diff --git a/.github/workflows/public-api-check.yml b/.github/workflows/public-api-check.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..e151c40cf0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/public-api-check.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+name: Public API check
+
+on:
+  pull_request:
+    types: [opened, synchronize, reopened, labeled, unlabeled]
+    branches:
+      - main
+
+jobs:
+  publicAPICheck:
+
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    if: "!contains(github.event.pull_request.labels.*.name, 'Skip Public API check')"
+
+    steps:
+      - name: Checkout the repo
+        uses: actions/checkout@v2
+        with:
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Checkout main
+        run: git checkout main
+
+      - name: Pull origin
+        run: git pull --rebase=false origin main
+
+      - name: Checkout pull request
+        run: git checkout ${{ github.event.pull_request.head.sha }}
+
+      - name: Set up Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v2
+        with:
+          python-version: 3.9
+
+      - name: Install tox
+        run: pip install -U tox-factor
+
+      - name: Public API Check
+        run: tox -e public-symbols-check
diff --git a/.pylintrc b/.pylintrc
index 5daedb0139d..cf61fde78dd 100644
--- a/.pylintrc
+++ b/.pylintrc
@@ -73,8 +73,9 @@ disable=missing-docstring,
       exec-used,
       super-with-arguments, # temp-pylint-upgrade
       isinstance-second-argument-not-valid-type, # temp-pylint-upgrade
-      raise-missing-from, # temp-pylint-upgrade 
-      unused-argument, # temp-pylint-upgrade 
+      raise-missing-from, # temp-pylint-upgrade
+      unused-argument, # temp-pylint-upgrade
+      redefined-builtin,
 
 # Enable the message, report, category or checker with the given id(s). You can
 # either give multiple identifier separated by comma (,) or put this option
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 9c6e72244de..e74979761a1 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -69,6 +69,14 @@ You can run:
   Python version
 - `tox -e lint` to run lint checks on all code
 
+We try to keep the amount of _public symbols_ in our code minimal. A public symbol is any Python identifier that does not start with an underscore.
+Every public symbol is something that has to be kept in order to maintain backwards compatibility, so we try to have as few as possible.
+
+To check if your PR is adding public symbols, run `tox -e public-symbols-check`. This will always fail if public symbols are being added. The idea
+behind this is that every PR that adds public symbols fails in CI, forcing reviewers to check the symbols to make sure they are strictly necessary.
+If after checking them, it is considered that they are indeed necessary, the PR will be labeled with `Skip Public API check` so that this check is not
+run.
+
 See
 [`tox.ini`](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/blob/main/tox.ini)
 for more detail on available tox commands.
diff --git a/scripts/public_symbols_checker.py b/scripts/public_symbols_checker.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bdc530e95d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/public_symbols_checker.py
@@ -0,0 +1,94 @@
+# Copyright The 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.
+
+from difflib import unified_diff
+from pathlib import Path
+from re import match
+from sys import exit
+
+from git import Repo
+from git.db import GitDB
+
+repo = Repo(__file__, odbt=GitDB, search_parent_directories=True)
+
+
+file_path_symbols = {}
+
+
+def get_symbols(change_type, diff_lines_getter, prefix):
+    for diff_lines in (
+        repo.commit("main")
+        .diff(repo.head.commit)
+        .iter_change_type(change_type)
+    ):
+
+        b_file_path = diff_lines.b_blob.path
+
+        if (
+            Path(b_file_path).suffix != ".py"
+            or "opentelemetry" not in b_file_path
+        ):
+            continue
+
+        for diff_line in diff_lines_getter(diff_lines):
+            matching_line = match(
+                r"{prefix}({symbol_re})\s=\s.+|"
+                r"{prefix}def\s({symbol_re})|"
+                r"{prefix}class\s({symbol_re})".format(
+                    symbol_re=r"[a-zA-Z][_\w]+", prefix=prefix
+                ),
+                diff_line,
+            )
+
+            if matching_line is not None:
+                if b_file_path not in file_path_symbols.keys():
+                    file_path_symbols[b_file_path] = []
+
+                file_path_symbols[b_file_path].append(
+                    next(filter(bool, matching_line.groups()))
+                )
+
+
+def a_diff_lines_getter(diff_lines):
+    return diff_lines.b_blob.data_stream.read().decode("utf-8").split("\n")
+
+
+def m_diff_lines_getter(diff_lines):
+    return unified_diff(
+        diff_lines.a_blob.data_stream.read().decode("utf-8").split("\n"),
+        diff_lines.b_blob.data_stream.read().decode("utf-8").split("\n"),
+    )
+
+
+get_symbols("A", a_diff_lines_getter, r"")
+get_symbols("M", m_diff_lines_getter, r"\+")
+
+if file_path_symbols:
+    print("The code in this branch adds the following public symbols:")
+    print()
+    for file_path, symbols in file_path_symbols.items():
+        print("- {}".format(file_path))
+        for symbol in symbols:
+            print("\t{}".format(symbol))
+        print()
+
+    print(
+        "Please make sure that all of them are strictly necessary, if not, "
+        "please consider prefixing them with an underscore to make them "
+        'private. After that, please label this PR with "Skip Public API '
+        'check".'
+    )
+    exit(1)
+else:
+    print("The code in this branch will not add any public symbols")
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index f0ee49e971b..10d1f4925bd 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ envlist =
 
     ; opentelemetry-exporter-jaeger-proto-grpc
     py3{6,7,8,9}-test-exporter-jaeger-proto-grpc
-    
+
     ; opentelemetry-exporter-jaeger-thrift
     py3{6,7,8,9}-test-exporter-jaeger-thrift
 
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ envlist =
     mypy,mypyinstalled
     docs
     docker-tests
+    public-symbols-check
 
 [testenv]
 deps =
@@ -186,6 +187,7 @@ deps =
   psutil
   readme_renderer
   httpretty
+  GitPython
 
 commands_pre =
   python -m pip install -e {toxinidir}/opentelemetry-api[test]
@@ -268,3 +270,11 @@ commands =
   pytest {posargs}
 commands_post =
   docker-compose down -v
+
+[testenv:public-symbols-check]
+basepython: python3.8
+recreate = True
+deps =
+  GitPython
+commands =
+  python {toxinidir}/scripts/public_symbols_checker.py