diff --git a/exporters/otlp/include/opentelemetry/exporters/otlp/otlp_http_metric_exporter.h b/exporters/otlp/include/opentelemetry/exporters/otlp/otlp_http_metric_exporter.h
index 217882e715..4cb2556f53 100644
--- a/exporters/otlp/include/opentelemetry/exporters/otlp/otlp_http_metric_exporter.h
+++ b/exporters/otlp/include/opentelemetry/exporters/otlp/otlp_http_metric_exporter.h
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ struct OtlpHttpMetricExporterOptions
 
   // Preferred Aggregation Temporality
   sdk::metrics::AggregationTemporality aggregation_temporality =
-      sdk::metrics::AggregationTemporality::kCumulative;
+      sdk::metrics::AggregationTemporality::kDelta;
 
 #  ifdef ENABLE_ASYNC_EXPORT
   // Concurrent requests