diff --git a/sentry_sdk/client.py b/sentry_sdk/client.py
index 16bb8ac02b..ecd70e7912 100644
--- a/sentry_sdk/client.py
+++ b/sentry_sdk/client.py
@@ -393,6 +393,18 @@ def _get_options(*args: "Optional[str]", **kwargs: "Any") -> "Dict[str, Any]":
             stacklevel=2,
         )
 
+    # The SDK logger only writes when debug is on, and this has to reach people who
+    # never turn it on.
+    if rv["traces_sample_rate"] == 0 and rv["traces_sampler"] is None:
+        warnings.warn(
+            "traces_sample_rate is 0, so this service starts no traces and Sentry "
+            "gets no performance data from it. To send traces, set traces_sample_rate "
+            "above 0, for example 1.0 in development and 0.1 in production. If 0 is "
+            "what you want (for example, to only continue traces sampled upstream), "
+            "you can hide this warning with warnings.filterwarnings.",
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+
     if rv["trace_ignore_status_codes"] and has_span_streaming_enabled(rv):
         warnings.warn(
             "The `trace_ignore_status_codes` parameter is ignored in span streaming mode.",
diff --git a/tests/test_client.py b/tests/test_client.py
index 7dc3922285..5cf008eafe 100644
--- a/tests/test_client.py
+++ b/tests/test_client.py
@@ -1507,6 +1507,29 @@ def test_continuous_profiling_does_not_warn(sentry_init):
     assert profiling_warnings == []
 
 
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("traces_sample_rate", [0, 0.0])
+def test_zero_traces_sample_rate_warns(sentry_init, traces_sample_rate):
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match="traces_sample_rate is 0"):
+        sentry_init(traces_sample_rate=traces_sample_rate)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "options",
+    [
+        {"traces_sample_rate": 0, "traces_sampler": lambda _: 1.0},
+        {"traces_sample_rate": 0.1},
+        {"traces_sample_rate": None},
+        {},
+    ],
+)
+def test_zero_traces_sample_rate_does_not_warn(sentry_init, options):
+    with warnings.catch_warnings(record=True) as caught:
+        warnings.simplefilter("always")
+        sentry_init(**options)
+
+    assert [w for w in caught if "traces_sample_rate is 0" in str(w.message)] == []
+
+
 def test_ignore_spans_warns_without_streaming(sentry_init):
     with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match=r"`ignore_spans` parameter only works"):
         sentry_init(ignore_spans=["/health"], trace_lifecycle="static")