diff --git a/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient.go b/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient.go
index e1354a838..592dfd9cd 100644
--- a/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient.go
+++ b/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient.go
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ func (c *Client) writeCounter(e *loggregator_v2.Envelope) {
 		Data: &metricspb.Metric_Sum{
 			Sum: &metricspb.Sum{
 				AggregationTemporality: metricspb.AggregationTemporality_AGGREGATION_TEMPORALITY_CUMULATIVE,
-				IsMonotonic:            e.GetCounter().GetDelta() == 0,
+				IsMonotonic:            true,
 				DataPoints: []*metricspb.NumberDataPoint{
 					{
 						TimeUnixNano: uint64(e.GetTimestamp()), // nolint:gosec
diff --git a/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient_test.go b/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient_test.go
index a261616fd..6aa265524 100644
--- a/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient_test.go
+++ b/src/pkg/otelcolclient/otelcolclient_test.go
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Client", func() {
 					Expect(returnedErr).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
 				})
 
-				It("emits a non-monotonic sum", func() {
+				It("emits a monotonic sum", func() {
 					var msr *colmetricspb.ExportMetricsServiceRequest
 					Expect(spyMSC.requests).To(Receive(&msr))
 
@@ -455,7 +455,7 @@ var _ = Describe("Client", func() {
 												Data: &metricspb.Metric_Sum{
 													Sum: &metricspb.Sum{
 														AggregationTemporality: metricspb.AggregationTemporality_AGGREGATION_TEMPORALITY_CUMULATIVE,
-														IsMonotonic:            false,
+														IsMonotonic:            true,
 														DataPoints: []*metricspb.NumberDataPoint{
 															{
 																TimeUnixNano: 1257894000000000000,