diff --git a/experimental/CHANGELOG.md b/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
index defff18a1a9..db7230405a0 100644
--- a/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ For notes on migrating to 2.x / 0.200.x see [the upgrade guide](doc/upgrade-to-2
 ### :boom: Breaking Changes
 
 * feat(configuration)!: rename OTEL_EXPERIMENTAL_CONFIG_FILE to OTEL_CONFIG_FILE [#6486](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/6486) @maryliag
+* refactor!(otlp-grpc-exporter-base): remove `headers` from gRPC exporter config type, passing headers now results in a compile-time error instead of being silently ignored [#6487](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/6487)
 
 ### :rocket: Features
 
diff --git a/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/configuration/convert-legacy-otlp-grpc-options.ts b/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/configuration/convert-legacy-otlp-grpc-options.ts
index 02d87778121..1733f920a59 100644
--- a/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/configuration/convert-legacy-otlp-grpc-options.ts
+++ b/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/configuration/convert-legacy-otlp-grpc-options.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
  */
 import type { OTLPGRPCExporterConfigNode } from '../types';
-import { diag } from '@opentelemetry/api';
 import type { OtlpGrpcConfiguration } from './otlp-grpc-configuration';
 import {
   getOtlpGrpcDefaultConfiguration,
@@ -21,10 +20,6 @@ export function convertLegacyOtlpGrpcOptions(
   config: OTLPGRPCExporterConfigNode,
   signalIdentifier: string
 ): OtlpGrpcConfiguration {
-  if (config.headers) {
-    diag.warn('Headers cannot be set when using grpc');
-  }
-
   // keep credentials locally in case user updates the reference on the config object
   const userProvidedCredentials = config.credentials;
   return mergeOtlpGrpcConfigurationWithDefaults(
diff --git a/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/types.ts b/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/types.ts
index ea2d86c18d6..ee4aaad2bb3 100644
--- a/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/types.ts
+++ b/experimental/packages/otlp-grpc-exporter-base/src/types.ts
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
  */
 
 import type { ChannelCredentials, Metadata } from '@grpc/grpc-js';
-
 import type {
   CompressionAlgorithm,
   OTLPExporterConfigBase,
@@ -13,7 +12,8 @@ import type {
 /**
  * OTLP Exporter Config for Node
  */
-export interface OTLPGRPCExporterConfigNode extends OTLPExporterConfigBase {
+export interface OTLPGRPCExporterConfigNode
+  extends Omit<OTLPExporterConfigBase, 'headers'> {
   credentials?: ChannelCredentials;
   metadata?: Metadata;
   compression?: CompressionAlgorithm;