diff --git a/ecscollector/collector.go b/ecscollector/collector.go
index c696d44..01fda9c 100644
--- a/ecscollector/collector.go
+++ b/ecscollector/collector.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package ecscollector
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"fmt"
 	"log/slog"
 
 	"github.com/docker/docker/api/types/container"
@@ -193,7 +194,15 @@ func (c *collector) Collect(ch chan<- prometheus.Metric) {
 	ctx := context.Background()
 	metadata, err := c.client.RetrieveTaskMetadata(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
-		c.logger.Debug("Failed to retrieve metadata", "error", err)
+		c.logger.Debug("Failed to retrieve task metadata", "error", err)
+		// Signal that this Collect has failed. This ultimately results in an
+		// HTTP 500 being served for the /metrics response.
+		//
+		// While it would be most technically correct to do `NewInvalidMetric`
+		// for all of the Descs here, it just results in N identical error
+		// messages being printed in the /metrics response, so it seems a bit
+		// absurd to do that.
+		ch <- prometheus.NewInvalidMetric(taskMetadataDesc, fmt.Errorf("failed to retrieve task metadata: %w", err))
 		return
 	}
 	c.logger.Debug("Got ECS task metadata response", "metadata", metadata)
@@ -261,7 +270,15 @@ func (c *collector) Collect(ch chan<- prometheus.Metric) {
 
 	stats, err := c.client.RetrieveTaskStats(ctx)
 	if err != nil {
-		c.logger.Debug("Failed to retrieve container stats", "error", err)
+		c.logger.Debug("Failed to retrieve task stats", "error", err)
+		// Signal that this Collect has failed. This ultimately results in an
+		// HTTP 500 being served for the /metrics response.
+		//
+		// While it would be most technically correct to do `NewInvalidMetric`
+		// for all of the Descs here, it just results in N identical error
+		// messages being printed in the /metrics response, so it seems a bit
+		// absurd to do that.
+		ch <- prometheus.NewInvalidMetric(memUsageDesc, fmt.Errorf("failed to retrieve task stats: %w", err))
 		return
 	}
 	c.logger.Debug("Got ECS task stats response", "stats", stats)
diff --git a/ecscollector/collector_test.go b/ecscollector/collector_test.go
index 57e54f5..04ec429 100644
--- a/ecscollector/collector_test.go
+++ b/ecscollector/collector_test.go
@@ -138,3 +138,24 @@ func TestEc2Metrics(t *testing.T) {
 	collector := NewCollector(metadataClient, slog.Default())
 	assertSnapshot(t, collector, "testdata/snapshots/ec2_metrics.txt")
 }
+
+func TestApiErrors(t *testing.T) {
+	mux := http.NewServeMux()
+	mux.HandleFunc("GET /task", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		w.WriteHeader(500)
+		w.Write([]byte("Internal Server Error"))
+	})
+	mux.HandleFunc("GET /task/stats", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
+		w.WriteHeader(500)
+		w.Write([]byte("Internal Server Error"))
+	})
+	metadataServer := httptest.NewServer(mux)
+	defer metadataServer.Close()
+	metadataClient := ecsmetadata.NewClient(metadataServer.URL)
+	collector := NewCollector(metadataClient, slog.Default())
+
+	_, err := renderMetrics(collector)
+	if err == nil || err.Error() != "non-200 metrics response: 500" {
+		t.Fatalf("expected 500 error but got err: %v", err)
+	}
+}