diff --git a/.changelog/5821.changed b/.changelog/5821.changed
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e6291b0e32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/5821.changed
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+`opentelemetry-sdk`: The experimental `Tracer._start_typed_span` and `Tracer._start_as_current_typed_span` no longer record exception span events by default; pass `record_exception=True` to opt in
diff --git a/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/trace/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/trace/__init__.py
index b108edc271..592e263365 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/trace/__init__.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-api/src/opentelemetry/trace/__init__.py
@@ -431,9 +431,9 @@ def _start_typed_span(
                 a case-sensitive ASCII string of at most 255 characters that
                 starts with a letter, followed by letters, digits, ``_``,
                 ``.``, ``-`` or ``/``. Not validated by the API.
-            kwargs: Options from :class:`_SpanOptions`, with the same defaults
-                as :meth:`start_span`. Implementations ignore options they
-                don't know.
+            kwargs: Options from :class:`_SpanOptions`. ``record_exception``
+                defaults to ``False``, ``set_status_on_exception`` to ``True``.
+                Implementations ignore options they don't know.
 
         The default implementation calls :meth:`start_span` without ``type_``.
         Implementations that support span type should override this method.
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/__init__.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/__init__.py
index 6394d044cf..28202f204f 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/__init__.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/trace/__init__.py
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@
 
 _KNOWN_SPAN_OPTIONS = frozenset(("record_exception", "set_status_on_exception"))
 # (record_exception, set_status_on_exception) when no options are passed
-_DEFAULT_SPAN_OPTIONS = (True, True)
+_DEFAULT_SPAN_OPTIONS = (False, True)
 
 
 def _is_valid_span_type(span_type: object) -> bool:
@@ -106,9 +106,10 @@ def _read_span_options(kwargs: Mapping[str, Any]) -> tuple[bool, bool]:
             "Ignoring unknown span start options: %s",
             sorted(kwargs.keys() - _KNOWN_SPAN_OPTIONS),
         )
-    # Both default to True. Only an explicit False turns them off, other values are ignored.
+    # record_exception defaults to False, set_status_on_exception to True.
+    # Non-bool values fall back to the default.
     return (
-        kwargs.get("record_exception") is not False,
+        kwargs.get("record_exception") is True,
         kwargs.get("set_status_on_exception") is not False,
     )
 
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/test_trace.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/test_trace.py
index b41b4f8c94..6cba30b402 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/test_trace.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/tests/trace/test_trace.py
@@ -885,25 +885,25 @@ def test_typed_span_exception_handling_defaults(self):
             with tracer._start_as_current_typed_span("s", type_="a") as span:
                 raise DummyError()
         self.assertIs(span.status.status_code, StatusCode.ERROR)
-        self.assertEqual(span.events[0].name, "exception")
+        self.assertEqual(len(span.events), 0)
 
     def test_typed_span_exception_flags_ignore_non_bool(self):
         tracer = new_tracer()
         with self.assertRaises(DummyError):
-            with tracer._start_as_current_typed_span("s", record_exception="no", set_status_on_exception=0) as span:
+            with tracer._start_as_current_typed_span("s", record_exception="yes", set_status_on_exception=0) as span:
                 raise DummyError()
         self.assertIs(span.status.status_code, StatusCode.ERROR)
-        self.assertEqual(span.events[0].name, "exception")
+        self.assertEqual(len(span.events), 0)
 
     def test_typed_span_exception_handling_from_kwargs(self):
         tracer = new_tracer()
         with self.assertRaises(DummyError):
             with tracer._start_as_current_typed_span(
-                "s", type_="a", record_exception=False, set_status_on_exception=False
+                "s", type_="a", record_exception=True, set_status_on_exception=False
             ) as span:
                 raise DummyError()
         self.assertIs(span.status.status_code, StatusCode.UNSET)
-        self.assertEqual(len(span.events), 0)
+        self.assertEqual(span.events[0].name, "exception")
 
     def test_typed_span_unknown_options_warn(self):
         tracer = new_tracer()