diff --git a/litellm/litellm_core_utils/litellm_logging.py b/litellm/litellm_core_utils/litellm_logging.py
index c77e572ec5f..c0eb3c0d729 100644
--- a/litellm/litellm_core_utils/litellm_logging.py
+++ b/litellm/litellm_core_utils/litellm_logging.py
@@ -601,7 +601,7 @@ class Logging(LiteLLMLoggingBaseClass):
         if "litellm_metadata" in kwargs and isinstance(
             kwargs["litellm_metadata"], dict
         ):
-            if "metadata" not in base_litellm_params:
+            if not base_litellm_params.get("metadata"):
                 base_litellm_params["metadata"] = dict(kwargs["litellm_metadata"])
             else:
                 base_litellm_params["metadata"] = dict(base_litellm_params["metadata"])
diff --git a/tests/test_litellm/litellm_core_utils/test_litellm_logging.py b/tests/test_litellm/litellm_core_utils/test_litellm_logging.py
index 5cf2da8e135..393f7035dbf 100644
--- a/tests/test_litellm/litellm_core_utils/test_litellm_logging.py
+++ b/tests/test_litellm/litellm_core_utils/test_litellm_logging.py
@@ -271,6 +271,19 @@ class TestUpdateFromKwargs:
         assert result_meta["from_caller"] is True
         assert result_meta["user_api_key_hash"] == "hashed-xyz"
 
+    def test_merge_handles_metadata_none(self, logging_obj):
+        """When metadata=None is explicitly in kwargs alongside litellm_metadata,
+        the merge should not crash (dict(None) would TypeError)."""
+        kwargs = {
+            "metadata": None,
+            "litellm_metadata": {"user_api_key_hash": "hashed-abc"},
+        }
+
+        logging_obj.update_from_kwargs(kwargs=kwargs)
+
+        result_meta = logging_obj.litellm_params["metadata"]
+        assert result_meta["user_api_key_hash"] == "hashed-abc"
+
     def test_caller_litellm_params_win_over_kwargs(self, logging_obj):
         """Explicit litellm_params from the caller should override auto-extracted values."""
         kwargs = {"metadata": {"from_kwargs": True}}
@@ -1937,7 +1950,7 @@ def test_function_setup_litellm_metadata_populates_metadata():
     ), "litellm_params['metadata'] should be a copy, not the same object"
 
 
-def test_function_setup_metadata_takes_precedence_over_litellm_metadata():
+def test_function_setup_merges_litellm_metadata_without_overwriting():
     """
     Test that when BOTH metadata and litellm_metadata are present (e.g., user sets
     Anthropic API metadata AND proxy adds litellm_metadata), existing metadata keys