diff --git a/experimental/CHANGELOG.md b/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
index 04ea9a97b3..49eb60e237 100644
--- a/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/experimental/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ All notable changes to experimental packages in this project will be documented
     * `appendResourcePathToUrlIfNeeded`
     * `configureExporterTimeout`
     * `invalidTimeout`
+* fix(sdk-node): use warn instead of error on unknown OTEL_NODE_RESOURCE_DETECTORS values [#5034](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-js/pull/5034)
 
 ### :books: (Refine Doc)
 
diff --git a/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-node/src/utils.ts b/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-node/src/utils.ts
index bae8a028e6..293a3e3485 100644
--- a/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-node/src/utils.ts
+++ b/experimental/packages/opentelemetry-sdk-node/src/utils.ts
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ export function getResourceDetectorsFromEnv(): Array<DetectorSync> {
   return resourceDetectorsFromEnv.flatMap(detector => {
     const resourceDetector = resourceDetectors.get(detector);
     if (!resourceDetector) {
-      diag.error(
+      diag.warn(
         `Invalid resource detector "${detector}" specified in the environment variable OTEL_NODE_RESOURCE_DETECTORS`
       );
     }