diff --git a/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/trace_flags.h b/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/trace_flags.h
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..05724a50616
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/include/opentelemetry/trace/trace_flags.h
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+// Copyright 2020, OpenTelemetry Authors
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+#pragma once
+
+#include <cstdint>
+#include <cstring>
+
+#include "opentelemetry/nostd/span.h"
+
+namespace opentelemetry
+{
+namespace trace
+{
+
+// TraceFlags represents options for a Trace. These options are propagated to all child Spans
+// and determine features such as whether a Span should be traced. TraceFlags
+// are implemented as a bitmask.
+class TraceFlags final
+{
+public:
+  static constexpr uint8_t kIsSampled = 1;
+
+  TraceFlags() noexcept : rep_{0} {}
+
+  explicit TraceFlags(uint8_t flags) noexcept : rep_(flags) {}
+
+  bool IsSampled() const noexcept { return rep_ & kIsSampled; }
+
+  // Populates the buffer with the lowercase base16 representation of the flags.
+  void ToLowerBase16(nostd::span<char, 2> buffer) const noexcept
+  {
+    constexpr char kHex[] = "0123456789ABCDEF";
+    buffer[0]             = kHex[(rep_ >> 4) & 0xF];
+    buffer[1]             = kHex[(rep_ >> 0) & 0xF];
+  }
+
+  uint8_t flags() const noexcept { return rep_; }
+
+  bool operator==(const TraceFlags &that) const noexcept { return rep_ == that.rep_; }
+
+  bool operator!=(const TraceFlags &that) const noexcept { return !(*this == that); }
+
+  // Copies the TraceFlags to dest.
+  void CopyBytesTo(nostd::span<uint8_t, 1> dest) const noexcept { dest[0] = rep_; }
+
+private:
+  uint8_t rep_;
+};
+
+}  // namespace trace
+}  // namespace opentelemetry
diff --git a/api/test/trace/BUILD b/api/test/trace/BUILD
index 9098162e593..a8e8507e4eb 100644
--- a/api/test/trace/BUILD
+++ b/api/test/trace/BUILD
@@ -28,6 +28,17 @@ cc_test(
     ],
 )
 
+cc_test(
+    name = "trace_flags_test",
+    srcs = [
+        "trace_flags_test.cc",
+    ],
+    deps = [
+        "//api",
+        "@com_google_googletest//:gtest_main",
+    ],
+)
+
 cc_test(
     name = "trace_id_test",
     srcs = [
diff --git a/api/test/trace/CMakeLists.txt b/api/test/trace/CMakeLists.txt
index 1f83795886c..a74adb39fee 100644
--- a/api/test/trace/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/api/test/trace/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -16,3 +16,9 @@ add_executable(trace_id_test trace_id_test.cc)
 target_link_libraries(trace_id_test ${GTEST_BOTH_LIBRARIES}
                       ${CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT} opentelemetry_api)
 gtest_add_tests(TARGET trace_id_test TEST_PREFIX trace. TEST_LIST trace_id_test)
+
+add_executable(trace_flags_test trace_flags_test.cc)
+target_link_libraries(trace_flags_test ${GTEST_BOTH_LIBRARIES}
+                      ${CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT} opentelemetry_api)
+gtest_add_tests(TARGET trace_flags_test TEST_PREFIX trace. TEST_LIST
+                trace_flags_test)
diff --git a/api/test/trace/trace_flags_test.cc b/api/test/trace/trace_flags_test.cc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..21e737eabc6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/test/trace/trace_flags_test.cc
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#include "opentelemetry/trace/trace_flags.h"
+
+#include <cstring>
+#include <string>
+
+#include <gtest/gtest.h>
+
+namespace
+{
+
+using opentelemetry::trace::TraceFlags;
+
+std::string Hex(const TraceFlags &flags)
+{
+  char buf[2];
+  flags.ToLowerBase16(buf);
+  return std::string(buf, sizeof(buf));
+}
+
+TEST(TraceFlagsTest, DefaultConstruction)
+{
+  TraceFlags flags;
+  EXPECT_FALSE(flags.IsSampled());
+  EXPECT_EQ(0, flags.flags());
+  EXPECT_EQ("00", Hex(flags));
+}
+
+TEST(TraceFlagsTest, Sampled)
+{
+  TraceFlags flags{TraceFlags::kIsSampled};
+  EXPECT_TRUE(flags.IsSampled());
+  EXPECT_EQ(1, flags.flags());
+  EXPECT_EQ("01", Hex(flags));
+
+  uint8_t buf[1];
+  flags.CopyBytesTo(buf);
+  EXPECT_EQ(1, buf[0]);
+}
+
+}  // namespace