diff --git a/bottlecap/src/traces/trace_agent.rs b/bottlecap/src/traces/trace_agent.rs
index 4035e24e8..6ad5c00cc 100644
--- a/bottlecap/src/traces/trace_agent.rs
+++ b/bottlecap/src/traces/trace_agent.rs
@@ -659,7 +659,7 @@ impl TraceAgent {
         let (parts, body) = match extract_request_body(request).await {
             Ok(r) => r,
             Err(e) => {
-                return error_response(
+                return warn_response(
                     StatusCode::INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR,
                     format!("TRACE_AGENT | handle_proxy | Error extracting request body: {e}"),
                 );
@@ -721,6 +721,13 @@ fn error_response<E: std::fmt::Display>(status: StatusCode, error: E) -> Respons
     (status, error.to_string()).into_response()
 }
 
+/// Like [`error_response`], but logs at WARN level. Use when the failure is caused by an
+/// external event (e.g. client disconnected) rather than a bug in the extension itself.
+fn warn_response<E: std::fmt::Display>(status: StatusCode, error: E) -> Response {
+    warn!("{}", error);
+    (status, error.to_string()).into_response()
+}
+
 fn success_response(message: &str) -> Response {
     debug!("{}", message);
     (StatusCode::OK, json!({"rate_by_service": {}}).to_string()).into_response()