diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1f252e8290..9def037b0c 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,11 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## Unreleased
 
+### Fixed
+
+- `opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery` Fix a memory leak where a reference to a task identifier is kept indefinitely
+  ([#3463](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python-contrib/pull/3463))
+
 ## Version 1.36.0/0.57b0 (2025-07-29)
 
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/celery/__init__.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/celery/__init__.py
index 908f158507..b9702f46dc 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/celery/__init__.py
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/src/opentelemetry/instrumentation/celery/__init__.py
@@ -362,6 +362,7 @@ def _record_histograms(self, task_id, metric_attributes):
             self.task_id_to_start_time.get(task_id),
             attributes=metric_attributes,
         )
+        self.task_id_to_start_time.pop(task_id, None)
 
     def create_celery_metrics(self, meter) -> None:
         self.metrics = {
diff --git a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/tests/test_metrics.py b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/tests/test_metrics.py
index f83759317b..69dae94b81 100644
--- a/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/tests/test_metrics.py
+++ b/instrumentation/opentelemetry-instrumentation-celery/tests/test_metrics.py
@@ -42,6 +42,8 @@ def test_basic_metric(self):
         task_runtime_estimated = (default_timer() - start_time) * 1000
 
         metrics = self.get_metrics()
+        self.assertEqual(CeleryInstrumentor().task_id_to_start_time, {})
+
         CeleryInstrumentor().uninstrument()
         self.assertEqual(len(metrics), 1)