diff --git a/backend/src/evalassist/__init__.py b/backend/src/evalassist/__init__.py
index 5caab1b3..c10988db 100644
--- a/backend/src/evalassist/__init__.py
+++ b/backend/src/evalassist/__init__.py
@@ -1,23 +1,4 @@
 import logging
 
-root_pkg_logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
-root_pkg_logger.propagate = False
-
-# Stream handler (console)
-stream_handler = logging.StreamHandler()
-stream_handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
-
-formatter = logging.Formatter(
-    "%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(lineno)d - %(levelname)s - %(message)s"
-)
-stream_handler.setFormatter(formatter)
-root_pkg_logger.addHandler(stream_handler)
-
-# File handler
-file_handler = logging.FileHandler("app.log", mode="a", encoding="utf-8")
-file_handler.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
-file_handler.setFormatter(formatter)
-root_pkg_logger.addHandler(file_handler)
-
-# Set logger level
-root_pkg_logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+logger.addHandler(logging.NullHandler())
diff --git a/backend/src/evalassist/const.py b/backend/src/evalassist/const.py
index 5e3a70d7..699456ff 100644
--- a/backend/src/evalassist/const.py
+++ b/backend/src/evalassist/const.py
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@
 STATIC_DIR = Path(os.getenv("STATIC_DIR", EVAL_ASSIST_DIR / "static"))
 DATA_DIR = Path(os.getenv("DATA_DIR", EVAL_ASSIST_DIR / "data")).expanduser()
 DATA_DIR.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+LOG_DIR = Path(os.getenv("EVALASSIST_LOG_DIR", EVAL_ASSIST_DIR / "logs")).expanduser()
 DEFAULT_DATABASE_URL = f"sqlite:////{DATA_DIR / 'evalassist.db'}"
 DATABASE_URL = os.getenv("DATABASE_URL", DEFAULT_DATABASE_URL)
 TEMPORARY_FILES_FOLDER = EVAL_ASSIST_DIR / "temporary_files"
diff --git a/backend/src/evalassist/logging_config.py b/backend/src/evalassist/logging_config.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dfe0e1e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/src/evalassist/logging_config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+import logging
+import logging.config
+import os
+import pathlib
+
+from evalassist.const import LOG_DIR
+
+
+def configure_logging():
+    handlers = ["console"]
+    dict_config: dict = {
+        "version": 1,
+        "disable_existing_loggers": False,
+        "formatters": {
+            "standard": {
+                "format": "%(asctime)s - %(name)s - %(lineno)d - %(levelname)s - %(message)s"
+            }
+        },
+        "handlers": {
+            "console": {
+                "class": "logging.StreamHandler",
+                "level": "INFO",  # or configurable via env / CLI flag
+                "formatter": "standard",
+                "stream": "ext://sys.stdout",
+            },
+        },
+        "root": {"handlers": handlers, "level": "DEBUG", "propagate": False},
+        # 👇 Add this
+        "loggers": {
+            "httpx": {
+                "level": "WARNING",
+                "handlers": [],
+                "propagate": True,
+            },
+            "LiteLLM": {
+                "level": "WARNING",
+                "handlers": [],
+                "propagate": True,
+            },
+            # Sometimes LiteLLM uses lowercase logger names:
+            "litellm": {
+                "level": "WARNING",
+                "handlers": [],
+                "propagate": True,
+            },
+        },
+    }
+
+    if LOG_DIR:
+        pathlib.Path(LOG_DIR).mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        handlers.append("file")
+        dict_config["handlers"]["file"] = {
+            "class": "logging.FileHandler",
+            "level": "DEBUG",
+            "formatter": "standard",
+            "filename": os.path.join(LOG_DIR, "evalassist.log"),
+            "encoding": "utf-8",
+            "mode": "a",
+        }
+
+    logging.config.dictConfig(dict_config)
diff --git a/backend/src/evalassist/main.py b/backend/src/evalassist/main.py
index 8cdc4ec3..96638fdb 100644
--- a/backend/src/evalassist/main.py
+++ b/backend/src/evalassist/main.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import nest_asyncio
 import pandas as pd
 from evalassist.judges.base import UnitxtInferenceEngineMixin
+from evalassist.logging_config import configure_logging
 from fastapi import (
     APIRouter,
     BackgroundTasks,
@@ -89,6 +90,7 @@
 )
 
 nest_asyncio.apply()
+configure_logging()
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 app = FastAPI()
 app.add_middleware(
diff --git a/backend/src/evalassist/utils.py b/backend/src/evalassist/utils.py
index 4a47be5b..383da3fe 100644
--- a/backend/src/evalassist/utils.py
+++ b/backend/src/evalassist/utils.py
@@ -62,9 +62,8 @@ def get_custom_models():
         with open(CUSTOM_MODELS_PATH, "r", encoding="utf-8") as file:
             try:
                 custom_models = json.load(file)
-                from . import root_pkg_logger
 
-                root_pkg_logger.debug(
+                logger.debug(
                     "Loaded the following custom models",
                     json.dumps(custom_models, indent=2),
                 )