diff --git a/.changelog/14957.txt b/.changelog/14957.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2a0facf8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changelog/14957.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+```release-note:improvement
+telemetry: Added a `consul.xds.server.streamStart` metric to measure time taken to first generate xDS resources for an xDS stream.
+```
diff --git a/agent/setup.go b/agent/setup.go
index 02dc03426..7d4a648cf 100644
--- a/agent/setup.go
+++ b/agent/setup.go
@@ -202,8 +202,7 @@ func newConnPool(config *config.RuntimeConfig, logger hclog.Logger, tls *tlsutil
 }
 
 // getPrometheusDefs reaches into every slice of prometheus defs we've defined in each part of the agent, and appends
-//
-//	all of our slices into one nice slice of definitions per metric type for the Consul agent to pass to go-metrics.
+// all of our slices into one nice slice of definitions per metric type for the Consul agent to pass to go-metrics.
 func getPrometheusDefs(cfg lib.TelemetryConfig, isServer bool) ([]prometheus.GaugeDefinition, []prometheus.CounterDefinition, []prometheus.SummaryDefinition) {
 	// TODO: "raft..." metrics come from the raft lib and we should migrate these to a telemetry
 	//  package within. In the mean time, we're going to define a few here because they're key to monitoring Consul.
@@ -345,6 +344,7 @@ func getPrometheusDefs(cfg lib.TelemetryConfig, isServer bool) ([]prometheus.Gau
 		fsm.CommandsSummaries,
 		fsm.SnapshotSummaries,
 		raftSummaries,
+		xds.StatsSummaries,
 	}
 	// Flatten definitions
 	// NOTE(kit): Do we actually want to create a set here so we can ensure definition names are unique?
diff --git a/agent/xds/delta.go b/agent/xds/delta.go
index e87a3fd99..dd3a13161 100644
--- a/agent/xds/delta.go
+++ b/agent/xds/delta.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/hex"
 	"fmt"
 	"sort"
+	"sync"
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 
@@ -104,6 +105,9 @@ func (s *Server) processDelta(stream ADSDeltaStream, reqCh <-chan *envoy_discove
 		proxyID     structs.ServiceID
 		nonce       uint64 // xDS requires a unique nonce to correlate response/request pairs
 		ready       bool   // set to true after the first snapshot arrives
+
+		streamStartTime = time.Now()
+		streamStartOnce sync.Once
 	)
 
 	var (
@@ -360,6 +364,10 @@ func (s *Server) processDelta(stream ADSDeltaStream, reqCh <-chan *envoy_discove
 
 			generator.Logger.Trace("Invoking all xDS resource handlers and sending changed data if there are any")
 
+			streamStartOnce.Do(func() {
+				metrics.MeasureSince([]string{"xds", "server", "streamStart"}, streamStartTime)
+			})
+
 			for _, op := range xDSUpdateOrder {
 				err, sent := handlers[op.TypeUrl].SendIfNew(
 					cfgSnap.Kind,
diff --git a/agent/xds/delta_test.go b/agent/xds/delta_test.go
index c2706c768..15da3bead 100644
--- a/agent/xds/delta_test.go
+++ b/agent/xds/delta_test.go
@@ -1448,7 +1448,7 @@ func TestServer_DeltaAggregatedResources_v3_StreamDrained(t *testing.T) {
 		}
 	})
 
-	testutil.RunStep(t, "check drain counter incremeted", func(t *testing.T) {
+	testutil.RunStep(t, "check drain counter incremented", func(t *testing.T) {
 		data := scenario.sink.Data()
 		require.Len(t, data, 1)
 
@@ -1459,6 +1459,19 @@ func TestServer_DeltaAggregatedResources_v3_StreamDrained(t *testing.T) {
 		require.True(t, ok)
 		require.Equal(t, 1, val.Count)
 	})
+
+	testutil.RunStep(t, "check streamStart metric recorded", func(t *testing.T) {
+		data := scenario.sink.Data()
+		require.Len(t, data, 1)
+
+		item := data[0]
+		require.Len(t, item.Counters, 1)
+
+		val, ok := item.Samples["consul.xds.test.xds.server.streamStart"]
+		require.True(t, ok)
+		require.Equal(t, 1, val.Count)
+	})
+
 }
 
 type testLimiter struct {
diff --git a/agent/xds/server.go b/agent/xds/server.go
index 7252a6b87..828a4e202 100644
--- a/agent/xds/server.go
+++ b/agent/xds/server.go
@@ -37,6 +37,13 @@ var StatsCounters = []prometheus.CounterDefinition{
 	},
 }
 
+var StatsSummaries = []prometheus.SummaryDefinition{
+	{
+		Name: []string{"xds", "server", "streamStart"},
+		Help: "Measures the time in milliseconds after an xDS stream is opened until xDS resources are first generated for the stream.",
+	},
+}
+
 // ADSStream is a shorter way of referring to this thing...
 type ADSStream = envoy_discovery_v3.AggregatedDiscoveryService_StreamAggregatedResourcesServer
 
diff --git a/website/content/docs/agent/telemetry.mdx b/website/content/docs/agent/telemetry.mdx
index 0e5e8e105..79ae6d9c1 100644
--- a/website/content/docs/agent/telemetry.mdx
+++ b/website/content/docs/agent/telemetry.mdx
@@ -542,6 +542,7 @@ These metrics are used to monitor the health of the Consul servers.
 | `consul.xds.server.streams`                         | Measures the number of active xDS streams handled by the server split by protocol version.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         | streams                           | gauge   |
 | `consul.xds.server.idealStreamsMax`                 | The maximum number of xDS streams per server, chosen to achieve a roughly even spread of load across servers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      | streams                           | gauge   |
 | `consul.xds.server.streamDrained`                   | Counts the number of xDS streams that are drained when rebalancing the load between servers.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       | streams                           | counter |
+| `consul.xds.server.streamStart`                     | Measures the time taken to first generate xDS resources after an xDS stream is opened.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             | ms                                | timer   |
 
 
 ## Server Workload