diff --git a/spanner/client.go b/spanner/client.go
index 6f048643f6df..1e21f5934029 100644
--- a/spanner/client.go
+++ b/spanner/client.go
@@ -507,8 +507,7 @@ func newClientWithConfig(ctx context.Context, database string, config ClientConf
 		metricsProvider = noop.NewMeterProvider()
 	}
 
-	// Create a OpenTelemetry metrics configuration
-	metricsTracerFactory, err := newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(ctx, database, metricsProvider, opts...)
+	metricsTracerFactory, err := newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(ctx, database, metricsProvider, config.Compression, opts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/spanner/metrics.go b/spanner/metrics.go
index ffa57aa39d3e..a765e004f15a 100644
--- a/spanner/metrics.go
+++ b/spanner/metrics.go
@@ -21,11 +21,10 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"hash/fnv"
-	"strings"
-
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"strconv"
+	"strings"
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/google/uuid"
@@ -198,7 +197,7 @@ type builtinMetricsTracerFactory struct {
 	attemptCount       metric.Int64Counter     // Counter for the number of attempts.
 }
 
-func newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(ctx context.Context, dbpath string, metricsProvider metric.MeterProvider, opts ...option.ClientOption) (*builtinMetricsTracerFactory, error) {
+func newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(ctx context.Context, dbpath string, metricsProvider metric.MeterProvider, compression string, opts ...option.ClientOption) (*builtinMetricsTracerFactory, error) {
 	clientUID, err := generateClientUID()
 	if err != nil {
 		log.Printf("built-in metrics: generateClientUID failed: %v. Using empty string in the %v metric atteribute", err, metricLabelKeyClientUID)
@@ -229,7 +228,7 @@ func newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(ctx context.Context, dbpath string, metricsP
 	var meterProvider *sdkmetric.MeterProvider
 	if metricsProvider == nil {
 		// Create default meter provider
-		mpOptions, err := builtInMeterProviderOptions(project, opts...)
+		mpOptions, err := builtInMeterProviderOptions(project, compression, opts...)
 		if err != nil {
 			return tracerFactory, err
 		}
@@ -252,9 +251,9 @@ func newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(ctx context.Context, dbpath string, metricsP
 	return tracerFactory, err
 }
 
-func builtInMeterProviderOptions(project string, opts ...option.ClientOption) ([]sdkmetric.Option, error) {
+func builtInMeterProviderOptions(project, compression string, opts ...option.ClientOption) ([]sdkmetric.Option, error) {
 	allOpts := createExporterOptions(opts...)
-	defaultExporter, err := newMonitoringExporter(context.Background(), project, allOpts...)
+	defaultExporter, err := newMonitoringExporter(context.Background(), project, compression, allOpts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
diff --git a/spanner/metrics_monitoring_exporter.go b/spanner/metrics_monitoring_exporter.go
index d70365935f6e..d776ae62bf86 100644
--- a/spanner/metrics_monitoring_exporter.go
+++ b/spanner/metrics_monitoring_exporter.go
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ import (
 	googlemetricpb "google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/api/metric"
 	monitoredrespb "google.golang.org/genproto/googleapis/api/monitoredres"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/codes"
+	"google.golang.org/grpc/encoding/gzip"
 	"google.golang.org/grpc/status"
 	"google.golang.org/protobuf/types/known/timestamppb"
 )
@@ -76,21 +77,22 @@ func (e errUnexpectedAggregationKind) Error() string {
 // Google Cloud Monitoring.
 // Default exporter for built-in metrics
 type monitoringExporter struct {
-	shutdown     chan struct{}
-	client       *monitoring.MetricClient
-	shutdownOnce sync.Once
-	projectID    string
+	shutdown               chan struct{}
+	client                 *monitoring.MetricClient
+	shutdownOnce           sync.Once
+	projectID, compression string
 }
 
-func newMonitoringExporter(ctx context.Context, project string, opts ...option.ClientOption) (*monitoringExporter, error) {
+func newMonitoringExporter(ctx context.Context, project, compression string, opts ...option.ClientOption) (*monitoringExporter, error) {
 	client, err := monitoring.NewMetricClient(ctx, opts...)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}
 	return &monitoringExporter{
-		client:    client,
-		shutdown:  make(chan struct{}),
-		projectID: project,
+		client:      client,
+		shutdown:    make(chan struct{}),
+		projectID:   project,
+		compression: compression,
 	}, nil
 }
 
@@ -137,19 +139,21 @@ func (me *monitoringExporter) exportTimeSeries(ctx context.Context, rm *otelmetr
 	}
 
 	name := fmt.Sprintf("projects/%s", me.projectID)
-
+	ctx = callctx.SetHeaders(ctx, "x-goog-api-client", "gccl/"+internal.Version)
+	if me.compression == gzip.Name {
+		ctx = callctx.SetHeaders(ctx, requestsCompressionHeader, gzip.Name)
+	}
 	errs := []error{err}
 	for i := 0; i < len(tss); i += sendBatchSize {
 		j := i + sendBatchSize
 		if j >= len(tss) {
 			j = len(tss)
 		}
-
 		req := &monitoringpb.CreateTimeSeriesRequest{
 			Name:       name,
 			TimeSeries: tss[i:j],
 		}
-		err = me.client.CreateServiceTimeSeries(callctx.SetHeaders(ctx, "x-goog-api-client", "gccl/"+internal.Version), req)
+		err = me.client.CreateServiceTimeSeries(ctx, req)
 		if err != nil {
 			if status.Code(err) == codes.PermissionDenied {
 				err = fmt.Errorf("%w Need monitoring metric writer permission on project=%s. Follow https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/view-manage-client-side-metrics#access-client-side-metrics to set up permissions",
diff --git a/spanner/read_test.go b/spanner/read_test.go
index 99ab2362a1ee..9f6f3602595b 100644
--- a/spanner/read_test.go
+++ b/spanner/read_test.go
@@ -1778,7 +1778,7 @@ func TestIteratorStopEarly(t *testing.T) {
 }
 
 func TestIteratorWithError(t *testing.T) {
-	metricsTracerFactory, err := newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(context.Background(), "projects/my-project/instances/my-instance/databases/my-database", noop.NewMeterProvider())
+	metricsTracerFactory, err := newBuiltinMetricsTracerFactory(context.Background(), "projects/my-project/instances/my-instance/databases/my-database", noop.NewMeterProvider(), "identity")
 	if err != nil {
 		t.Fatalf("failed to create metrics tracer factory: %v", err)
 	}