diff --git a/gax-java/gax/pom.xml b/gax-java/gax/pom.xml
index 2bf4bf1cea..ffcd2b3070 100644
--- a/gax-java/gax/pom.xml
+++ b/gax-java/gax/pom.xml
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>io.opentelemetry</groupId>
       <artifactId>opentelemetry-api</artifactId>
+      <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>