diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/src/xhr.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/src/xhr.ts
index b4009d6861..88eec64ae6 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/src/xhr.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/src/xhr.ts
@@ -316,6 +316,7 @@ export class XMLHttpRequestPlugin extends BasePlugin<XMLHttpRequest> {
     }
 
     const currentSpan = this._tracer.startSpan(url, {
+      kind: api.SpanKind.CLIENT,
       attributes: {
         [AttributeNames.COMPONENT]: this.component,
         [AttributeNames.HTTP_METHOD]: method,
diff --git a/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/test/xhr.test.ts b/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/test/xhr.test.ts
index 52693d840a..270762ca21 100644
--- a/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/test/xhr.test.ts
+++ b/packages/opentelemetry-plugin-xml-http-request/test/xhr.test.ts
@@ -210,6 +210,15 @@ describe('xhr', () => {
       assert.strictEqual(span.name, url, 'span has wrong name');
     });
 
+    it('span should have correct kind', () => {
+      const span: tracing.ReadableSpan = exportSpy.args[0][0][0];
+      assert.strictEqual(
+        span.kind,
+        types.SpanKind.CLIENT,
+        'span has wrong kind'
+      );
+    });
+
     it('span should have correct attributes', () => {
       const span: tracing.ReadableSpan = exportSpy.args[0][0][0];
       const attributes = span.attributes;