In general, techniques for are described for providing application metadata using an Internet Protocol Flow Information eXport (IPFIX) protocol in computer networks. In one example, a first network device including a processor and a memory may perform the techniques. The processor may be configured to determine types of the application metadata that the first network device has a capability to detect through analysis of network packets. The application metadata may comprise data representative of network protocols used by networking processes that exchange packets. The memory may be configured to store the application metadata. The processor may further be configured to execute the IPFIX protocol to advertise the types of the application metadata to a second network device configured to collect a subset of the application metadata.