diff --git a/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/src/router.tsx b/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/src/router.tsx
index b1c6f7727a26..bdef82d3d5e2 100644
--- a/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/src/router.tsx
+++ b/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/src/router.tsx
@@ -12,10 +12,10 @@ export const getRouter = () => {
     Sentry.init({
       environment: 'qa', // dynamic sampling bias to keep transactions
       dsn: 'https://public@dsn.ingest.sentry.io/1337',
-      integrations: [Sentry.tanstackRouterBrowserTracingIntegration(router)],
       // We recommend adjusting this value in production, or using tracesSampler
       // for finer control
       tracesSampleRate: 1.0,
+      router: router,
       release: 'e2e-test',
       tunnel: 'http://localhost:3031/', // proxy server
     });
diff --git a/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/tests/routing-instrumentation.test.ts b/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/tests/routing-instrumentation.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8b0b0200e7bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-packages/e2e-tests/test-applications/tanstackstart-react/tests/routing-instrumentation.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import { expect, test } from '@playwright/test';
+import { waitForTransaction } from '@sentry-internal/test-utils';
+
+// we have more thorough tests for tanstack-router in a separate e2e test
+// so here we just do a basic check to verify that the integration is automatically enabled if tracing is enabled
+test('sends a pageload transaction', async ({ page }) => {
+  const transactionPromise = waitForTransaction('tanstackstart-react', async transactionEvent => {
+    return !!transactionEvent?.transaction && transactionEvent.contexts?.trace?.op === 'pageload';
+  });
+
+  await page.goto(`/`);
+
+  const rootSpan = await transactionPromise;
+
+  expect(rootSpan).toMatchObject({
+    contexts: {
+      trace: {
+        data: {
+          'sentry.source': 'route',
+          'sentry.origin': 'auto.pageload.react.tanstack_router',
+          'sentry.op': 'pageload',
+        },
+        op: 'pageload',
+        origin: 'auto.pageload.react.tanstack_router',
+      },
+    },
+    transaction: '/',
+    transaction_info: {
+      source: 'route',
+    },
+  });
+});
diff --git a/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/index.ts b/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/index.ts
index 2299b46b7d64..ba0133668fa5 100644
--- a/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/index.ts
+++ b/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/index.ts
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@
 export * from '@sentry/react';
 
 export { init } from './sdk';
+export type { TanStackStartBrowserOptions as BrowserOptions } from './sdk';
diff --git a/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/sdk.ts b/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/sdk.ts
index b0ee3b53053f..a3189a62ff92 100644
--- a/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/sdk.ts
+++ b/packages/tanstackstart-react/src/client/sdk.ts
@@ -1,16 +1,28 @@
-import type { Client } from '@sentry/core';
+import type { Client, Integration } from '@sentry/core';
 import { applySdkMetadata } from '@sentry/core';
 import type { BrowserOptions as ReactBrowserOptions } from '@sentry/react';
-import { getDefaultIntegrations as getReactDefaultIntegrations, init as initReactSDK } from '@sentry/react';
+import {
+  getDefaultIntegrations as getReactDefaultIntegrations,
+  init as initReactSDK,
+  tanstackRouterBrowserTracingIntegration,
+} from '@sentry/react';
+
+// Treeshakable guard to remove all code related to tracing
+declare const __SENTRY_TRACING__: boolean;
+
+export type TanStackStartBrowserOptions = ReactBrowserOptions & {
+  // eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
+  router?: any;
+};
 
 /**
  * Initializes the TanStack Start React SDK
  *
  * @param options Configuration options for the SDK.
  */
-export function init(options: ReactBrowserOptions): Client | undefined {
-  const sentryOptions: ReactBrowserOptions = {
-    defaultIntegrations: [...getReactDefaultIntegrations(options)],
+export function init(options: TanStackStartBrowserOptions): Client | undefined {
+  const sentryOptions: TanStackStartBrowserOptions = {
+    defaultIntegrations: getDefaultIntegrations(options),
     ...options,
   };
 
@@ -18,3 +30,17 @@ export function init(options: ReactBrowserOptions): Client | undefined {
 
   return initReactSDK(sentryOptions);
 }
+
+function getDefaultIntegrations(options: TanStackStartBrowserOptions): Integration[] {
+  const integrations = getReactDefaultIntegrations(options);
+
+  // This evaluates to true unless __SENTRY_TRACING__ is text-replaced with "false",
+  // in which case everything inside will get tree-shaken away
+  if (typeof __SENTRY_TRACING__ === 'undefined' || __SENTRY_TRACING__) {
+    if (options.router) {
+      integrations.push(tanstackRouterBrowserTracingIntegration(options.router));
+    }
+  }
+
+  return integrations;
+}