diff --git a/.changelog/5434.fixed b/.changelog/5434.fixed
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..07788e3536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/5434.fixed
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+`opentelemetry-sdk`: fix missing f-prefix in exponential histogram error messages
diff --git a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/metrics/_internal/aggregation.py b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/metrics/_internal/aggregation.py
index a5c5d5571d..ae5acdc63f 100644
--- a/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/metrics/_internal/aggregation.py
+++ b/opentelemetry-sdk/src/opentelemetry/sdk/metrics/_internal/aggregation.py
@@ -644,13 +644,13 @@ def __init__(
         if max_size < self._min_max_size:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"Buckets max size {max_size} is smaller than "
-                "minimum max size {self._min_max_size}"
+                f"minimum max size {self._min_max_size}"
             )
 
         if max_size > self._max_max_size:
             raise ValueError(
                 f"Buckets max size {max_size} is larger than "
-                "maximum max size {self._max_max_size}"
+                f"maximum max size {self._max_max_size}"
             )
         if max_scale > 20:
             _logger.warning(