diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 1b80ef9ec32..b896da235d4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Overwrite logging.config.fileConfig and logging.config.dictConfig to ensure
 the OTLP `LogHandler` remains attached to the root logger. Fix a bug that
 can cause a deadlock to occur over `logging._lock` in some cases ([#4636](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4636)).
+- otlp-http-exporter: set default value for param `timeout_sec` in `_export` method
+  ([#4691](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4691))
 
 - Update OTLP gRPC/HTTP exporters: calling shutdown will now interrupt exporters that are sleeping
   before a retry attempt, and cause them to return failure immediately.
@@ -39,7 +41,7 @@ can cause a deadlock to occur over `logging._lock` in some cases ([#4636](https:
 - Update logger level to NOTSET in logs example
   ([#4637](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4637))
 - Logging API accepts optional `context`; deprecates `trace_id`, `span_id`, `trace_flags`.
-  ([#4597](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4597)) and 
+  ([#4597](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4597)) and
   ([#4668](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4668))
 - sdk: use context instead of trace_id,span_id for initializing LogRecord
   ([#4653](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-python/pull/4653))
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/_log_exporter/__init__.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/_log_exporter/__init__.py
index 4c8b4de6004..765bc5c7f5b 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/_log_exporter/__init__.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/_log_exporter/__init__.py
@@ -126,7 +126,9 @@ def __init__(
             )
         self._shutdown = False
 
-    def _export(self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: float):
+    def _export(
+        self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: Optional[float] = None
+    ):
         data = serialized_data
         if self._compression == Compression.Gzip:
             gzip_data = BytesIO()
@@ -136,6 +138,9 @@ def _export(self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: float):
         elif self._compression == Compression.Deflate:
             data = zlib.compress(serialized_data)
 
+        if timeout_sec is None:
+            timeout_sec = self._timeout
+
         # By default, keep-alive is enabled in Session's request
         # headers. Backends may choose to close the connection
         # while a post happens which causes an unhandled
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py
index 486344753a0..3b7079f7fc2 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/metric_exporter/__init__.py
@@ -172,7 +172,9 @@ def __init__(
         )
         self._shutdown = False
 
-    def _export(self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: float):
+    def _export(
+        self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: Optional[float] = None
+    ):
         data = serialized_data
         if self._compression == Compression.Gzip:
             gzip_data = BytesIO()
@@ -182,6 +184,9 @@ def _export(self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: float):
         elif self._compression == Compression.Deflate:
             data = zlib.compress(serialized_data)
 
+        if timeout_sec is None:
+            timeout_sec = self._timeout
+
         # By default, keep-alive is enabled in Session's request
         # headers. Backends may choose to close the connection
         # while a post happens which causes an unhandled
diff --git a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/trace_exporter/__init__.py b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/trace_exporter/__init__.py
index 8b97a651d4f..8ea73d4c0f9 100644
--- a/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/trace_exporter/__init__.py
+++ b/exporter/opentelemetry-exporter-otlp-proto-http/src/opentelemetry/exporter/otlp/proto/http/trace_exporter/__init__.py
@@ -124,7 +124,9 @@ def __init__(
             )
         self._shutdown = False
 
-    def _export(self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: float):
+    def _export(
+        self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: Optional[float] = None
+    ):
         data = serialized_data
         if self._compression == Compression.Gzip:
             gzip_data = BytesIO()
@@ -134,6 +136,9 @@ def _export(self, serialized_data: bytes, timeout_sec: float):
         elif self._compression == Compression.Deflate:
             data = zlib.compress(serialized_data)
 
+        if timeout_sec is None:
+            timeout_sec = self._timeout
+
         # By default, keep-alive is enabled in Session's request
         # headers. Backends may choose to close the connection
         # while a post happens which causes an unhandled