diff --git a/packages/node/src/sdk/initOtel.ts b/packages/node/src/sdk/initOtel.ts
index 47c8879ae3e9..652c3826fa04 100644
--- a/packages/node/src/sdk/initOtel.ts
+++ b/packages/node/src/sdk/initOtel.ts
@@ -113,11 +113,7 @@ export function setupOtel(client: NodeClient): BasicTracerProvider {
     }),
     forceFlushTimeoutMillis: 500,
   });
-  provider.addSpanProcessor(
-    new SentrySpanProcessor({
-      timeout: client.getOptions().maxSpanWaitDuration,
-    }),
-  );
+  provider.addSpanProcessor(new SentrySpanProcessor());
 
   // Initialize the provider
   provider.register({
diff --git a/packages/node/src/types.ts b/packages/node/src/types.ts
index 2c00302e2e64..d78e1761fd79 100644
--- a/packages/node/src/types.ts
+++ b/packages/node/src/types.ts
@@ -74,17 +74,6 @@ export interface BaseNodeOptions {
    */
   skipOpenTelemetrySetup?: boolean;
 
-  /**
-   * The max. duration in seconds that the SDK will wait for parent spans to be finished before discarding a span.
-   * The SDK will automatically clean up spans that have no finished parent after this duration.
-   * This is necessary to prevent memory leaks in case of parent spans that are never finished or otherwise dropped/missing.
-   * However, if you have very long-running spans in your application, a shorter duration might cause spans to be discarded too early.
-   * In this case, you can increase this duration to a value that fits your expected data.
-   *
-   * Defaults to 300 seconds (5 minutes).
-   */
-  maxSpanWaitDuration?: number;
-
   /** Callback that is executed when a fatal global error occurs. */
   onFatalError?(this: void, error: Error): void;
 }
diff --git a/packages/node/test/integration/transactions.test.ts b/packages/node/test/integration/transactions.test.ts
index e3c9203ddaf5..75f5ef85a519 100644
--- a/packages/node/test/integration/transactions.test.ts
+++ b/packages/node/test/integration/transactions.test.ts
@@ -633,63 +633,4 @@ describe('Integration | Transactions', () => {
       ]),
     );
   });
-
-  it('allows to configure `maxSpanWaitDuration` to capture long running spans', async () => {
-    const transactions: TransactionEvent[] = [];
-    const beforeSendTransaction = jest.fn(event => {
-      transactions.push(event);
-      return null;
-    });
-
-    const now = Date.now();
-    jest.useFakeTimers();
-    jest.setSystemTime(now);
-
-    const logs: unknown[] = [];
-    jest.spyOn(logger, 'log').mockImplementation(msg => logs.push(msg));
-
-    mockSdkInit({
-      enableTracing: true,
-      beforeSendTransaction,
-      maxSpanWaitDuration: 100 * 60,
-    });
-
-    Sentry.startSpanManual({ name: 'test name' }, rootSpan => {
-      const subSpan = Sentry.startInactiveSpan({ name: 'inner span 1' });
-      subSpan.end();
-
-      Sentry.startSpanManual({ name: 'inner span 2' }, innerSpan => {
-        // Child span ends after 10 min
-        setTimeout(
-          () => {
-            innerSpan.end();
-          },
-          10 * 60 * 1_000,
-        );
-      });
-
-      // root span ends after 99 min
-      setTimeout(
-        () => {
-          rootSpan.end();
-        },
-        99 * 10 * 1_000,
-      );
-    });
-
-    // Now wait for 100 mins
-    jest.advanceTimersByTime(100 * 60 * 1_000);
-
-    expect(beforeSendTransaction).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1);
-    expect(transactions).toHaveLength(1);
-    const transaction = transactions[0]!;
-
-    expect(transaction.transaction).toEqual('test name');
-    const spans = transaction.spans || [];
-
-    expect(spans).toHaveLength(2);
-
-    expect(spans[0]!.description).toEqual('inner span 1');
-    expect(spans[1]!.description).toEqual('inner span 2');
-  });
 });
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanExporter.ts b/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanExporter.ts
index f2198ae9abd8..ebd1536ff9b4 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanExporter.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanExporter.ts
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ import { parseSpanDescription } from './utils/parseSpanDescription';
 type SpanNodeCompleted = SpanNode & { span: ReadableSpan };
 
 const MAX_SPAN_COUNT = 1000;
-const DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 300; // 5 min
 
 /**
  * A Sentry-specific exporter that converts OpenTelemetry Spans to Sentry Spans & Transactions.
@@ -41,11 +40,9 @@ const DEFAULT_TIMEOUT = 300; // 5 min
 export class SentrySpanExporter {
   private _flushTimeout: ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | undefined;
   private _finishedSpans: ReadableSpan[];
-  private _timeout: number;
 
-  public constructor(options?: { timeout?: number }) {
+  public constructor() {
     this._finishedSpans = [];
-    this._timeout = options?.timeout || DEFAULT_TIMEOUT;
   }
 
   /** Export a single span. */
@@ -106,7 +103,7 @@ export class SentrySpanExporter {
    */
   private _cleanupOldSpans(spans = this._finishedSpans): void {
     this._finishedSpans = spans.filter(span => {
-      const shouldDrop = shouldCleanupSpan(span, this._timeout);
+      const shouldDrop = shouldCleanupSpan(span, 5 * 60);
       DEBUG_BUILD &&
         shouldDrop &&
         logger.log(
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanProcessor.ts b/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanProcessor.ts
index 71dab1359b94..e3f604cab64b 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanProcessor.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry/src/spanProcessor.ts
@@ -65,9 +65,9 @@ function onSpanEnd(span: Span): void {
 export class SentrySpanProcessor implements SpanProcessorInterface {
   private _exporter: SentrySpanExporter;
 
-  public constructor(options?: { timeout?: number }) {
+  public constructor() {
     setIsSetup('SentrySpanProcessor');
-    this._exporter = new SentrySpanExporter(options);
+    this._exporter = new SentrySpanExporter();
   }
 
   /**