diff --git a/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml b/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml
index a78bdf751f..20b93c7c61 100644
--- a/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml
+++ b/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.grafanacloud.yaml
@@ -144,8 +144,36 @@ connectors:
       - deployment.environment
       - xrpl.network.type
     histogram:
+      # Pin unit=ms so the metric stays span_duration_milliseconds_* and le
+      # labels stay in ms even if a future collector flips the default to
+      # seconds (connector.spanmetrics.useSecondAsDefaultMetricsUnit gate).
+      unit: ms
       explicit:
-        buckets: [1ms, 5ms, 10ms, 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, 250ms, 500ms, 1s, 5s]
+        # Buckets MUST stay strictly ascending (the connector binary-searches
+        # them and silently misbuckets otherwise). Sub-second boundaries cover
+        # RPC/tx/ledger spans; the 2s-4s boundaries resolve second-scale
+        # consensus spans (consensus.round ~3.9s, consensus.establish ~1.9s)
+        # that used to pile into a single 1s-5s bucket; 10s/30s give the
+        # ledger.acquire tail (~17% exceeds 5s during catch-up) a measurable
+        # home so its p95/p99 stop reading as +Inf.
+        buckets:
+          [
+            1ms,
+            5ms,
+            10ms,
+            25ms,
+            50ms,
+            100ms,
+            250ms,
+            500ms,
+            1s,
+            2s,
+            3s,
+            4s,
+            5s,
+            10s,
+            30s,
+          ]
     dimensions:
       - name: command
       - name: rpc_status
diff --git a/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.yaml b/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.yaml
index a2d1967f66..03ddeac31e 100644
--- a/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.yaml
+++ b/docker/telemetry/otel-collector-config.yaml
@@ -123,8 +123,36 @@ connectors:
       - deployment.environment
       - xrpl.network.type
     histogram:
+      # Pin unit=ms so the metric stays span_duration_milliseconds_* and le
+      # labels stay in ms even if a future collector flips the default to
+      # seconds (connector.spanmetrics.useSecondAsDefaultMetricsUnit gate).
+      unit: ms
       explicit:
-        buckets: [1ms, 5ms, 10ms, 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, 250ms, 500ms, 1s, 5s]
+        # Buckets MUST stay strictly ascending (the connector binary-searches
+        # them and silently misbuckets otherwise). Sub-second boundaries cover
+        # RPC/tx/ledger spans; the 2s-4s boundaries resolve second-scale
+        # consensus spans (consensus.round ~3.9s, consensus.establish ~1.9s)
+        # that used to pile into a single 1s-5s bucket; 10s/30s give the
+        # ledger.acquire tail (~17% exceeds 5s during catch-up) a measurable
+        # home so its p95/p99 stop reading as +Inf.
+        buckets:
+          [
+            1ms,
+            5ms,
+            10ms,
+            25ms,
+            50ms,
+            100ms,
+            250ms,
+            500ms,
+            1s,
+            2s,
+            3s,
+            4s,
+            5s,
+            10s,
+            30s,
+          ]
     dimensions:
       - name: command
       - name: rpc_status
diff --git a/docker/telemetry/workload/regression-thresholds.json b/docker/telemetry/workload/regression-thresholds.json
index e0eabfb95a..ae6789f1ba 100644
--- a/docker/telemetry/workload/regression-thresholds.json
+++ b/docker/telemetry/workload/regression-thresholds.json
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "_description": "Per-metric regression thresholds. A metric regresses when current - baseline exceeds BOTH the percentage and absolute bounds (AND, not OR — this tolerates small-value noise). Defaults apply unless a per-metric override exists.",
-  "_bucket_note": "SpanMetrics latency histograms use explicit buckets [1,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1000,5000]ms. A quantile sitting near a low-end boundary can jump a full bucket (e.g. 1ms->5ms) between runs with no real change, so absolute span bounds are set to ~2 low-end bucket widths (10ms) to tolerate that quantization noise while still catching genuine multi-bucket regressions. The job_queue running bound is widened similarly — per-ledger apply work scales with TxQ burst load.",
+  "_bucket_note": "SpanMetrics latency histograms use explicit buckets [1,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1000,2000,3000,4000,5000,10000,30000]ms. A quantile sitting near a low-end boundary can jump a full bucket (e.g. 1ms->5ms) between runs with no real change, so absolute span bounds are set to ~2 low-end bucket widths (10ms) to tolerate that quantization noise while still catching genuine multi-bucket regressions. Second-scale consensus spans now have 2s/3s/4s boundaries (previously all fell in one 1s-5s bucket); their quantiles quantize to ~1s widths there. The job_queue running bound is widened similarly — per-ledger apply work scales with TxQ burst load.",
   "defaults": {
     "span": {
       "p50": { "max_pct_increase": 50.0, "max_abs_increase_ms": 10.0 },
diff --git a/docs/telemetry-runbook.md b/docs/telemetry-runbook.md
index a727ca5574..8f7c2891be 100644
--- a/docs/telemetry-runbook.md
+++ b/docs/telemetry-runbook.md
@@ -717,12 +717,20 @@ does not apply to these dimensions.
 
 ### Histogram Buckets
 
-Configured in `otel-collector-config.yaml`:
+Configured in `otel-collector-config.yaml` (spanmetrics connector, `unit: ms`):
 
 ```
-1ms, 5ms, 10ms, 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, 250ms, 500ms, 1s, 5s
+1ms, 5ms, 10ms, 25ms, 50ms, 100ms, 250ms, 500ms, 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 10s, 30s
 ```
 
+Sub-second boundaries cover RPC/tx/ledger spans; 2s-4s resolve second-scale
+consensus spans (`consensus.round`, `consensus.establish`) that would otherwise
+pile into one 1s-5s bucket and make `histogram_quantile` a meaningless
+interpolation; 10s/30s give the `ledger.acquire` catch-up tail a measurable home.
+Boundaries must stay strictly ascending. The native beast::insight histograms
+(ms-scale RPC/IO timers) keep the original 1ms-5s buckets in
+`Telemetry.cpp` — they never exceed 5s, so they need no high-range buckets.
+
 ## System Metrics (OTel native -- beast::insight)
 
 xrpld has a built-in metrics framework (`beast::insight`) that exports metrics natively via OTLP to the OTel Collector. These complement the span-derived RED metrics by providing system-level gauges, counters, and timers that don't map to individual trace spans.