diff --git a/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/AggregateEntry.java b/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/AggregateEntry.java
index f407167be37..8d6dc6b72d0 100644
--- a/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/AggregateEntry.java
+++ b/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/AggregateEntry.java
@@ -127,7 +127,15 @@ final class AggregateEntry extends Hashtable.Entry {
 
   // Mutable aggregate state -- single-thread (consumer/aggregator) writer.
   private final Histogram okLatencies = Histogram.newHistogram();
-  private final Histogram errorLatencies = Histogram.newHistogram();
+
+  /**
+   * Lazily allocated on the first recorded error. Most entries never see an error and keep this
+   * null for life; {@link SerializingMetricWriter} writes a cached empty-histogram form when null
+   * to keep the wire payload identical. Once allocated, it survives {@link #clear()} (cleared, not
+   * nulled) since an entry that errored once tends to error again.
+   */
+  @Nullable private Histogram errorLatencies;
+
   private int errorCount;
   private int hitCount;
   private int topLevelCount;
@@ -165,7 +173,7 @@ void recordOneDuration(long tagAndDuration) {
     }
     if ((tagAndDuration & ERROR_TAG) == ERROR_TAG) {
       tagAndDuration ^= ERROR_TAG;
-      errorLatencies.accept(tagAndDuration);
+      errorLatenciesForWrite().accept(tagAndDuration);
       ++errorCount;
     } else {
       okLatencies.accept(tagAndDuration);
@@ -193,10 +201,26 @@ Histogram getOkLatencies() {
     return okLatencies;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Returns the entry's error-latency histogram, or {@code null} if no error has been recorded.
+   * Callers serializing this should treat {@code null} as "emit a cached empty histogram"; see
+   * {@link SerializingMetricWriter}.
+   */
+  @Nullable
   Histogram getErrorLatencies() {
     return errorLatencies;
   }
 
+  /** Lazy-allocates {@link #errorLatencies} on the first error. */
+  private Histogram errorLatenciesForWrite() {
+    Histogram h = errorLatencies;
+    if (h == null) {
+      h = Histogram.newHistogram();
+      errorLatencies = h;
+    }
+    return h;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Resets the per-cycle counters and histograms. Label fields ({@code resource}, {@code service},
    * ..., {@code peerTagNames}, {@code peerTagValues}) are deliberately left intact -- they're the
@@ -210,7 +234,10 @@ void clear() {
     this.topLevelCount = 0;
     this.duration = 0;
     this.okLatencies.clear();
-    this.errorLatencies.clear();
+    // errorLatencies stays null on entries that never errored. Only clear if it was allocated.
+    if (this.errorLatencies != null) {
+      this.errorLatencies.clear();
+    }
   }
 
   boolean matches(SpanSnapshot s) {
diff --git a/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/SerializingMetricWriter.java b/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/SerializingMetricWriter.java
index 7644ebaf044..c9fb15b4d0c 100644
--- a/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/SerializingMetricWriter.java
+++ b/dd-trace-core/src/main/java/datadog/trace/common/metrics/SerializingMetricWriter.java
@@ -227,7 +227,32 @@ public void add(AggregateEntry entry) {
     writer.writeBinary(entry.getOkLatencies().serialize());
 
     writer.writeUTF8(ERROR_SUMMARY);
-    writer.writeBinary(entry.getErrorLatencies().serialize());
+    final datadog.metrics.api.Histogram errorLatencies = entry.getErrorLatencies();
+    if (errorLatencies != null) {
+      writer.writeBinary(errorLatencies.serialize());
+    } else {
+      // Entry never saw an error; emit a cached empty-histogram payload so the wire format is
+      // unchanged without allocating a histogram per entry.
+      writer.writeBinary(emptyErrorHistogramBytes());
+    }
+  }
+
+  private byte[] emptyHistogramBytesCache;
+
+  /**
+   * Returns the cached serialized form of an empty histogram. Computed lazily on first call so the
+   * {@link datadog.metrics.api.Histograms} factory has been registered (by the producer-side tracer
+   * startup or test setup) before we sample its output.
+   */
+  private byte[] emptyErrorHistogramBytes() {
+    byte[] cached = emptyHistogramBytesCache;
+    if (cached == null) {
+      java.nio.ByteBuffer buf = datadog.metrics.api.Histogram.newHistogram().serialize();
+      cached = new byte[buf.remaining()];
+      buf.get(cached);
+      emptyHistogramBytesCache = cached;
+    }
+    return cached;
   }
 
   @Override