diff --git a/internal/manifests/collector/annotations.go b/internal/manifests/collector/annotations.go
index 55fc059f30..10759afbd9 100644
--- a/internal/manifests/collector/annotations.go
+++ b/internal/manifests/collector/annotations.go
@@ -27,8 +27,25 @@ func Annotations(instance v1beta1.OpenTelemetryCollector) (map[string]string, er
 	// new map every time, so that we don't touch the instance's annotations
 	annotations := map[string]string{}
 
+	var enableAnnotations bool
+	// enableAnnotations is true only if both disable variables are false.
+	// DisableAutomaticPrometheusAnnotations takes precedence over DisablePrometheusAnnotations.
+	if instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisableAutomaticPrometheusAnnotations {
+		enableAnnotations = !instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisableAutomaticPrometheusAnnotations
+	} else if instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisablePrometheusAnnotations {
+		enableAnnotations = !instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisablePrometheusAnnotations
+	} else {
+		enableAnnotations = true
+	}
+	if enableAnnotations {
+		// Set default Prometheus annotations
+		annotations["prometheus.io/scrape"] = "true"
+		annotations["prometheus.io/port"] = "8888"
+		annotations["prometheus.io/path"] = "/metrics"
+	}
+
 	// Enable Prometheus annotations by default if DisablePrometheusAnnotations|DisableAutomaticPrometheusAnnotations is nil or true
-	if !instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisablePrometheusAnnotations || !instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisableAutomaticPrometheusAnnotations {
+	if !instance.Spec.Observability.Metrics.DisableAutomaticPrometheusAnnotations {
 		// Set default Prometheus annotations
 		annotations["prometheus.io/scrape"] = "true"
 		annotations["prometheus.io/port"] = "8888"