diff --git a/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackend.scala b/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackend.scala
index a631fe7866..3308790678 100644
--- a/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackend.scala
+++ b/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/main/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackend.scala
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package sttp.client4.opentelemetry
 
 import io.opentelemetry.api.OpenTelemetry
+import io.opentelemetry.api.trace.SpanKind
 import io.opentelemetry.context.Context
 import io.opentelemetry.context.propagation.TextMapSetter
 import sttp.capabilities.Effect
@@ -52,6 +53,7 @@ class OpenTelemetryTracingBackend[F[_], P](delegate: GenericBackend[F, P], confi
       .eval {
         config.tracer
           .spanBuilder(config.spanName(request))
+          .setSpanKind(SpanKind.CLIENT)
           .setAllAttributes(config.requestAttributes(request))
           .startSpan()
       }
diff --git a/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackendTest.scala b/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackendTest.scala
index d00388fc2a..70472990f7 100644
--- a/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackendTest.scala
+++ b/observability/opentelemetry-backend/src/test/scala/sttp/client4/opentelemetry/OpenTelemetryTracingBackendTest.scala
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ class OpenTelemetryTracingBackendTest extends AnyFlatSpec with Matchers {
     val span = spanItems.head
 
     span.getName() shouldBe "GET"
+    span.getKind() shouldBe io.opentelemetry.api.trace.SpanKind.CLIENT
 
     val attributes = span.getAttributes().asMap().asScala
     attributes(UrlAttributes.URL_FULL) shouldBe "http://test.com/foo"
@@ -58,6 +59,7 @@ class OpenTelemetryTracingBackendTest extends AnyFlatSpec with Matchers {
     spanItems should have size 1
 
     val span = spanItems.head
+    span.getKind() shouldBe io.opentelemetry.api.trace.SpanKind.CLIENT
     val attributes = span.getAttributes().asMap().asScala
     attributes(UrlAttributes.URL_FULL) shouldBe "http://test.com/foo"
     attributes(ErrorAttributes.ERROR_TYPE) shouldBe "RuntimeException"