diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a476edb82eb2..83e6fd972bea 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 - `zookeeperreceiver`: Fix issue where receiver could panic during shutdown (#7020)
 - `prometheusreceiver`: Fix metadata fetching when metrics differ by trimmable suffixes (#6932)
 - Sanitize URLs being logged (#7021)
+- `prometheusreceiver`: Fix start time tracking for long scrape intervals (#7053)
 - `signalfxexporter`: Don't use syscall to avoid compilation errors on some platforms (#7062)
 
 ## 💡 Enhancements 💡
diff --git a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore.go b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore.go
index c1b13229d25c..3b1e7cff4e6d 100644
--- a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore.go
+++ b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore.go
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ func NewOcaStore(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	sink consumer.Metrics,
 	set component.ReceiverCreateSettings,
+	gcInterval time.Duration,
 	useStartTimeMetric bool,
 	startTimeMetricRegex string,
 	receiverID config.ComponentID,
@@ -67,7 +68,7 @@ func NewOcaStore(
 	pdataDirect bool) *OcaStore {
 	var jobsMap *JobsMapPdata
 	if !useStartTimeMetric {
-		jobsMap = NewJobsMapPdata(2 * time.Minute)
+		jobsMap = NewJobsMapPdata(gcInterval)
 	}
 	return &OcaStore{
 		running:              runningStateInit,
diff --git a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore_test.go b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore_test.go
index a9a6c46e7d27..fb1a75d8ef6d 100644
--- a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore_test.go
+++ b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal/ocastore_test.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ package internal
 import (
 	"context"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/pkg/labels"
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/scrape"
@@ -26,7 +27,7 @@ import (
 )
 
 func TestOcaStore(t *testing.T) {
-	o := NewOcaStore(context.Background(), nil, testTelemetry.ToReceiverCreateSettings(), false, "", config.NewComponentID("prometheus"), nil, false)
+	o := NewOcaStore(context.Background(), nil, testTelemetry.ToReceiverCreateSettings(), 2*time.Minute, false, "", config.NewComponentID("prometheus"), nil, false)
 	o.SetScrapeManager(&scrape.Manager{})
 
 	app := o.Appender(context.Background())
diff --git a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver.go b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver.go
index 13261d091458..81e6c9471d32 100644
--- a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver.go
+++ b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver.go
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@ package prometheusreceiver // import "github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-co
 
 import (
 	"context"
+	"time"
 
+	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/config"
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/discovery"
 	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/scrape"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/collector/component"
@@ -26,6 +28,11 @@ import (
 	"github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/receiver/prometheusreceiver/internal"
 )
 
+const (
+	defaultGCInterval = 2 * time.Minute
+	gcIntervalDelta   = 1 * time.Minute
+)
+
 // pReceiver is the type that provides Prometheus scraper/receiver functionality.
 type pReceiver struct {
 	cfg        *Config
@@ -76,6 +83,7 @@ func (r *pReceiver) Start(_ context.Context, host component.Host) error {
 		context.Background(),
 		r.consumer,
 		r.settings,
+		gcInterval(r.cfg.PrometheusConfig),
 		r.cfg.UseStartTimeMetric,
 		r.cfg.StartTimeMetricRegex,
 		r.cfg.ID(),
@@ -96,6 +104,22 @@ func (r *pReceiver) Start(_ context.Context, host component.Host) error {
 	return nil
 }
 
+// gcInterval returns the longest scrape interval used by a scrape config,
+// plus a delta to prevent race conditions.
+// This ensures jobs are not garbage collected between scrapes.
+func gcInterval(cfg *config.Config) time.Duration {
+	gcInterval := defaultGCInterval
+	if time.Duration(cfg.GlobalConfig.ScrapeInterval)+gcIntervalDelta > gcInterval {
+		gcInterval = time.Duration(cfg.GlobalConfig.ScrapeInterval) + gcIntervalDelta
+	}
+	for _, scrapeConfig := range cfg.ScrapeConfigs {
+		if time.Duration(scrapeConfig.ScrapeInterval)+gcIntervalDelta > gcInterval {
+			gcInterval = time.Duration(scrapeConfig.ScrapeInterval) + gcIntervalDelta
+		}
+	}
+	return gcInterval
+}
+
 // Shutdown stops and cancels the underlying Prometheus scrapers.
 func (r *pReceiver) Shutdown(context.Context) error {
 	r.cancelFunc()
diff --git a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver_test.go b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver_test.go
index 956dc9c8827a..5308c2add2d3 100644
--- a/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver_test.go
+++ b/receiver/prometheusreceiver/metrics_receiver_test.go
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ package prometheusreceiver
 
 import (
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
+	"github.com/prometheus/common/model"
+	"github.com/prometheus/prometheus/config"
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
 	"go.opentelemetry.io/collector/model/pdata"
 	"google.golang.org/protobuf/types/known/timestamppb"
@@ -1046,3 +1049,44 @@ func verifyUntypedMetrics(t *testing.T, td *testData, resourceMetrics []*pdata.R
 	}
 	doCompare(t, "scrape-untypedMetric-1", wantAttributes, m1, e1)
 }
+
+func TestGCInterval(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		desc  string
+		input *config.Config
+		want  time.Duration
+	}{
+		{
+			desc:  "default",
+			input: &config.Config{},
+			want:  defaultGCInterval,
+		},
+		{
+			desc: "global override",
+			input: &config.Config{
+				GlobalConfig: config.GlobalConfig{
+					ScrapeInterval: model.Duration(10 * time.Minute),
+				},
+			},
+			want: 11 * time.Minute,
+		},
+		{
+			desc: "scrape config override",
+			input: &config.Config{
+				ScrapeConfigs: []*config.ScrapeConfig{
+					{
+						ScrapeInterval: model.Duration(10 * time.Minute),
+					},
+				},
+			},
+			want: 11 * time.Minute,
+		},
+	} {
+		t.Run(tc.desc, func(t *testing.T) {
+			got := gcInterval(tc.input)
+			if got != tc.want {
+				t.Errorf("gcInterval(%+v) = %v, want %v", tc.input, got, tc.want)
+			}
+		})
+	}
+}