler)
+        record = logging.LogRecord(
+            name="test_cloud_logging_disabled",
+            level=logging.INFO,
+            pathname="export.py",
+            lineno=197,
+            msg="upload took 8.82 seconds",
+            args=None,
+            exc_info=None,
+            func="_flush",
+        )
+        formatted = handlers[0].format(record)
+        self.assertIn("[INFO] : upload took 8.82 seconds", formatted)
+        self.assertIn("(export.py:_flush:197)", formatted)
+
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     absltest.main()