diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py
index f13d1b9f4de..43382a8c4c2 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ def _retryable(resp: requests.Response) -> bool:
     def export(
         self,
         metrics_data: MetricsData,
-        timeout_millis: float = 10_000,
+        timeout_millis: Optional[float] = None,
         **kwargs,
     ) -> MetricExportResult:
         if self._shutdown:
@@ -205,7 +205,10 @@ def export(
 
         serialized_data = encode_metrics(metrics_data)
         return self._exporter.export_with_retry(
-            serialized_data.SerializeToString()
+            serialized_data.SerializeToString(),
+            timeout_sec=(
+                timeout_millis / 1000 if timeout_millis is not None else None
+            ),
         )
 
     def shutdown(self, timeout_millis: float = 30_000, **kwargs) -> None: