diff --git a/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/Tags.cs b/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/Tags.cs
index 5eff6f23aa60..48c2d0bed8e5 100644
--- a/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/Tags.cs
+++ b/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/Tags.cs
@@ -864,6 +864,13 @@ internal static class Propagated
             /// A two char hex string with the product being the trace source
             /// </summary>
             internal const string TraceSource = "_dd.p.ts";
+
+            /// <summary>
+            /// Tag used to propagate the Knuth sampling rate applied to the trace.
+            /// Set when a sampling decision is made using agent-based or rule-based sampling.
+            /// The value is the applied sampling rate formatted as a string with up to 6 significant digits.
+            /// </summary>
+            internal const string KnuthSamplingRate = "_dd.p.ksr";
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/TraceContext.cs b/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/TraceContext.cs
index aa6293909a4c..13aafc1bb12f 100644
--- a/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/TraceContext.cs
+++ b/tracer/src/Datadog.Trace/TraceContext.cs
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 using System;
 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Globalization;
 using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
 using System.Threading;
 using Datadog.Trace.Agent;
@@ -329,6 +330,17 @@ public void SetSamplingPriority(
                 Tags.RemoveTag(Trace.Tags.Propagated.DecisionMaker);
             }
 
+            // set Knuth sampling rate as a propagated tag for agent and rule-based sampling.
+            // use TryAddTag to preserve the original rate, consistent with AppliedSamplingRate ??= rate above.
+            if (rate is { } samplingRate && mechanism is Sampling.SamplingMechanism.AgentRate
+                                                      or Sampling.SamplingMechanism.LocalTraceSamplingRule
+                                                      or Sampling.SamplingMechanism.RemoteAdaptiveSamplingRule
+                                                      or Sampling.SamplingMechanism.RemoteUserSamplingRule)
+            {
+                // format with up to 6 decimal digits, no trailing zeros (per RFC)
+                Tags.TryAddTag(Trace.Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate, samplingRate.ToString("0.######", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
+            }
+
             if (notifyDistributedTracer)
             {
                 DistributedTracer.Instance.SetSamplingPriority(priority);
diff --git a/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.TestHelpers/SpanTagAssertion.cs b/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.TestHelpers/SpanTagAssertion.cs
index 37388deb3f16..a1a6d11e3943 100644
--- a/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.TestHelpers/SpanTagAssertion.cs
+++ b/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.TestHelpers/SpanTagAssertion.cs
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ public static void DefaultTagAssertions(SpanTagAssertion<T> s) => s
             .IsOptional("version")
             .IsOptional("_dd.p.dm")   // "decision maker", but contains the sampling mechanism
             .IsOptional("_dd.p.tid")  // contains the upper 64 bits of a 128-bit trace id
+            .IsOptional("_dd.p.ksr")  // Knuth sampling rate, propagated tag added by the tracer
             .IsOptional("_dd.parent_id") // Contains the 16 length hex decoded last found parent_id found set from either exising `p` tag on tracestate or headers
             .IsOptional("error.msg")
             .IsOptional("error.type")
diff --git a/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.Tests/TraceContextTests_KnuthSamplingRate.cs b/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.Tests/TraceContextTests_KnuthSamplingRate.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..9d35ef134b5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tracer/test/Datadog.Trace.Tests/TraceContextTests_KnuthSamplingRate.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+// <copyright file="TraceContextTests_KnuthSamplingRate.cs" company="Datadog">
+// Unless explicitly stated otherwise all files in this repository are licensed under the Apache 2 License.
+// This product includes software developed at Datadog (https://www.datadoghq.com/). Copyright 2017 Datadog, Inc.
+// </copyright>
+
+using Datadog.Trace.Sampling;
+using Datadog.Trace.Tests.Util;
+using FluentAssertions;
+using Xunit;
+
+namespace Datadog.Trace.Tests;
+
+public class TraceContextTests_KnuthSamplingRate
+{
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, 0.5f, "0.5")]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, 1.0f, "1")]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, 0.1f, "0.1")]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, 0.7654321f, "0.765432")]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserKeep, SamplingMechanism.LocalTraceSamplingRule, 0.25f, "0.25")]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserKeep, SamplingMechanism.RemoteUserSamplingRule, 0.75f, "0.75")]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserKeep, SamplingMechanism.RemoteAdaptiveSamplingRule, 0.333333f, "0.333333")]
+        public void SetSamplingPriority_SetsKsrTag_ForApplicableMechanisms(
+            int samplingPriority, string samplingMechanism, float rate, string expectedKsr)
+        {
+            var tracer = new StubDatadogTracer();
+            var traceContext = new TraceContext(tracer);
+
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(samplingPriority, samplingMechanism, rate);
+
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().Be(expectedKsr);
+        }
+
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoReject, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, 0.5f)]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserReject, SamplingMechanism.LocalTraceSamplingRule, 0.25f)]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserReject, SamplingMechanism.RemoteUserSamplingRule, 0.75f)]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserReject, SamplingMechanism.RemoteAdaptiveSamplingRule, 0.1f)]
+        public void SetSamplingPriority_SetsKsrTag_EvenForDropDecisions(
+            int samplingPriority, string samplingMechanism, float rate)
+        {
+            var tracer = new StubDatadogTracer();
+            var traceContext = new TraceContext(tracer);
+
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(samplingPriority, samplingMechanism, rate);
+
+            // KSR should be set regardless of keep/drop since it uses TryAddTag
+            // and records the original sampling rate
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().NotBeNull();
+        }
+
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserKeep, SamplingMechanism.Manual, 0.5f)]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.UserKeep, SamplingMechanism.Asm, 0.5f)]
+        [InlineData(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.Default, 0.5f)]
+        public void SetSamplingPriority_DoesNotSetKsrTag_ForNonApplicableMechanisms(
+            int samplingPriority, string samplingMechanism, float rate)
+        {
+            var tracer = new StubDatadogTracer();
+            var traceContext = new TraceContext(tracer);
+
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(samplingPriority, samplingMechanism, rate);
+
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().BeNull();
+        }
+
+        [Fact]
+        public void SetSamplingPriority_DoesNotSetKsrTag_WhenRateIsNull()
+        {
+            var tracer = new StubDatadogTracer();
+            var traceContext = new TraceContext(tracer);
+
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, rate: null);
+
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().BeNull();
+        }
+
+        [Fact]
+        public void SetSamplingPriority_PreservesOriginalKsrTag()
+        {
+            var tracer = new StubDatadogTracer();
+            var traceContext = new TraceContext(tracer);
+
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, 0.5f);
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().Be("0.5");
+
+            // second call should NOT overwrite — TryAddTag preserves the original rate,
+            // consistent with AppliedSamplingRate ??= rate semantics
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(SamplingPriorityValues.UserKeep, SamplingMechanism.LocalTraceSamplingRule, 0.75f);
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().Be("0.5");
+        }
+
+        [Theory]
+        [InlineData(0.0f, "0")]
+        [InlineData(1.0f, "1")]
+        [InlineData(0.5f, "0.5")]
+        [InlineData(0.1f, "0.1")]
+        [InlineData(0.123456f, "0.123456")]
+        [InlineData(0.1234567f, "0.123457")]
+        [InlineData(0.00001f, "0.00001")]
+        public void KsrTag_FormattedWithUpToSixDecimalDigits(float rate, string expected)
+        {
+            var tracer = new StubDatadogTracer();
+            var traceContext = new TraceContext(tracer);
+
+            traceContext.SetSamplingPriority(SamplingPriorityValues.AutoKeep, SamplingMechanism.AgentRate, rate);
+
+            traceContext.Tags.GetTag(Tags.Propagated.KnuthSamplingRate).Should().Be(expected);
+        }
+}